California Career Zone: Make Money Choices

Details

Activity Description

Students use the California Career Zone Make Money Choices interactive questionnaire in order to see how much money they will need to earn in order to afford their lifestyle choices in the California area where they currently live. They can they view and get information about careers that pay the salary they will need. Students can also enter an expected salary, make lifestyle choices, and view a monthly budget.

Preparation

1. Create an introductory lesson plan or activity about expenditures, careers, budgets, and/or career/educational goals.
2. Make sure that the Web site is not blocked at your school.
3. Practice using the site yourself.
4. Download the California Career Zone Make Money Choices directions.
5. Make copies of the directions, as needed.
6. Create a note-taking form, as desired.
7. Decide what kind of follow-up activity you would like students to do, if any, such as a written report, a presentation, etc., and plan accordingly.

How-To

• Option 1: How much money do you need?
  1. Select Budget how much money you’ll need to find out what earnings are necessary to support a lifestyle you would like to lead. When you select this option, you will be asked a series of questions to help you determine the lifestyle you want to lead and how much it will cost you. When you are finished you can look at occupations that might support that lifestyle.
  2. Select the city where you live or the city nearest to where you live. You may also enter your zip code and select Begin.
  3. Select a lifestyle option on each of the pages (housing, utilities, food, clothes, transportation, health insurance, education, savings) and choose Next Section.
  4. After the final section (Savings), select Show Summary. You can also choose to add a new expense. Select Show Summary again, and the site will display a break-down of monthly expenses, a pie chart, and the minimal annual salary needed to support the lifestyle choices that were selected. At the end, you will see a detailed list of your total expenses. Take notes on or select the print button to print out the page.
  5. Select View Occupations to find out which jobs have pay ranges for the salary you need.
  6. The following page will list occupations in alphabetical order. A filter can be used to change the salary range, see occupations that only have videos, or choose specific job families. Make changes in the filter, as desired, and select Filter.
  7. Select a job title to view general information about the job, other names for the occupation, job duties, interests, work values, necessary knowledge, preparation required, wages, outlook, common college majors, and industries that employ this occupation. Some occupation entries have videos. There are links on the left navigation bar for creating a budget, finding training, and finding job openings.
• Option 2: Will my expected salary meet my lifestyle preferences?
• 1. Instead, you can select Budget from a starting salary. Select this option if you think you know how much money you are going to make, you can work backwards to see if that salary will support the lifestyle you want to lead. If it does not, you can search for alternative occupations that might.
  2. This section of the Web site will help you prepare a budget. Note: The average worker across all occupations in California make between $18,890 and $105,210. Depending on your experience, you can generally expect to make somewhere in this range. Enter your expected salary in the box below, or use the slider to select one of the common values and fill it in.
  3. Select Next Section.
  4. Select the city where you live or the city nearest to where you live. You may also enter your zip code and select Begin.
  5. Select a lifestyle option on each of the pages (housing, utilities, food, clothes, transportation, health insurance, education, savings) and choose Next Section.
  6. After the final section (Savings), select Show Summary. You can also choose to add a new expense. Select Show Summary again, and the site will display your monthly earnings, expenditures, and remaining unspent funds, a break-down of monthly expenses, and a pie chart. Take notes on this information or select the Print button to print out the page.

More Ways

• Other sections within California Career Zone are Assess Yourself (Self-Assessments to help you choose a satisfying job or occupational field to explore) and Explore Job Families (search by looking at broad sectors can help you find related occupations within an area that you might enjoy). You may want to explore these too.

Program Areas

• ESL: English as a Second Language

Levels

• Intermediate High
• Advanced

Documents

• california-career-zone-make-money-choices1_FINAL.docx - California Career Zone Make Money Choices Directions

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