The end product of this project will be a portfolio of information about your research and estimates of annual costs for living and working in the United States in your first job after college. Below you will find two checklists. One is for the organization of the Portfolio, the other for the topics to be addressed.

Portfolio Contents Checklist
(#) indicates the number of points for each topic/item.

• ___ (4) A. Table of Contents. Each item in the Portfolio is listed using a brief (10 words or less) descriptive title.
• ___ (8) B. Summary of your findings (150 to 500 words; no references). The summary gives an overview of the details (see Detail Checklist below) for at least one possible living scenario: describe living and working at a job in an area at least 100 miles from Greeley, Colorado and at least 100 miles from where you grew up (i.e., where you went to high school).
• ___ (8) C. The Narrative of 600 to 2200 words is clear, organized, and provides information for each item in the Detailed Checklist. Include supporting evidence from webpages and other sources as appendices. Reference pertinent information external to the Portfolio using APA style (Author(s), year) and include a full bibliographic entry in References section (see below). Follow the link for an example (incomplete) of a portion of a narrative.
• ___ (8) D. Cost of Living, a one year spread-sheet showing monthly budget estimates (see the Detail Checklist below and the budget demonstration page).
• ___ (4) E. Additional materials as needed for support of your assertions in B, C, and D above.
• ___ (8) F. References (like a bibliography). Use APA format for references. References include information on the source(s) for E above, including citation of web site sources.

Each of the following details are part of the contents for your Portfolio. Discuss these details in your Narrative section AND include the monthly costs of A through J in your Cost of Living (Budget) Spreadsheet.

• ___ (4) A. Jobs - research-based estimates of difficulty/ease of obtaining desired job in scenario location ,
  of salary and benefits, of longevity of people in similar jobs. If you have a life-companion and/or other family to take into consideration, do so (e.g. both finding desired jobs in same city or town).
• ___ B. Housing - in at least one scenario (if you do more than one) you must buy a house or apartment, for the other you may buy, rent, or lease housing.
  • ___ (4) 1. Evidence of mortgage shopping and calculations, including Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) and Property or Home Owners Association (POA or HOA) costs. PMI is usually required if the downpayment is 20% or less of the property cost - on average the cost is $5 per month per $10,000 borrowed. POA or HOA fees are usually listed in the information given about a particular house, along with property tax amount. Include information on total loan amount, monthly payment, and total cost of interest paid over life of loan.
  • ___ (4) 2. Evidence of real property insurance. Include estimates for annual cost of home- or apartment- owner insurance (e.g. fire, flood, earthquake, property damage)
    Try the links at the bottom of this page for homeowner's insurance estimates before using the following information.
    If you are unable to obtain an estimate for homeowner's insurance,
    use the following to estimate the cost of insurance:
    The cost of insurance is approximately $44 per $10,000 in replacement cost for the insured property.
    The average national replacement cost for a house is $60,000 for the first 1000 square feet plus
    $40,000 for each additional 1000 square feet. For example, a 1500 square foot house would
    cost (approximately) $80,000 to replace/rebuild. Therefore, the annual homeowner's insurance
    premium would be (approximately) $44 x 8 = $352.
  • ___ (4) 3. Evidence of neighborhood/area characteristics research (e.g. quality of schools, crime rate, rental rate, police/fire/ambulance response times, etc, as appropriate).
  • ___ (4) 4. Moving. Evidence of cost to move to job location from Greeley.
  • ___ (4) 5. Utilities. Include research-based estimates for the monthly and annual cost of gas, water, sewer, trash, electricity, phone,cable or satellite t.v., internet connectivity, etc., as appropriate.
• ___ (4) C. Transportation costs. Include research-based estimates for the monthly and annual cost of public and/or private transportation (e.g. cost of bus, subway, taxi; cost of car insurance, car payment, parking fees, bridge tolls, gasoline, car maintainence like oil changes, etc.).
• ___ (4) D.1. Income Taxes (research-based estimates for state and federal income taxes; completed 1040 form [Click here to access tax forms and instruction booklet.]).
• ___ (4) D.2. Sales taxes (research-based estimates of sales taxes)
• ___ (4) E. Retirement/investment/savings. Include research-based estimates of retirement funds provided by employer and by self (and living companion if applicable) and estimated retirement income.
• ___ (4) F. Entertainment. Include research-based estimates of expenditures for local as well as vacation entertainment (e.g.travel, movies, theater, opera, dance, eating out, cds, videos, etc.).
• ___ (4) G. Health care. Include research-based estimates of employer contributions and personal costs.
• ___ (4) H. Food. Include research-based estimates of the cost of groceries for a month and for a year (the cost of dining out is included under Entertainment).
• ___ (4) I. Clothing. Include research-based estimates of annual clothing costs (e.g. for uniforms or particular types of clothing required for your job; and/or cost estimates for personal clothing choices).
• ___ (4) J. Miscellaneous. Research-based estimates of the cost of keeping and caring for a pet, paying off student loans, paying other on-going debts, tithing to a religious or charitable organziation, costs for decorating (paint, furniture, drapes, etc), other...

Possible sources of information on the internet

Try the links on the following web page first:
UNC Library Resource Page for Math 120 Project - www.unco.edu/library/guides/math/math120.htm

How to spend your income: Budgeting basics.

Sites suggested by students for Home Buying information:
In Colorado, for real estate, www.coloproperty.com
Outside of Colorado, try Yahoo.com's real estate search engine: http://list.realestate.yahoo.com/

For homeowner's insurance ESTIMATE, after choosing a home (get the ZIP CODE and ADDRESS), go to http://insurance.yahoo.com/hr/h1.html - Yahoo.com's estimation site.

Yahoo's site http://insurance.yahoo.com/a/auto.html is also good for auto insurance. Use a temporary name (like "Math Onetwenty") and do NOT provide your social security number (leave it blank), you should still be able to get an estimate as long as you have the address where you will live (or of your workplace), including ZIP CODE, and information on the make, model, and year of car to be insured.

For loan and closing cost information, quickenloans.quicken.com
(if you find other resources, email Dr. Hauk with the link(s), hauk@unco.edu.)

Sites with information about jobs, salaries, and benfits:
Monster.com web site of job listings: www.monster.com, or try www.salary.com
OR, try the U.S. Dept. of Labor's site www.bls.gov
    The National Compensation Survey on Benefits produces comprehensive data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefit plans. The Bureau of Labor Statistics maintains a web site with this information - if you cannot find benefits info for a particular job, then get information on the national average for jobs at similar places (small business, med-large business, or government job). The benefits web site is at http://www.bls.gov/ncs/ebs/.
(if you find other resources, email Dr. Hauk with the link(s))

Information about how much income tax you are likely to pay can be found at the IRS web site: www.irs.gov, [Click here to access tax forms and instruction booklet.] Tax rate table available from http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040tt.pdf.

One place to estimate the cost of moving is www1.realtor.com/moving/costs.asp
(if you find other resources, email Dr. Hauk with the link(s))

Places to find out about cost-of-living, crime rate, and demographics for cities and towns around the country:
The national Housing and Urban Development office: www.hud.gov
Yahoo's "Neighborhood Profiles" search engine: list.realestate.yahoo.com/re/neighbor/
(if you find other resources, email Dr. Hauk with the link(s))

Information on APA format for electronic (like web pages) sources can be found at http://www.apastyle.org/elecgeneral.html

Sample of a PORTION of a portfolio narrative.