Phoebe Started Her First Job Out of College, and She

Essay

Phoebe started her first job out of college, and she decided that creating a budget is incredibly important. After her first month on the job, she brought home a net sum of $1,853 in take-home pay, and she currently has savings of $500. She has constructed a chart to summarize her budgeted and actual financial amounts. Phoebe knows living within her means is very important and is open to the possibility of obtaining additional income when needed. With all of this information in mind, please answer the following questions. Use Excel where appropriate.
a. Create a chart that shows both the budgeted and actual amounts for each expense category (a form of descriptive analytics), and comment on any observations you have.
b. Are there any external data sets Phoebe could use to determine whether her budgeted amounts are appropriate and realistic? What actions could she take to better align her budgeted values with the results of this external data?
c. Phoebe is debating whether she should accept a part-time baking job on weekends where she could net an extra $200 per week. What are the pros and cons of Phoebe taking on this extra work? How could Phoebe utilize what-if analysis (prescriptive analytics) to consider different scenarios?