Unit 1 – Personal Budgeting – Journey to Understanding Finances

Essential Questions

Why is it smart to save?
Do I have to save money and always spend as little as I can?
How much money should I save?
How much money can I spend?
How can I save for the future I want (post-secondary education, moving out, gap year, traveling…etc.)?

Describe how financial planning and budgeting can help achieve goals.
Create your own short-term and long-term financial goals.
Develop a personal budget.
Demonstrate financial planning for the future through projections and career goal-setting

Please review all of the resources before completing your assignments.

Watch Budgeting Basics

Read Why budget?

Read Budgeting for teens (both links)

Read Key budgeting concepts (from the Wealthy Barber)

(Optional) Use budgeting tool that compares your budget to Canadian averages

Track your spending over a 2-week period and share your experience in a 200 to 300-word blog post. Did anything surprise you? Did you notice patterns in your spending habits? What types of things did you spend the majority of your money on? Can you identify wants vs. needs within your spending? Did you change the way that you were spending because you were aware that you were tracking it? You can use Google Sheets to document your purchases or do it by hand in a notebook. You do not need to share your spending tracking sheet on your blog, please email it to submit instead.
Write at least 1 short-term (within the next 6 months), 1 midterm (within the next 2 years) and 1 long-term (within the next 5 years) personal financial goal. Explain the steps that you will take to achieve them in a 400 to 500-word blog post. Please comment on 1 or 2 of your peers’ blogposts. Click here to see the list of class blogs.