My Strategic Compass – Budget Your Life

The Purpose

Forming a budget is one of the most important parts of financial success. As you first enter the workforce, or even if you switch jobs, knowing how much money you will have available to spend on different aspects of your life will help you avoid debt and possibly even save some money for a rainy day.

The Components

My Strategic Compass – a career exploration system that helps you explore everything from the average wages and job openings for an occupation to the education and training programs that get you prepared.

The Steps

  • Budget Your Life
  1. Go to
  2. Log in with your username and password
  3. Click on the Budget Your Life icon
  4. Click Begin
  5. You have two options. Select Work Forward to find how much you’ll need each month.
  6. Select your West Virginia county to identify cost of living estimates specific to this county.
  7. Enter your preferences for the lifestyle you anticipate for yourself. The system will input cost estimates for each of these entries and finally give you a summary of the amount of money you’ll need to earn to support the lifestyle you’ve identified.
  8. Click View Occupations. You will see a table of occupations that pay average wages that support your chosen lifestyle.
  9. You can limit the table to a certain job family cluster or job zone or salary range based on your preferences and future plans. (See Explanations belowfor Job FamilyCareerClusters and Job Zones)
  1. Click on any of the occupations in the table to see a detailed profile, including the education and core employability skills associated with that career.

JOB FAMILY CAREER CLUSTERS

Each Career Cluster represents a distinct grouping of occupations and industries based on the knowledge and skills they require. Job Families are groups of occupations based upon work performed, skills, education, training, and credentials. My Strategic Compass identifies the Job Family for each occupation:

JOB ZONES

A Job Zone is a group of occupations that are similar in how much education, related experience, and/or on-the job training is needed to do the work.

The five Job Zones identify type of education and training preparation needed for the occupations:

  • Job Zone 1 occupations that require little preparation, including:
  • A high school diploma or GED certificate.
  • Little or no previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed.
  • Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few days to a few months of training. Usually, an experienced worker could show you how to do the job.
  • Job Zone 2 occupations that need some preparation, including:
  • A high school diploma or GED certificate.
  • Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed.
  • Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
  • Job Zone 3- occupations that need medium preparation, including:
  • Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational (career and technical) schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
  • Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations.
  • Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program or attainment of industry credentials may be associated with these occupations.
  • Job Zone 4- occupations that need considerable preparation
  • Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
  • A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations.
  • Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational (career technical) training.
  • Job Zone 5- occupations that need extensive preparation
  • Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).
  • Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience.
  • Employees may need some on-the-job training, but most of these occupations assume that the person will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

NEXT STEPS

  1. Return to My Strategic Compass. Click on the “Grow” menu and “Journal.” You can create a journal entry and briefly describe what you learned from this Budget Your Life Activity. You can create as many journals as you want, so that you can keep tasks separate and easy to find. To create a journal, just give it a title in the box, click the “Create Journal button”, select today’s date, and write a brief narrative.
  1. Take the My Strategic Compass Assessments to discover your interests, skills, and work preferences and how your preferences relate to the world of work.

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Dr. Kathy D’Antoni – Assistant State Superintendent of Schools, Division of Technical & Adult Education -

Dr. Sherri Nash – CTE Coordinator -

West Virginia Department of Education