The $33,000 ?

[canwegosoon]

I am a business education teacher in Knoxville, Tennessee. I teach Business Principles. We go over all the personal money management info. The website "practical money..." is excellent. I have used it for several lessons.

I am finishing up the school year with budgeting. I have told my kids that in general 20% of their salary will go to taxes if they are single. Insurance is roughly $150. I have a form that breaks down the expenses which is pretty realistic. I have students draw for a salary and they must complete a budget with their selected salary. They have to shop for a car, apartment, insurance, etc... They really like the assignment. However, can you believe I had a student get upset with me because he drew a salary of $18,000?! Yes, believe it.

Sorry, this is a rambling email, but I am grading and reading at the same time.

Good luck!

They all think they are going to be making 50K+++ it is so funny.

 

[lesroi]

Hi,

If you go to www.paycheckcity.com you can do a simple calculator to find out the taxes and final pay, etc. You can convert the $33000 to an hourly rate by dividing by 2080 hours. The calculator also has spaces for health insurance, 401k, etc. Health insurance deduction for a single person can be anywhere from $25-80 per pay period and up depending on the employer and the insurer.

Hope this helps!

Tracy

 

[formernyer]

You can convert the $33000 to an hourly rate by dividing by 2080 hours.
Tracy

Or if you don't have a calculator handy, it's easy to get a rough estimate just by dividing the annual salary in half and moving the decimal place (e.g., $33,000/2 = $16,500, so approx. $16.50/hr.). The reason it's only an approximation is because there are actually 52 weeks in a year and the "cut salary in half" method would assume 50 weeks in a year. The actual hourly wage would always be slightly less than the "cut the salary in half" method calculates.

 

[mlwear]

I got an email from sis today. My take on her lesson is that it is a very short-term project. I haven't talked to her about it, but school is almost over...Anyway, she wrote that she started the project today and the students are so upset that they have so little money left! I told her she could tell them that's how I feel, too

Thanks so much everyone for all the great resources and advice. I'm passing it all along to her and hopefully next year she will be able to do a longer project.

It has made me think, though, that a simplified version of this may be a good idea as a summer project for DS who is finishing up 5th grade. (Yes, I am a mean mom and ruin my kids' summers by making them do some academic stuff I bet there are a lot of other mean moms and dads on this board, too.)