Now I remember why I don’t like finance.  It gives me a headache!  This is week two of Managerial Finance.  This week we are reviewing the contents and meaning of a firm's income statement and balance sheet. We’re also looking very carefully at how to compute a firm's cash flows from a finance perspective, which is called free cash flows. Then we are diving into financial analysis, which can be defined as the process of assessing the financial condition of a firm.  Last (as if that wasn’t enough), we are looking at a set of key financial ratios and having a very intense discussion of their effective use.  The joy!

This is only week two and it’s only going to get more difficult.  I am trying really hard to keep my eyes and my mind open.  But if there is something that I just don’t like, or perhaps even predisposed to hate with a passion, then maybe it’s too late.  Math and most topics having to do with numbers is not my area of expertise.  I get this feeling that if I can get through this class, the remainder of the MBA program will be “downhill”, as they say.

I will admit that the discussion going on with all of the students in my class is somewhat interesting.  Learning about how their company handles financial transactions is pretty neat.  But in the end, I still look at accounting and finance as corrupt, to some extent.  In the first two weeks, we’ve looked pretty closely at some of the legal ways money and inventory can be manipulated to show desired results.  Keep in mind that these methods are legal, but to a layman such as me they can seem borderline immoral, if not downright illegal.

But in nine weeks or so, it will all be over.  Then I will move on to Strategic Marketing Management.  I have never had a job in marketing, but I love it.  I love the psychology of marketing.  It’s very interesting to me.  

I’ll get through this.  I’ll do well.  But I don’t have to like it.  :