For my topic I picked creating a saving and spending plan. I used the school-given resource at
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-budget. My family has always been somewhat
against debt and preached saving, saving, saving. They’ve been 1 income and so we’ve been taught how
to use our money very wisely and save up large amounts so you could say I already have some
experience. I won’t say I didn’t learn anything, because that isn’t true, but since I grew up in such a
conservative family, I’ve already known most things about finance and have been using a savings plan
for years. For me, the base of it is on how much it costs for necessities. Like right now, I’m living with my
parents and so rent, utilities, and groceries isn’t something I have to worry about. However, in April I’m
moving out and then all of those will become big factors. So instead of saving 120 a week, I’ll be moving
to 250 a month because I’ve calculated my cost of living every month to be about 650 for the essentials.
I like the 50/30/20 plan a lot, but I like to tailor my budget specifically for me so if my life is more
expensive or a little cheaper than most, I can budget around those necessities over just a straight
percentage number so I can pay my rent on time (hopefully that portion didn’t come off as arrogant or
that I’m a better planner, I just like to be very specific for my expenses and go from there, I find no
problems with the other method). I don’t have any additional questions currently. When saving for
college, I have a plan and a fallback. My first 2 year are going to be paid with financial aid because my
dad was still building his business and so he made little enough that I could get a full ride for my first 2
years. With that time, it gives me a much bigger window to save and as of now I’m saving about 500 a
month and in April will start putting in 250 because of the increased cost of living. I’ll be compiling that
money for college and on top of it I have 30 taken out of every single paycheck to be put into my tax
return as a separate savings plan so I’ll take a very large portion of the check towards it as well. By the
time my third-year rolls around I should have enough for my next two semesters and if not, I’ll just take
a few less credit hours and expand my college by a semester so I can pay for it without any student debt.