Module 1 FIN3400

 Write a reflection about what you have learned in this module.  Your reflections should include (1) your opinion, (2) personal experience, and (3) evidence to back up your thoughts and/or opinion (APA citation).  The purpose of this assignment is to ensure you are processing your thoughts on the course content.  This will enhance your learning and knowledge.  Your posts in the discussion area should exhibit careful thought and logical reasoning and provide evidence for your position.  Each post should be at least one well-developed paragraph (approximately 4-6 sentences or more, unless otherwise indicated).  Use correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar.   

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Module 1- Financial Analysis, Planning and Cash Flows

• Lesson 1 – Introduction to Financial Management
  Lesson 1 – Introduction to Financial ManagementDo you know what finance entails? How financial management functions within the business world? Why might you benefit from studying financial principles? This chapter is the ideal place to get answers to those questions.
• Lesson 2 – Reviewing Financial Statements
  Lesson 2 – Reviewing Financial StatementsIn this lesson, you will examine financial statement to clarify their major features and uses. You will also examine the differences between the accounting-based (book) value of a firm (reflected in these statements) and the true market value of a firm, which you will come to understand more fully. A clear distinction is made between accounting-based income and actual cash flows, a topic further explored in Chapter 3, where we see how important cash flows are to the study of finance. This lesson contains Appendix 2A. This document provides you with examples of financial statements.
• Lesson 3 – Analyzing Financial Statements
  Lesson 3 – Analyzing Financial StatementsIn lesson 2, you reviewed financial statements. Financial statements provide information on a firm’s financial position at a point in time or its operations over a period of time. Information the statements contain can also be used to analyze the current financial performance or condition of the firm. More importantly, managers can use this information to plan changes that will improve the firm’s future performance and, ultimately, its market value. Managers, investors, and analysts universally use ratios to evaluate financial statements. Ratio analysis involves calculating and analyzing financial ratios to assess a firm’s performance and to identify actions that could improve firm performance.  In this lesson, we review these ratios, describe what each ratio means, and identify the general trend (higher or lower) that managers and investment analysts look for in each ratio.
• Lesson 4 – Time Value of Money 1: Analyzing Single Cash Flows
  Lesson 4 – Time Value of Money 1: Analyzing Single Cash FlowsIn this lesson, we look at the time value of money.  Why might money change values, and why does it depend on time?  Consider that $100 can buy you an assortment of food and drinks today. Will you be able to buy those same items in five years with the same $100? The basic idea behind the time value of money is that $1 today is worth more than $1 promised next year. But how much more? Is $1 today worth $1.05 next year?  $1.08? $1.12? The answer varies depending on current interest rates.  Chapter 3 describes the time value of money concept and provides the tools needed to analyze single cash flows at different points in time.
• Lesson 5 – Time Value of Money 2: Analyzing Annuity Cash Flows
  Lesson 5 – Time Value of Money 2: Analyzing Annuity Cash FlowsIn this chapter, we illustrate how to value multiple cash flows over time, including many equal payments,  and how to incorporate different compounding frequencies.  In the previous lesson on Chapter 4, we examined basic time value computations. Those TVM equations covered moving a single cash flow from one point in time to another. Many businesses and individuals will face this situation, but most debt and investment applications of the time value of money involved multiple cash flows. Most situations require many equal payments over time, and these situations require a bit more complicated analysis. This chapter continues the TVM topic for these situations; situations in which many equal payments are made over time. For example, your car loan, student loan and/or home mortgage. These loans require you, the borrower, to make the same monthly payment over many months or years.