Java Instance Variables vs Local Variables

Question

I\'m in my first programming class in high school. We\'re doing our end of the first semester project. This project only involves one class, but many methods. My question is

Answer 1

Short story: if and only if a variable needs to be accessed by more than one method(or outside of the class) create it as an instance variables. If you need it only locally, in a single method, it has to be a local variable. Instance variables are more costly than local variables.
Keep in mind: instance variables are initialized to default values while local variables are not.