Three Essays

You are to complete three essays during the semester.  You will turn in your completed essays using Dropbox.  Below are the instructions and deadlines.  There are audio files with instructions under Content and on the Home page.

Essay 1

Prepare a personal income statement and balance sheet.   The periods can be monthly, quarterly, or annual.  You can make the statements for you personally or for your current family unit.  After you prepare the statements, do a short set of Notes to your statements that explain the major changes between the two periods.    After you complete the statements, compute your debt ratio, current ratio, return on assets, and net profit margin.    Hint, this is very simple if you are using a personal budgeting program like mint.com.  Double hint, give mint.com access to your online data (banks, credit cards, mortgages, investment accounts, etc.), then download the results.  You can also complete by searching the internet for articles about preparing personal financial statements.   There is no required minimum or maximum length.  Include at least one graph in addition to the two tables for your income statement and balance sheet.  Submit a Word or Acrobat file in Dropbox by the listed deadline.  My expectation is this should take 2-4 hours to complete.

WWW.MINT.COM link

If you want to create statemenets manually, there are multiple pages with instructions.  Look for something like Personal Financial Statement.

 

Essay 2

Prepare a capital budgeting analysis of your MBA.  Estimate the revenues, expenses assuming a 15 year life on the degree.  There are several articles on the internet that can assist you with this calculation.  Most are focused on the accounting return on investment (http://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/paying/articles/2016-04-07/calculate-the-return-on-investment-for-an-mba), but I want you to compute the Net Present Value (http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/02/21/the-npv-of-business-school)and IRR of your degree.  Be sure to only include the “correct” relevant cash flows in your analysis.  List the assumptions in your analysis.  Include at least one table in your analysis.  There is no required minimum or maximum length.  Submit a Word or Acrobat file in Dropbox by the listed deadline.  My expectation is this should take about 2 hours to complete.

Essay 3

Name and discuss five real options that exist in life.  Be sure to list the type of option, who is long and short, the underlying asset, the exercise price, and whether you think the option is in, at, or out-of-the money.  You do not need to value the options, just identify them.  Be sure to include enough of a description to allow an outside reader to understand the choice you are facing.  There is no required minimum or maximum length.  Submit a Word or Acrobat file in Dropbox by the listed deadline.  My expectation is this should take less than 2 hours to complete.

updated September 11, 2016