1. To what extent have you made plans for retirement? Describe the steps you have taken so far and what you have done to prepare for your financial future.
2. Refer to your budgeting spreadsheet. How much money is in your savings account today? If your income and expenses stay the same for the next 12 months, how much money will you have in your savings account 12 months from now (use the spreadsheet to calculate this automatically)?
3. Do some quick research to estimate how much money a therapy assistant would make per year in the location where you would like to work. Figure out what your monthly wage would be before and after taxes.
   • How much money would you save each month?
   • Create a spreadsheet to estimate how much money you would have saved, not including interest, after 3 years of saving at this rate.
   • Use a compound interest calculator to estimate how much money you would have saved if you continued saving this same amount of money and earned 1.5% interest for 25 years.
   • Write about your thoughts and feelings on the calculations you just did.

Using strategies from throughout the money management module, create a personal financial management plan to set yourself up for future success. Outline this plan on paper with as much detail as possible, making sure that there are clear steps that you could implement today, plus future steps (as applicable) to begin when you are working. Example: “set up a separate account for an emergency fund, and start adding $100 per month to this account.”