It’s week four. Only six more work weeks in Managerial Finance. It’s getting harder, but my mind seems like it’s going into auto-pilot mode. All these numbers are a blur at this point. I am just along for the ride now. I cannot wait until we get to the next class (Strategic Marketing Management) where I can start to feel like I am doing something of substance. I know that financial matters are of paramount concern in the business world. They just bore me to tears. Combined with my fear and dislike of math to begin with, I am just waiting for the end.
This week we’re talking about capital budgets. It’s very dry material. Capital budgeting involves the decision making process with respect to the investment in fixed assets; specifically, it involves measuring the incremental cash flows associated with investment proposals and evaluating the attractiveness of these cash flows relative to the project's costs. We’re also focusing on the estimation of cash flows based on various decision criteria, and how to deal with capital rationing and mutually exclusive projects.
See! I told you it was dry.
I do have a good grade thus far. One good thing is that there are some people in my class that really have a knack for this stuff. They are as hardcore about this topic as I am about everything else. In the process of doing discussion board requirements, I am trying to squeeze out enough thought to make a complete sentence in terms of talking finance, while others are writing small novels about the same topic. It’s a little embarrassing but I can deal with it. I am not proud. I am patient.
In the mean time, I am working on some other personal projects that I hope to launch in the near future which I may let some people know about. One of them is a web site that analyzes the costs of decisions in the business world based on the broad topic structure of business, human capital, economics, politics, technology, marketing and law. I am hoping to recruit some people to contribute to the site. We’ll see what happens.