SETTING UP HOUSE

You have just graduated and have found a job in your field. It is time to move out of your parents’
home and see if you can make it on your own.

You are starting with nothing but the clothes you own.

GOAL:

● Set up an apartment. (Appliances come with it.)

● Create a monthly budget that allows for savings.
● Invest your savings.

Steps:

**Be sure you keep track of your sites you visit and print enough information to provide
descriptions of everything.

Day 1 Do 1-4
Day 2 Do 5-10
Day 3 Do 11-20
Day 4 Do 21-24 and your reflection

1. Pick a job and a salary. Go to indeed.ca or another Job: Paul and Davis, Project
job searching site and find a job. Be sure you pick a Coordinator
salary that is a beginner salary and be sure it is a job
you can likely get after graduating.

Ex. If you choose a job and the salary is incredibly high Salary: $42000/year
it likely is not an “entry level” job. Try looking for an
assistant to that job instead.

2. Find out how much you will be paying in tax in Yearly Taxes: $5892
Ontario.
(https://www.eytaxcalculators.com/en/2020-
personal-tax-calculator.html)

Net Income (Salary – Taxes):

$38,108

3. Monthly income after taxes: Net Income / 12:

$38, 108/12=$3175.6

4. Find a local apartment. Use kijiji, MLS, or any site. Monthly Rent: $1595/12=
 Note: the apartment does not need to actually be $132.91
available. If you find an apartment that was up for
rent within the year in the area you would like to live Location: Brampton
that is okay. We are looking for an estimate of how
much it would cost.
To you think the rent is too much? Think about
moving to a less expensive area like Hamilton or
Brantford but remember this might add to your
transportation costs.

5. Furnish your apartment. Assume that the fridge and Make a list of your purchases on the
stove come with the apartment price. back of the page (or somewhere
else) and include the prices.

***When you get your total, calculate 13% HST and add Total purchase price:
it to your purchases.
Loveseat Couch/Sofa: $50

TV: $190.97

Tv Stand/Cabinet: $80

Desk: $101.68

Bed: $134.47

Rolling Chair: $113.00

6. Loan Repayment for Education Costs

($180/month/year of education) Monthly payment: $360/month
180 X ____4_____ = $720/2=$360month (Medical
Program)
[e.g. your program is 4 years long. Your monthly
payment] would be calculated by 180 x 4 = $720/month

Yes, I know many of you would have saved for education.

If you have some money saved. You can halve the
amount. But assume that you will have SOME education
repayment for this budget.

7. Content Insurance Monthly Cost: $20

8. Approximate food cost (likely between $200 and Monthly Cost:$240 (cooking at
$275). home)
9. Car --- Buy? (Be sure to keep the details of your Type: Honda Civic 2005
purchase.)
→ lookup “auto loan payment calculator” from Scotia Monthly Payment: $62.41
Bank
● put in the information that is closest to the used
car you found
● pick the financing option
● put in 4% for rate financing
● put down 60 months (5 years) for terms of
financing
● 0 down payment
10. Car Insurance? Go to http://www.insure.com/car- Yearly payment (this is the number
insurance/car-insurance-comparison.html (look that is written there)
for the box that says “Check out average insurance
rates for your 2017 car” and put Michigan in as a $284.6/month
state) Monthly Payment (divide by 12):

11. Gas. Assume you drive 700 km a month and your

vehicle takes 10L/100 km. This means you would 70 L x __1.28____________ (current
need to buy 70 L of gasoline. cost of gas/L) = $89.6/L
(unless you can show that you drive more or less)
12. Bus Pass (If, after researching a car you decide that **If you chose a bus pass include
you really don’t need one, find the cost for transit.) this monthly amount instead of the
Google Maps is a great method for finding how to get car payment and gas amount
from your apartment to work. Click gets directions
and then click public transit. This will tell you what
trains/buses you will need to buy. Search roughly
how much they will cost.
13. Phone monthly payment. Please include details of Amount/month: $45/month
the plan. (be sure to include 13% HST)

