Career Life Education 12

Finances Unit
Name:
Date:
Block:

Fill in the following Information and be as realistic as possible. You may delete the
instructions if you wish before submitting it to give it a cleaner look and make it
clearer.

This project scenario is based after you have completed post-secondary and you now
have a career and are living on your OWN. Add lines and delete lines as needed in
each table.
1. CAREER
Use the career that you are going to post-secondary for or a job you think you might be doing
after high school.

Job Title: ________________________________________________________________

Find an actual job in your chosen field by looking through online want ads in places where you
might want to live in Canada. A great source is www.indeed.ca

[In this space, copy and paste the advertisement for the job you found and delete this sentence.]

Name of City and Province Where You Will Live: _______________________________

2. GROSS INCOME
Record your gross income in the space provided. Go to
https://www.payscale.com/research/CA/Country=Canada/Salary to find the starting salary for the
career you have chosen or some other website.

Gross Income: _____________________________

Below, provide proof of average starting salary in your field.

Link: [Copy and paste the link, etc. where you got your information and delete this sentence.]

3. NET INCOME
Net income, or what is commonly referred to as take home pay, is calculated by subtracting all
the deductions that will be taken out of your paycheck. Standard deductions include Income Tax,
Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI) but may also include health
insurance, personal retirement plans, and union dues, just to name a few.

To figure out how much you will be deducted in taxes every year (for unmarried individuals), go to
this website: neuvoo. Your job search starts here.

Fill in the fields below:

Amount of Federal Income Tax Withheld: _____________________________________
Amount of Provincial Income Tax Withheld: ___________________________________
Amount of CPP Deductions Withheld: ________________________________________
Amount of EI Deductions Withheld: _________________________________________
Take Home Pay (or Net Income): __________________________________________

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 To determine how much money you will earn every pay check (so every two weeks), take the net
income and divide it by 26 weeks.

Take Home Pay (every 2 weeks): __________________________________________

To determine how much money you will earn each month, take the net income and divide it by 12
months:

Take Home Pay (per month): _____________________________________________

NOW YOU START PAYING BILLS!

4. STUDENT LOANS
Calculate how much student debt you will have to pay per month. To do this you will first need to
know how much debt the average student attending your university in your program
accumulates. Go back to your research what you did with the Preliminary Post-Secondary
Institutions or use the link listed below to search for this information.
https://studentaidbc.ca/plan/debt#costs

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and put in the estimated amount of money you will be
paying for school. If you are fortunate enough to have your tuition paid for (or you are not
planning on going to post-secondary for your career) skip this step. However, try to be realistic.
Even if you think you may have some student loan, enter in a value.

Monthly Student Loan Payment: _______________________

5. ACCOMODATIONS
You must find a place to live. You will be renting a place on your own. Scour the ads for places
using the following website: https://vancouver.craigslist.org/

[In this space, copy and paste the advertisement for the apartment you found and delete this
sentence.]

Monthly rent: ____________________

Monthly utilities: ____________________

Monthly insurance: ____________________

Total Accommodations Payment: ____________________

For reference, the average condo/apartment utility bill is $150-200/month and the average
single-family home is $250-300/month (BC $410.90). Average insurance for just your contents

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 (your stuff) is around $23-26/month (BC = 26). Assume your place is furnished with all the
furniture and appliances you need.
6. TRANSPORTATION
a) Car payments
Will you be purchasing a car? If yes, look through car ads on-line and find a car you can afford.

[In this space, copy and paste the advertisement for the car you found and delete this
sentence.]

You will have to finance this purchase and should expect to take out a 5-year (60 month) loan.
Typically, you can expect to give 20% down on the purchase if you don’t have established
credit. Use the following link to help you figure out how much you will have to pay per month:

https://www.scotiabank.com/ca/en/personal/loans-lines/auto-loan/auto-loan-payment-
calculator.html

Use the calculator tab to do the final calculations.

Monthly Car Payment: _______________________

Purchase car insurance for your automobile. Figure out how much your monthly payments
will be through the ICBC online assessment tool: Products and coverage (icbc.com)

Monthly Car Insurance Payment: _______________________

b) Gas payments
Calculate your gas payments for your car for the month. Calculate how much you will need to
spend for gas for each month and show your calculations below in the space provided.
Consider the commute to and from work and any shopping trips you will have to make during
the month. (This website is helpful: https://www.gasbuddy.com/)

Monthly Gas Bill: ______________________________________________________________

c) Transit
If you plan to commute through transit, list below how much you will spend on transit. Think
about how often you will be using transit per month and whether you will be travelling 1, 2 or
3 zones.

