Skill(s) Being Assessed: Productivity
Criteria for Success: In this assignment, you will:
Create a budget for a financial plan using Excel to ensure that the financial information is organized, accurate,
and complete.
Identify a personal savings goal and a time frame for reaching that goal.
Explain your choice of housing option in the context of how it will help you achieve your selected financial goal.
Align expenditures to reflect your selected financial goal.
Reflect on how creating a step-by-step and organized approach to the assignment helped you to adjust your
financial priorities and financial plan.
What to submit/deliverables: Two completed templates: Assignment 2 Financial Plan Explanation Word
Template and Assignment 2 Financial Plan Budget Excel Template.
What is the value of doing this assignment? We all have financial goals—buying or renting a home, purchasing
a car, paying off a loan, or saving up for a vacation. And it can be challenging to figure out exactly how to save
toward these goals, given the numerous expenses of daily living. A financial plan helps you identify how you
can reach your short-term and long-term goals, and leverage planning and organization strategies to make
meaningful, incremental progress toward realizing these goals. This assignment gives you the opportunity to
apply what you’ve learned about personal financial planning, productivity strategies, and the use of Excel to
develop a personal financial plan aligned to your financial goals.
Your goal for this assignment is to: Build your productivity skill by creating a plan for reaching a specific
financial goal within an identified time frame. You will use productivity strategies to break financial planning into
manageable, organized steps, and you will use Excel to develop a realistic plan that is aligned to your financial
goal and considers economic drivers, requirements, and resources.
Steps to complete: In Week 7, submit your assignment in BlackBoard by following these steps:
STEP 1:Review the following scenario for this assignment. Additionally, review the Assignment 2 Financial
Plan Explanation Word Template and Assignment 2 Financial Plan Budget Excel Template.
Context: : Imagine that you are in a position where you need to move – this could be because of a change in
job or dissatisfaction with your current living arrangement, or something else entirely. Besides needing to find
different housing, you also want to begin saving for a specific financial goal.
Scenario: Imagine that you are in a position where you need to move—this could be because of a change in
job, dissatisfaction with your current living arrangement, or something else entirely. Besides needing to find
different housing, you also want to begin saving for a specific financial goal.
You will use the Assignment 2 Financial Plan Budget Excel Template to create your financial plan and budget
table. You will use the Assignment 2 Financial Plan Explanation Word Template to answer the questions
related to your financial goals and plan.
STEP 2: Think through the productivity strategies you have learned in your coursework and make a plan for
how you will break down creating your financial plan into smaller steps to help you stay organized and be
productive.
STEP 3: Identify an annual income as a starting point for your financial plan and insert the value in the budget
table at the top of the Excel template as needed. Use an annual income value that you feel comfortable using
for this assignment. You may use one of the following:
The sample annual income of $50,000 provided in the template
Your current annual income
The average/median income of a career field that you would like to be working in at some point in the future.
Check out O*Net or CareerOneStop for more information on income for career fields you are interested in.
STEP 4: Identify a financial goal you would like to save towards – this can be a short-term (1-2 years) or longterm (3+ years) goal and determine how quickly you want to save for it (Question 2 in Template).