14. Internet? **This should really be unlimited!!! Amount/Month: $112.95 (Bell Fibe
(be sure to include 13% HST) 150 )

15. Other expenses (Things like entertainment, clothes, Total Expenses:

eating out, etc). Do it on the back of the sheet or
somewhere else. Shampoo/Soap(1 bottle/bar):
***Decide on how many of each of these things you $4.52/month
would need per year, and then divide by 12 to get a
monthly approximation of how much you would have to Toothpaste (1 tube): $2.22/month
set aside for each month (e.g. 5 pair of pants, 3 tubes of
toothpaste etc. ) Toilet Paper (pack of 32):
( be sure to include 13% HST) $10.21/month
 Dish soap(2 bottles): $13/month

Windex(1 bottle): $1.41/month

Wet Wipes(1 bottle): $1.50/month

Shirts(5): $58.8/month

Pants(5): $70.6/month

Shorts(5): $70.6/month

Socks(5): $19.75/month

Undergarments(5): $18.8/month

TV subscription(1 tv box):
$15/month

Textbooks and supplies(amount

needed varies): $57.91/month

Basketball (3 times): $11.3/month

Dining out(2-3 times): $50/month

Total Expenses/month: $405.62

16. Investigate and choose a bank account and list all of Bank: ScotiaBank
 the characteristics (somewhere else) of the account.
Name of Chequing Account:

Student Banking Advantage Plan

● No monthly account fee

● Free paperless or paper
statements
● Unlimited debit
transactions1
● Unlimited Interac e-
Transfer† transactions2
● SCENE or Scotia Rewards
program3

Name of Savings Account

Money Masters Saving Account

- Unlimited no-fee self-

service transfers to your
other Scotiabank accounts
- No monthly fees
- Easy access to your money
at any time
- Earn interest on every dollar
saved

Cost per month:

$0/month

17. Investigate and choose a credit card. (Keep the Type: Scotiabank Value Visa Card
details.)
Bank: ScotiaBank

Interest Rate: 12.99 %

18. Add up all of your furnishings and any other Total one-time charges: $1407.55
one-time costs that will be charged to your
credit card. Laptop: $583.83

Iphone 6s: $153.6

19. Credit cards require a minimum monthly Minimum monthly payment:
payment of about 2.5%. Calculate 2.5% of the
number in 18. $42.81

20. You must also pay interest on your credit Interest for one month:
card bill (one time charges from #18). Look at
the interest rate for the credit company you I = 2285.25 × 0.1299 × 0.083333 =
chose (#17) and calculate simple interest on 24.737732298675
your credit card charges for 1 month. I = $ 24.74
REMEMBER that “time” for the I=PRT formula is
a year, don’t forget that 1 month is 1/12th of a
year.

21. You need to invest 10% of your after-tax 10% of After-Tax Salary for Investment:
monthly salary.
3175.6x0.1=$317.56
(Multiply your take home pay by 0.1)

22. Now, add up all of your monthly expenses. Total Monthly Expenses:

$3456.15
23. Take your monthly income after taxes (#3) Left over money: $0
and subtract your total monthly expenses to see
what you have left over. Do you have any left over money? If you don’t,
you need to go and rework some of your
expenses [eg. Different apartment, no big
screen TV, etc.] and redo all of the calculations
to get to this point.
No need to go back and rework for this
semester.
24. Investigate the kind of investment you are Type of investment:
going to invest your savings (from 21) in and
why. (This will have to be written in your If I were to invest in something on the side, it
reflection.) would be the stocks market.

Characteristics of the investment:

- Gains and losses, no guarantee to always

make money
- Contribution to economic growth
 - Common platform for buyers and sellers
- Great source of a side income for
starters (students, new citizens, etc.)

