FINA 30213 Study Guide - Final Guide: Making Money, Litecoin, Health Savings Account

Find an article dealing with budgeting and prepare a 1 page summary of how you can apply the information to your personal finances.

ARTICLE:

Budgeting is the foundation of personal finance. Whether or not you write a personal budget, use a budget spreadsheet, use a budgeting app, or simply keep track in your head — you’re probably already budgeting.

And budgeting is never more important than in your early adult life as you figure out how to stretch a paycheck, pay off debt, and — hopefully — save a little bit, too.

This page will give you the basic tools you’ll need to start budgeting.

What is a Budget, Exactly?

A monthly budget is a plan for how you will allocate income to meet your expenses for a designated month. Some think of budgets as spending constraints, but budgets are better described as “spending plans”. If you budget correctly you will be able to spend money on things you enjoy without worrying about meeting other financial obligations, overdrawing your accounts, or going into credit card debt.

A monthly budget typically consists of a list describing your income sources and expenses. Each description is followed by the amount you project for the amount of the income or expense for the designated month. A monthly budget can be an Excel spreadsheet, managed within a software program like Quicken, or simply jotted on a piece of notebook paper.

Writing Your Budget

A monthly budget is an estimate, but your goal should be to make as educated an estimate as possible. To do this, you will want to collect a month’s worth of pay stubs, bills, and bank statements, if possible.

INCOME

Assuming you are budgeting for an upcoming calendar month, start by looking at your previous month’s take-home pay.

If you are paid monthly or semi-monthly, this will be easy.

If you are paid every other week, multiply your paycheck by 2.166 to determine your monthly pay.

Paid weekly? Multiply your check amounts by 4.333.

Budgeting is a bit trickier if your main source of monthly income varies (if you work variable hours or earn tips), you can average several months of income or estimate based upon experience. But be conservative. In a month’s time you want to have spent less than you planned for in your budget—a difficult goal when you don’t bank as much cash as you thought.

You also want to take other income sources into account.

Do you work more than one job?

Will you get a bonus next month?

Do you pick up odd gigs or sell old stuff from time to time?

Do you have any investments paying dividends?

Create entries in your monthly budget for these additional income sources and create a line for your total monthly income. This is the amount you have to spend for the month and the basis for your “spending plan”. You cannot spend more than this in any one month. If you anticipate unusually large expenses next month for which you have money saved (a vacation, for example), consider including the savings you will use to pay for the expense as income. This will allow you to see a more typical monthly spending plan despite the inclusion of a non-monthly expense.

EXPENSES

For your monthly budget to work, your expense projections need to be as accurate as possible. Some expenses, like your rent, car payment, and insurance bill, are simple. From there, it gets trickier.

Chances are your utility bills fluctuate from month to month and how much you spend on groceries, dining out, and clothing may vary drastically. Here’s where having a few bills and bank statements will be useful so you can average several month’s worth of data.

Place each expense on a line and write down the amount next to it. You may find it useful to create categories of expenses like:

“Transportation”

“Household”

“Food”

“Entertainment”

“Debt”

Consider expenses that may not be monthly, such as clothing or car maintenance. You should still budget for these items. If you allocate money every month for these things, that money will be available when you do need it.

Tracking and estimating your monthly expenses will be harder, but not impossible, if you frequently pay in cash. While cash is a good way to moderate your spending, you need to be diligent about collecting receipts if you want to know where your money went. A new benefit of credit and debit cards now that you can use them virtually everywhere, even for micro payments of just a few dollars, is at the end of the month you get a statement with all of your monthly expenses on one page. If you’re struggling with credit card debt, definitely stick with debit cards or cash. But if you can learn to use a credit card responsibly and pay it off in full each month, I actually think a good credit card can make budgeting easier.

