Hello World:

To think in approximately 3 years I will be graduating. I will be essentially independent by then and I could be doing whatever I want but as much as I want to enjoy myself, everything has a price. It is believed that adults should be able to manage their finances and can budget everything accordingly but this is obviously not the so today Carrier Life Ed, we began creating a financial plan composed of expenses and incomes for our post-secondary life. Using “My Blueprint”, the educational management site issued by BC, we created our own budget. We had some set costs such as a fixed income 800 per month but most of it was done by our own research. Here is a picture of the budget I created:

Obviously this budget is not good as it is in the negatives but due to the fixed income of 9,600, there was no way you could even budget everything remotely near the income. Anyways, we were also assigned the task of answering a few questions to better understand budgeting. Here they are:

1) You will have a negative balance at this point. What is the negative balance amount?

Well as you can see, -$21,748.

2) If you are living at home during post-secondary, which of the expenses might be reduced?

We could definitely, get rid of the housing cost (assuming your parents aren’t charging rent which would be weird), electricity, internet, heating and grocery expenses. Maybe add on more to the dining out expense to treat parents every now and then.

3) What are possible ways for you to increase your income to help balance your budget?

In my previous post about post-secondary incomes, I mentioned multiple ways to get money and the methods mentioned inside would be perfect to secure income. Here is the general four:

– Getting a job or in this case, increasing your work hours

-Scholarships

-Grants

-Loans

You can read more about it from the post using this link: https://www.blog44.ca/jordanl/2021/07/14/post-secondary-finances/

4) What are possible ways for you to decrease your expenses to help balance your budget?

I mean if your fine with being bored, you could definitely reduce or remove entertainment related expenditures. Another way is to not go take post-secondary education and immediately start working but thats a person’s choice. The final way I can think of besides from living with your parents which was mentioned earlier, is to rent or pay a house with someone else to split the costs.

Thats it for the questions and this budgeting activity but I just want to mention that budgeting is important and not just including planned things is significant as well. Also leaving a contingency or backup fund is something many people can’t afford or don’t do now a days but having that extra money is very helpful as it allows a financial cushion and even if not used, will be nice for retirement.

Anyways this my post about budgeting so thanks for reading and bye!