Total income:
-   Total expenses:
=
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Imagine life at age 28


In this exercise, imagine what life may look like at age 28—about 10 years after high school. Make hypothetical life choices and see the effect on your monthly finances.

Some choices will be entirely yours to make, some will be made for you, and some will be decided at random. Hey, that’s life!

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What kind of student are you?

Choose one of the following—be honest!

Narrowing your career choices

When it comes to choosing a career, it helps to find overlap between the things you enjoy doing, the things you’re good at doing and jobs that pay enough to cover your expenses. Let’s start by listing some of your skills and interests.

List three skills:


Interests

List three interests:


Needs

List three lifestyle needs that are top priorities in your life:


Let’s pick a career

Select the level of education you’re planning on obtaining to see career options and their average annual salaries.

Note that some options are dependent on how you answered, “What kind of student are you?”

Education level:



A happy family


Marriage is one of life’s big choices. By age 28, half of the U.S. population has married for at least the first time.

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Do you think you’ll be married by age 28?


Will your partner work?

Will your partner have a full-time job? If you assume they will, you can add their salary to your monthly income. If not, you won’t have additional income, but you may save on other expenses.

Do you want children?


Income and taxes


Based on your career choice and family makeup, you can see how much your gross annual salary translates to your monthly income. This is your household’s pre-tax income.

Monthly income
You + partner's pre-tax income
Divided by months per year 12
Monthly income

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Pop quiz! What's your tax rate?

Your household's combined income is
. Use the following table to select which tax bracket you fit under:

Single

Monthly income Tax bracket

Married

Combined monthly income Tax bracket

Child tax credit

Parents receive a tax deduction for each child in their family. If you’re single and make less than $6,250 per month or $12,500 per month if you’re married, your monthly tax bill will be reduced by $250 per child. If you make at least $6,250 per month if single or $12,500 per month if married, your monthly tax bill will be reduced by $167 per child.


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Taxes
Gross taxes per month (
% tax bracket)
Child tax credit $0.00
Monthly total $0.00

Net monthly income

Based on your income, tax bracket and tax credits, this is the amount you have available to spend each month. This is your net monthly income.


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Monthly income
Gross income $0.00
Taxes per month (
% tax bracket)		 0.00
Net monthly income $0.00

Other big decisions


Housing is likely the highest monthly expense you’ll have. You can decide whether to rent an apartment or own a house. If you have kids, you must have at least a two-bedroom living space, though you can choose as large a house as you want. You can even choose to be a single person living in a five-bedroom home!

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Childcare

If your partner is unemployed, there will be no expenses for childcare in this exercise. If they work, you’ll have to pay for childcare.
The cost for one child is $800 per month; the cost for each additional child is $500 per month.


Do you want pets?

The estimated monthly cost for each pet is $125 for food, toys, supplies, veterinary care and occasional grooming and boarding.

Costs to own a pet

The estimated monthly cost for each pet is $125 for food, toys, supplies, veterinary care and occasional grooming and boarding.


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Monthly pet care
Pet care services $0.00
Monthly total $0.00

Where do you want to live?

Will you live in an apartment or a house? How big and how expensive?




Homeowners or renters insurance

Homeowners and renters insurance covers your house or apartment in the event of a fire, flood, theft and other unforeseen disasters. For a house, this insurance will cost you $75 per month. For renters, the cost is $10 per month.


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Monthly housing expenses
Rent or mortgage $0.00
Utilities $0.00
Pet rent $0.00
Insurance $0.00
Monthly total $0.00

Transportation

Next, decide how you’ll get around. You can choose to use public transportation or you can choose from the vehicles listed below.

Remember the vehicle you choose not only has a monthly payment but also varying gasoline costs.

Your method of transportation:




Transportation

Now decide which form of transportation your partner will use.

Your partner's method of transportation:




Gas and charging

The average driver travels about 1,300 miles per month. For this exercise, estimate that you are going to use 50 gallons of gasoline a month at a fuel cost of $4.00/gallon or $200 per month. Since your vehicle may fare better or worse, we’ll use the fuel multiplier listed to determine your monthly fuel costs. If you have an electric vehicle, the estimated cost for charging is $45 per month.

Your vehicle:
Vehicle make/model
Average fuel cost $200
Fuel multiplier x
Monthly fuel expenses

Auto insurance

Automobile insurance costs are affected by a lot of factors, including the value of your vehicle, where you live and whether you have accidents on your record, traffic tickets or a low credit score.

For this exercise, it will cost you $100 per month for your first vehicle and $50 per month for each additional vehicle (like your partner’s vehicle).

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Transportation costs
Personal car payment
$0
Partner car payment
$0
Fuel and charging
$0
Auto insurance
$0
Monthly total $0

Other necessities


We’ve calculated many of the big expenses, but there are still other recurring expenses throughout the month.

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Groceries

Grocery costs can vary widely, and because you might not have a lot of experience buying groceries, we’re going to give you an average cost based on household size.

If you're single, we'll budget $300 per month. If you're married, we'll budget $500 per month plus an additional $125 monthly, per child.

Clothing

Now we’ll look at clothing. We’ll budget $50 per adult and $35 per child.

However, if you guess you’ll spend more on clothes, increase the budget to what you think is appropriate.



