Reality Check: What Will It Cost?
You will choose what you want your life to look like in the future, make decisions about
housing, transportation, and other typical expenses, and calculate how much money you
will need to make to support that lifestyle.
Part 1: Categories and Options
Choose Your Lifestyle: For each category, select one option that fits how you
imagine your future life. HIGHLIGHT THE BOX YOU SELECT.
Categor
Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4
y
$0/month
$800/month $5,000/month
Living at $2,500/month
Shared Room Own House,
Home with Own House,
Large Size
Parents Small Size
A spacious
Rent house with
Renting a multiple
room in a bedrooms, a
No rent A three-bedroom
shared large yard, and a
payments, house with a
apartment swimming pool
saving money small yard in a
with friends, in a wealthy
while living at nice suburb.
sharing costs. neighborhood.
home.
$250/month
$150/month $400/month $800/month
Cook at
Minimal Mix Eating Out Mostly Eating
Home
Groceries Out
Buying the
Food nicest & freshest
Preparing most
Cooking simple Cooking at home ingredients,
meals at
meals at home most days, frequently dining
home, buying
with basic buying premium out for lunch and
generic
ingredients, brands, eating dinner, enjoying
brands, eating
never eating out 1-2 times a different
out 1-2 times a
out. WEEK. restaurants.
MONTH.
Transpo $15/month $100/month $200/month $600/month
Walking & Public
Biking Transit
Used Car
New Car Lease
Walking or
rtation Owning a reliable
biking Using public Leasing a new
used car with
everywhere, transportation car with monthly
lower monthly
minimal costs like buses or payments.
payments.
for trains for daily
maintenance. commutes.
$30/month $200/month
$0/month $100/month
Basic Premium
No Car Standard
Insurance
Car
Full coverage
Insuran
Minimum insurance with
ce Comprehensive
coverage additional
No vehicle, no coverage that
insurance for benefits like
insurance includes theft
basic liability roadside
costs. and damage.
on a used car. assistance.
$300/month
$50/month $150/month
Serious $500/month
Basic Moderate
Savings Aggressive
Prioritizing
Saving a
savings to build
Savings Setting aside a moderate
Saving a substantial
small amount portion for
significantly for emergency fund,
for emergencies
emergencies, travel, or invest
emergencies or and small
travel, or future in opportunities.
future plans. purchases.
investments.
$300/month
$0/month $150/month $600/month
Standard Plan
Staying on Basic Plan Premium Plan
Parents' Plan
Health Basic health Comprehensive
Insuran coverage for health coverage
Moderate
ce Covered under essential with low co-pays
coverage that
parents' health health services and coverage for
includes doctor
insurance until with limited specialized
visits and some
age 26. doctor visits. treatments.
specialist care.
$150/month $300/month
$75/month
$20/month Active Luxurious
Moderate
Minimal
Eating out
frequently,
Fun Dining out a
Eating out, attending
Money few times a
seeing a couple concerts or
month and
movies, and events, and
going to a
Occasional occasionally shopping for
discount movie
treats/snacks. buying new new outfits each
once.
clothes. month.
$300/month
$200/month
$75/month High Usage &
Moderate
$0/month Basic Premium
Utilities &
Living at Utilities & Phone
Phone
Utilities Home Phone
Standard utilities
& High utility costs
with moderate
Phone Basic utilities due to larger
usage, including
Expens No utilities or for a shared living space,
Wi-Fi, and a
es phone apartment and extensive phone
standard phone
expenses while a basic phone usage, and a
plan with
living at home. plan with premium plan
reasonable data
limited data. with unlimited
limits.
data.
$300/month
$20/month $150/month Vacations,
$50/month
Minimal Concerts, Events
Streaming
Movies
Subscriptions
Entertai
to one or two
nment Rarely going Frequent
streaming
out, possibly Going to movies outings,
services for
one streaming and concerts a traveling a few
movies and
service couple of times times a year,
shows.
subscription. each month. and attending
various events.
Part 2: Sum It Up
1. Record Costs: Fill in the costs for each choice in the provided grid. Add up the
total for all your choices.
Chosen
Monthly
Category Option (1-
Cost $$$
4)
Rent 4 5,000
Food 3 800
Transportation 4 600
Car Insurance 4 200
Savings 4 500
Health Insurance 4 600
Fun Money 4 300
Utilities & Phone 4 300
Expenses
Entertainment 4 300
Total Monthly Cost 86,000!
Part 3: Calculate Your Needed Salary
Calculate Required Salary: Use the total monthly cost to calculate the annual
salary you will need, keeping in mind taxes and savings.
1. Figure out how much your lifestyle will cost annually (each year).
Total Monthly Cost. x 12 = Total Annual Cost
86,000 X 12 103,200!
=
2. Now, you need to account for taxes.
Total Annual Cost × 0.30 = Tax Amount
103,200 x 0.30
= 30,960
Total Annual Cost + Tax Amount = Final Total Annual Cost
103,200 + 30,960 = 134,160!
Your Annual Salary Needs to Be:
$134,160
Part 4: Compare
1. Google the annual salary of a job you want to work. If there is a range, select
the LOWER end of the range. Fill out the boxes below with your Final Totally
Annual Cost and Salary of Desired Job.
Name of Desired Music Producer
Job:
Final Total Annual Cost vs Salary of Desired Job
134,160 vs $57,782
Will you make enough money? That’s your reality check!
If you don’t make enough money, that’s okay. Maybe for your first year in that job, you
need to live more frugally until you can earn more money.