Your Bottom Line

When you have a complete list of your monthly expenses, add them up and subtract the sum from your monthly income. You should have a positive number. No? Uh-oh. If you have been spending according to this budget, you are going into debt. You will need to find out why your expenses exceed your income and find ways to cut your expenses – fast! Look at your list of expenses and separate discretionary spending. This includes entertainment, travel, gifts, and all dining (including lunches!) Most people can cut their monthly expenses significantly by learning to give up small daily expenditures like coffee or snacks.

If your budgeted expenses fall below your income, congratulations! You are successfully living below your means. The question, now, is how to use your extra money. Follow our six steps to financial stability to help you prioritize your money goals.

Finally, Keep It Simple

If you ever want to build wealth and stay out of debt, you have to spend less than you earn. And a budget can ensure that you do that. Still, rigidly tracking every dime you spend is like counting calories — it sounds good in theory, but most of us fail to keep up with it.

But you can stick with a budget if:

You keep your budget as simple as possible.

You harness the power of automating your money.

After you get a handle on your budget, you’ll be able to focus on other priorities like getting out of debt, building emergency savings, and begin to save for retirement. They aren’t the most exciting financial goals of your lifetime, but once they are out of the way they provide solid footing for financial security for the rest of your life.

Read more at: https://www.moneyunder30.com/budgeting-in-your-twenties

Assume that you are nearing graduation and that you have appliedfor a job with a local bank. As part of the bank’s evaluationprocess, you have been asked to take an examination that coversseveral financial analysis techniques. The first section of thetest addresses time value of money analysis. See how you would doby answering the following questions:

a. Drawcash flow time lines for (1) a $100 lump-sum cash flow at the endof Year 2, (2) an ordinary annuity of $100 per year for threeyears, (3) an uneven cash flow stream of $50, $100, $75, and $50 atthe end of Years 0 through 3.

b. (1)What is the future value of an initial $100 after three years if itis invested in an account paying 10%annual interest?

(2) What is the present value of $100 to bereceived in three years if the appropriate interest rate is10%?

c. Wesometimes need to find how long it will take a sum of money (oranything else) to grow to some specified amount. For example, if acompany’s sales are growing at a rate of 20%per year, approximatelyhow long will it take sales to triple?

d. Whatis the difference between an ordinary annuity and an annuity due?What type of annuity is shown in the following cash flow time line?How would you change it to the other type of annuity?

0 1 2 3

100 100 100

e. (1)What is the future value of a 3-year ordinary annuity of $100 ifthe appropriate interest rate is 10%?

(2) What is the present value of the annuity?

(3) What would the future and present values be ifthe annuity were an annuity due?

f. What is the present value of the following uneven cash flow stream?The appropriate interest rate is 10%, compounded annually.

0 1 2 3 4

100 300 300 150

g. Whatannual interest rate will cause $100 to grow to $125.97 in 3years?

h. (1)Will the future value be larger or smaller if we compound aninitial amount more often than annually—for example, every 6months, or semiannually—holding the stated interest rateconstant? Why?

(2) Define the stated, or quoted, or simple, rate,(r_SIMPLE), annual percentage rate (APR), the periodicrate (r_PER), and the effective annual rate(r_EAR).

(3) What is the effective annual rate for a simplerate of 10%, compounded semiannually? Compounded quarterly?Compounded daily?

(4) What is the future value of $100 after threeyears under 10%semiannual compounding? Quarterly compounding?

i. Will the effective annual rate ever be equal to the simple (quoted)rate? Explain.

j. (1) What is the value at the end of Year 3 of thefollowing cash flow stream if the quoted interest rate is 10%,compounded semiannually?

0 1 2 3

100 100 100

(2) What is the PV of the same stream?

(3) Is the stream an annuity?

(4) An important rule is that you should nevershow a simple rate on a time line or use it in calculations unlesswhat condition holds? (Hint: Think of annual compounding,when r_SIMPLE = r_EAR = r_PER.) Whatwould be wrong with your answer to parts (1) and (2) if you usedthe simple rate 10%rather than the periodic rater_SIMPLE/2 = 10%/2 = 5%?

k. (1)Construct an amortization schedule for a $1,000 loan that has a10%annual interest rate that is repaid in three equalinstallments.