$0 $50 $100 $150 $200 $250 $300


Cell phone and internet service

The national average for cell phone service is $100 per person per month. This will be the amount of your monthly cell service bill. If you have a partner, add another $50 per month.

For a reliable, high-speed internet connection, let’s budget $75 per month.


Healthcare

Health insurance costs can vary widely depending on the type of coverage you have, the amount of your premium and deductibles. For this exercise, let’s assume that you have good health coverage through your employer and your monthly portion of the premium is $75 if you’re single or $200 per month for a family plan.


Smoking or vaping

The government allows insurers to charge smokers up to 50% higher premiums to cover anticipated greater costs in healthcare over their lifetimes. If you smoke or vape, your healthcare costs will go up another $37 per month if single or $100 per month if on a family plan.

Do you smoke or vape?

Optional monthly expenses


Now let’s get into discretionary expenses. This is where a lot of us can really go off the rails with our spending and throw a wrench in our finances.

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TV/streaming services

You have the option of a cable TV or satellite TV service. Basic packages are cheaper; if you want more viewing options, it’s going to cost you. You can also choose only online streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu and Disney+, or add them to your other TV services.

Streaming services

Pick as many as you want to spend your money on!

TV/streaming services

Let's see how your TV/streaming services bills add up.


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TV/streaming services
Cable
Streaming services
Monthly total

Dining out

How many times a month do you think you’ll go to a sit-down restaurant with a server versus a fast-food joint? For this exercise, fast food costs $10 per adult and $5 per child per meal. For a sit-down restaurant, the cost is $30 per adult and $12 per child per meal. These amounts include the meal, a drink and a tip.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10


General shopping

There are likely many other items and services that you may buy each month that we haven’t yet covered, so let’s budget $150 per month for these purchases. Think you’ll need more than this?

How much extra per month do you want to allocate to general shopping?

$0 $50 $100 $150 $200 $250 $300


Gifts

Birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, holidays—there’s no shortage of gift-giving celebrations throughout the year. How much do you want to save toward gift-giving each month? If you’re not sure, put $50.

How much per month do you want to allocate to gifts?

$0 $50 $100 $150 $200 $250 $300

Charitable contributions/donations

Many people donate to religious organizations, social or political causes, research or crowdfunding campaigns throughout the year. But the choice is yours. The national average donation amount is 4% of your income.

How much do you want to donate each month?




Saving smart


Have you heard of a rainy-day fund? There are several expenses that pop up, often when we don’t expect them. If you don’t have savings set aside for these expenses, they can throw off your monthly budget when they happen.

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Emergency savings

You should always save for an unexpected emergency. For this exercise, let’s set aside $50 each month for emergencies. You can save more below if you like.

How much extra monthly income do you want to save for emergencies?

$50 $100 $150 $200 $250 $300 $350

Home maintenance

For this exercise, homeowners will budget $200 a month for home maintenance expenses.

If you rent, you’re off the hook for maintenance costs in this exercise, though this may not always be the case in reality.

Vehicle maintenance

On a new or used vehicle, you’ll have to pay for routine maintenance expenses, like oil changes and vehicle registration every year.

If you and/or your partner own new cars, expect to spend $33 a month per vehicle. If you have used cars, plan on $100 a month per vehicle.


Travel

What kind of traveler are you? Choose the amount you want to save to see the world!

Travel

What kind of traveler are you?


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Travel
Travel savings
Monthly total

Student loans


You’re almost there! Let’s figure out how much it will cost to pay back your student loans. Remember, the more schooling your career choice required, the higher the debt and payment.

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Student loans

Let’s figure out how much it will cost to pay back your personal student loans. Note that the interest rate shown is based off the current national average.

... ...

You

Career
Education level
 Degree type here
Interest rate
6.87%
Loan balance
Monthly payment

Student loans

Let’s figure out how much it will cost to pay back your partner’s student loans. Note that the interest rate shown is based off the current national average.

... ...

Partner

Career
Education level
 Degree type here
Interest rate
6.87%
Loan balance
Monthly payment

Student loans

Here's how much it will cost you and your partner to pay back your student loans.

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Student loans
Monthly payment, you
Monthly payment, partner
Monthly total

Wildcards


Now that you’ve established your monthly income and expenses, see what can happen when an out-of-blue expense or additional income comes your way. Several unforeseen events are possible, and three will happen to you.

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Wildcards

Roll the dice below for an unforeseen event that will either cost you or earn you unexpected money!

Wildcard 1
Wildcard 2
Wildcard 3
Teenagers break out your windshield (only if you have a car; you pay nothing if you take transportation). You pay $250 to replace it.

Wildcard 1: hi
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Great job! You're almost there. Let's see how everything totals up for you and your future family.

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How does your life add up?

Monthly income

Your income
Partner income

Total

You

Career
Education level
Annual salary
Monthly income

How did you do?


You made it! After all is said and done, any remaining amount is the money you have left to spend at the end of the month!

Click the button below to read a few tips on how you can improve your budget and save your hard-earned money!


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$
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$
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$

How did you do?


Now you’ve seen how different decisions in life impact your monthly financial reality. Did you have anything left over each month or were your expenses higher than your income?

Great effort was made to ensure the numbers in this exercise accurately reflect current-day costs and salaries, but costs will vary depending on where you live.

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