Competency Assessment on Business Investments

Competency Assessment

Competency Assessment

To receive credit, you must complete the Competency Assessment. You may contact your professor if you have any questions.

This Competency Assessment (CA) assesses your level of performance on the specific outcome(s) that are the focus of this course. The CA requires you to demonstrate your knowledge, understanding, and proficiency of the outcome(s). Be sure to use the other
activities in this course prior to attempting the CA. You can attempt the Competency Assessment an unlimited number of times within the term. The CA must be completed successfully by the end of the term.

Be sure to review the Competency Assessment Checklist Rubric in order to understand the criteria on which you will be evaluated.

Instructors will provide feedback on the CA. If you expect to receive feedback, revise, and resubmit this CA near the end of the term, you will need to make your submission no later than 5 days before the end of the term.

Please refer to your syllabus for additional Competency Assessment requirements.

Minimum Submission Requirements: All questions must be answered and the submission must be successfully uploaded to the Dropbox. If work submitted for this competency assessment does not meet the minimum submission requirements, it will be returned without being scored.

Business Investments
This module focuses on business investment concepts. Understanding how compound interest works will help you get the biggest return on your investment.
One way of looking at the investment is to calculate the future value of your money at the end of a given number of years from an initial lump sum investment at a given interest rate. Another way is to say you want a certain amount by a given time, perhaps at some point in the future when you know you will want to expand your business. What lump sum present value and interest rate would you need to get your desired amount? In this Assessment, you will use the skills you learned in this module to investigate making large purchases for your business.

 

For this Assessment you will write an essay to address the requirements described below. Your essay must be carefully planned and written using wellconstructed sentences and paragraphs. Make sure that your grammar and spelling are correct. Points will be awarded for content as well as composition.

Your essay must be a minimum of 1 page in length with standard 1 inch margins and is required to have at least one reference from a reliable source. This means that you cannot use sites like Wikipedia, Ask.com®, and Yahoo® answers and that only references from reliable sources will earn points. All resources should be cited both as an in-text citation as well as being listed on a reference page in APA format.

Business Investments

This Assessment must be submitted as a Microsoft® Word® document. Write an essay discussing how you, as a business owner, can use annuities to achieve business goals. Financial decisions require careful planning and prioritizing, especially when large, capital-intensive purchases are involved. As you establish a process to achieve your company goals, you will need to demonstrate your math skills, consider different investment options, and describe how different investment vehicles can be used effectively to accomplish business goals.

Scenario:
As the owner of a vinyl fencing company, you are making plans for two large purchases in the next 3 to 5 years to achieve your business goals. 

Purchase 1:
You plan to expand your vinyl fence company in the future, and must purchase a new warehouse facility to achieve this goal. Your insurance company is offering you two very attractive investment options, an ordinary annuity and an annuity due, both compounding quarterly and paying 8% annual interest over a 5-year period. Your 5-year budget includes saving $2,500.00 each quarter. To evaluate which option will benefit the business most, you must evaluate both annuity options by calculating the future value of each option and explain how the investment will help you to carry out your goals.

Purchase 2:
After careful review of your maintenance log, you also realized that you will need to replace a fence post molding machine that sells for $45,000.00. You estimate that you will need to purchase a new machine in 3 years’ time as this machine reaches the end of its useful life. You plan to save for this purchase using a sinking fund that compounds semi-annually, and earns a 12% annual rate. 

 

Your essay should in include the following information
1. Calculate the future value of both the ordinary annuity and the annuity due options being offered by your insurance company. Explain the differences between these two investment options. Select the best annuity option for your business and explain why that option is preferable.

2. Calculate the sinking fund payment required for the fence post molding machine.

3. Compare and contrast the shorter timeframe and higher interest rate of the sinking fund with the longer term warehouse annuity option you chose. Be sure to calculate and report how much interest you will earn from the annuity chosen for the warehouse and the amount of the sinking fund investment.

4. Develop a plan to prioritize these two purchases, and discuss the potential impact that these will have on the future of your business. For example, is expanding your business more important than saving for and paying cash for a fence post molding machine? Remember, you could borrow money to finance the fence post molding machine when it eventually breaks, but financing will cost the business in finance charges.

 

Remember, this Assessment should be complete and cover each point as outlined above. Be sure to include at least one APA formatted reference. Critical elements for Writing:

1. Essay should include a highly developed viewpoint and purpose.
2. Assignment is written in Standard American English and demonstrates superior organization.

3. Communication is highly ordered, logical and unified.
4. The assignment displays exceptional content, organization, style and mechanics.

Submitting Your Assessment:
When you are ready to submit your Assessment, click on the Course
Assessment Dropbox and complete the steps below:
Click the link that says Add Attachments.
Click on the Upload button.
Click the Add Attachments button.
Locate you Course Assessment and click on Open.

To view your graded work, come back to the Dropbox or go to the Gradebook after your instructor has evaluated it. Click the Dropbox to access it.
Make sure that you save a copy of your submitted Assignment.