For Metro-Vancouver here is the fare pricing of Translink: https://www.translink.ca

Monthly Cost: _______________________

Total Transportations Expense: _______________________

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 (car + transit)
7. TELECOMMUNICATIONS
You need a phone plan and you will decide if you will be using cable and internet. Find a plan for
your phone, cable, and internet using Google. Also, find how much it will cost per month below.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANY: _____________________________

Monthly Phone Payment: _______________________

Monthly Cable Payment: _______________________

Monthly Internet Payment: _______________________

Total Telecommunications Payment: _______________________

8. PERSONAL CARE AND TOILETRIES

Create an actual shopping list of personal care products you will consume in one month or one
year. Include items such as soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, make up, moisturizer, etc. You will have
to find real prices for everything and fill in the form below as proof of your expenses.

Toiletry Item Quantity Price Total Cost Store

Yearly Expense: _____________________ Monthly Expense: _____________________

9. GROCERIES
Create an actual shopping list of groceries you will consume in one week. If it helps, list what you
would eat per day for one week, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks. You will
have to find real prices for everything and fill in the form below as proof of your expenses.
Remember to eat healthy, following Canada’s Food Guide, but of course a little junk food is ok.

A great website to compare flyer prices is: https://flipp.com/home

You can also check out each individual store’s food prices like Superstore:
https://www.realcanadiansuperstore.ca/Food/c/RCSS001000000000?navid=flyout-L2-Food
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 Food Item Quantity Price Total Cost Store
Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Snacks

Drinks

Weekly Grocery Bill: ________________________

Take weekly grocery bill 52 12 to get monthly grocery bill.

Monthly Grocery Bill: ________________________

10. EATING OUT

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 Think about how often you would eat out per month and estimate how much it would cost you.
Restaurant/Coffee shop/etc. Estimated Amount

Monthly Eating Out Bill: ________________________

11. ACTIVITIES (ENTERTAINMENT, MEMBERSHIPS, etc.)

List 2 – 4 kinds of activities that you might engage in during the month that will cost money.
Provide the cost for each activity. This may include subscriptions like Spotify or gym memberships.

Activity: _________________________________________ Cost: ________________

Activity: _________________________________________ Cost: ________________

Activity: _________________________________________ Cost: ________________

Activity: _________________________________________ Cost: ________________

Monthly Activity Expense: ________________________

12. GIFTS
Think about the gifts you purchase for family and friends throughout the year such as birthdays,
Mother’s day, Christmas, etc. Estimate how much you would spend per year and divide by 12 to
get the monthly expense.
Estimated
Who you would send a gift to
Amount allocated

Yearly Expense: _____________________ Monthly Expense: _____________________

13. CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR

Estimate how much you would pay for clothing and footwear for the year and then divide by 12 to
calculate the average monthly expense. Think about what clothes and footwear you would need
to purchase for personal use and for work.

Yearly expense: _____________________ Monthly expense: _____________________

14. Budget
Now that you have finished all of the calculations, fill in the chart with your income.
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 Income Dollar Amount
Gross Monthly Income
Deductions: Federal Income Tax
Deductions: Provincial Income Tax
Deductions: EI
Deductions: CPP
Net Monthly Income

Next, fill in the chart with your expenses and indicate whether they are fixed or variable expenses.
There are some additional discretionary expenses that you will need to estimate but can be $0 if
you don’t feel the need to have that expense. Remember, you are now living on your own so you
will need to pay for EVERYTHING. There are no freebies or free trials.

Expenses Fixed or Variable Dollar Amount

Student Loans
Accommodations
Transportation
Telecommunications
Personal Care
Groceries
Eating Out
Activities
Gifts
Clothing and footwear
Household (cleaning, etc.)
Pets
Travel
Total Expenses

How much is left after all expenses? This is your savings.

Net Income – Expenses = Savings _____________________________

If the value is negative, you will need to adjust your expenses such as finding cheaper
accommodations, transportation, telecommunications, or something else. However, you will NOT
be allowed to change your career. Good luck and spend wisely! 😊