If it’s a: IGNORE THIS FOLLOWING PART

a) GIC, calculate the interest earned for a month (be sure you know if it’s simple or compound
interest.)
b) Mutual Fund, find out the performance for the last year (as an interest rate) and then
calculate how much you would make for one month.
c) Bond, calculate the interest
d) Stock. Pick a stock and find the closing price for today. Look up the stock two weeks later.
Figure out how many stocks you would be able to purchase with your investment. Figure
out how much you have made on each stock and then how much you made for the month.

Were you able to provide a balanced budget? Are you overspending? Normally I would have you
go back and find ways to save money to balance your budget but this time, use your reflection to
explain what things you might look to cut if you need to.

SETTING UP HOUSE …THE ENDING

Now that you have organized all of your information, you need to put it together in a coordinated
way.

Be sure to include specifics about your bank account, credit card, investments and also include the
interest calculation for each of these.

Please include pictures and descriptions of the items you chose (where you can).

Reflection:

Reflect on your search using the following prompts as a guide:

● Did you have enough money at the end of the month to save 10%? Why or why not? Did
you have to go back and reevaluate your purchases? (you do not actually have to
reevaluate purchases to make your budget balance, but what would you cut?)

I unfortunately did not have enough money. There were a few reasons for this which are very
adjustable. Firstly, my expenses were a little bit over my salary. This would also mean I would have
fulfilled my wants more than my needs and/or that I could’ve planned better. A way I could
address this is to plan out how I’m spending/investing and what my goals are. For example, I might
want to spend less on any short term goals and spend on the longer term goals while equally
balancing my investments.

● Were you able to live the way you wanted to or did you have to scrimp and save?

I had to scrimp and save immensely with still having some small debt and more room to budget
wisely.

● Did you find anything surprising, and if so what? (can be more than one)

I did find a few things surprising. These things included the discovery of content insurance and that
internet bills are invoiced monthly and not yearly. I also found budgeting to be quite useful and
important then what I previously thought as a younger child.

● What kind of investor were you? (Use your risk assessment)

I am a high risk investor.

● What will you do with any money you have left over?

If I were to have money left over my main goal would be to invest this money somewhere else
which can benefit me in a long span of time and also come back to me as an income source. Some
of these investments would include the stock market and potential small rental properties.

● What did you learn from this assignment?

I learned from this assignment that budgeting ensures that you will always have enough money for
the things you need and the things that are important to you. Following a budget or spending plan
will also keep you out of debt or help you work your way out of debt if you do ever fall in debt.
Overall budgeting is just a plan to organize your spendings so that your life can become much
easier.

● Comment on all of the material we have learned in class.

Overall, for all of the material that we learned in this class, I found a lot of the content related to
the basic fundamentals of our daily lives. From the start we built our base in addressing our wants
and needs with the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and wants. Next, we took a dive into the
accounting world and started the second level of budgeting. Then we built the third level by
learning how marketing works and how we should think wisely. Then came personal finance
where we took all these previous units and bonded them into one whole. Our material in class was
all built off of each other and allowed me to learn many new aspects.

● Notice that this budget did not have a spot for emergency savings … Do you think that
budgeting for this would be a good idea? Why or Why not?
I believe that budgeting for emergency savings is a great idea. This is because emergency savings
will be able to help you avoid dipping into your long-term savings, retirement fund, or, stacking up
debt. Emergency savings should usually be separate from your savings and chequing accounts, so I
believe there should be a spot for emergency savings.

● Is there anything else you would budget for (knowing your lifestyle) that was not included?

- A spot for taxis/lyfts/trains expenses

- A spot for extra utilities such as electricity, heat, gas and water expenses/bills

Marking Scheme:
THINKING
● Ability to fully research all of the information necessary to ‘set up a house.’

/10
APPLICATION
● Ability to write a full reflection using the prompts and notes from the unit.

/15
COMMUNICATION
● Ability to write a good reflection.

/5