Life Skillz 101: Budgeting

Not just because it's fun but because it can help you start to get a sense of where you want to be as a person (and an artist!) in five years, I want you to complete a mock monthly budget. Here are the parameters:

For hypothetical purposes, we'll say you're going to get an entry-level job in writing or communications. That means your salary will likely be somewhere in the $30k to $40k range, depending on what you do and where you live. (Yes, even if you live in NYC, your entry-level salary is not likely to be much higher than $40k -- could be lower. In fact, generally speaking, the cooler the entry-level job in NYC, the lower the salary.) The convenient thing about this number is it's fairly close to the ballpark of what you'd get with a bachelor's degree and limited experience in most other fields as well.

So after taxes that means your monthly gross pay of $2,500 to $3,500 turns into something like $2,000 to $2,500 net (take-home) pay.

Noodle around with those numbers on the budget sheet I gave you. Think about different scenarios -- what are the numbers like if you live in a major city versus coming back to (staying in) Birmingham? What are the numbers like if you have roommates? What are the numbers like if you have no finance payments (loans, credit cards, etc)? What about if you have significant finance payments?

Use a pencil so you can erase, adjust, and start all over if you have to. Look things up on the internet. Ask your parents for their thoughts and insight. That's part of the assignment, in fact. See if they'd add categories or subtract them, and what their thoughts are in general about starting out life on your own after college.

And if it seems like we're jumping the gun -- talking about life after college before you even apply -- I'll grant you that point, but only to a degree. Financial decisions you make prior to and during your time in college will have an influence on the options you have after it. I want you to have as many viable options after college as possible. College is supposed to open up opportunities (both in the near and far term), not limit them.

We'll sit around and crunch numbers together on Thursday, and that'll hopefully lead us to some great new understanding about how the business of life affects the life of an artist in the great big wide world.