(2) What is the annual interest expense for theborrower, and the annual interest income for the lender, duringYear 2?

l. Suppose on January 1 you deposit $100 in an account that pays asimple, or quoted, interest rate of 11.33463%, with interest added(compounded) daily. How much will you have in your account onOctober 1, or after 9 months?

m. Now suppose youleave your money in the bank for 21 months. Thus, on January 1 youdeposit $100 in an account that pays a 11.33463%compounded daily.How much will be in your account on October 1 of the followingyear?

n. Suppose someone offered to sell you a note that calls for a $1,000payment 15 months from today. The person offers to sell the notefor $850. You have $850 in a bank time deposit (savings instrument)that pays a 6.76649%simple rate with daily compounding, which is a7%effective annual interest rate; and you plan to leave this moneyin the bank unless you buy the note. The note is not risky—that is,you are sure it will be paid on schedule. Should you buy the note?Check the decision in three ways: (1) by comparing your futurevalue if you buy the note versus leaving your money in the bank,(2) by comparing the PV of the note with your current bankinvestment, and (3) by comparing the r_EAR on the notewith that of the bank investment.

o. Suppose the note discussed in part n, above, costs $850, but callsfor five quarterly payments of $190 each, with the first paymentdue in 3 months rather than $1,000 at the end of 15 months. Wouldit be a good investment?

Bill Jobs has decided to start a computer company called CompU in Joplin. He knows that many MSSU students, who are now required to own and operate a personal computer, are having difficulty setting up their computers, accessing various materials from MSSU’s network and from the internet, and installing new programs as they become available. Bill’s plan is to provide a service to the students by helping students set up their computers, show them how to access various databases, and offer an e-mail help desk for any problems that arise. Bill also wants to develop a website that will be a seamless portal to the internet and the campus intranet.

If things go well, Bill plans to sell computers with all the required software preinstalled to students, and develop the website that includes links to various businesses and services that students like, and to offer advertising services (and charge for the links) to local businesses. For example, a student could use the web site to order pizza delivery while studying for a financial management exam.

Once Bill has established CompU and developed the necessary operating procedures, he plans to expand to other colleges and universities in the area, and eventually go nationwide. At some point Bill plans to take CompU public with an IPO.

1. When Bill first begins CompU, if he is the only employee and only his money is invested in the company, would any agency problems exist? As he expands and hires additional people at CompU, might agency problems arise? When Bill first begins, what type of business organization will CompU be?

2. If Bill needs capital to buy his computer inventory to sell to students or develop software to run the website and the business, might this lead to agency problems? Would it matter if the new capital came in the form of an unsecured bank loan, a bank loan secured by the inventory, or from new stockholders (if Bill incorporates CompU)? What other sources of capital could Bill use?

3. Would potential agency problems increase or decrease if Bill expands operations to other campuses? Would the agency problems be affected by whether he expands by licensing franchisees or by direct expansion, where CompU actually owns the businesses on other campuses and operates them as divisions of CompU?

4. What action or actions can you think of that might minimize agency problems for CompU as Bill expands beyond MSSU? Would going public in an IPO increase or decrease agency problems?

5. If CompU is successful, what kind of compensation program could Bill use to minimize agency problems?

6. If Bill hires someone whom he can train to manage one of the new divisions he plans to open at other campuses, would it matter whether or not that person understood something about financial management? If two people were applying for a job that would lead to a managerial position, should Bill be interested primarily in the person’s technical skills or in a combination of technical skills and a vision of how different functions within CompU fit together?

7. CompU is successful, and the before-tax earnings for the first year are $90,000. Calculate the tax on these earnings using Table 2.1.