MCC 133:   Financial Mathematics

Course Description

Topics:  This course is about understanding and solving mathematical problems arising in financial settings.  The focus is practical:  you will learn to translate everyday financial matters into mathematical problems which you will solve using a financial calculator and/or a computer spreadsheet program. Examples include:

• savings calculations
• taxation
• mortgage calculations
• returns on stock and bond investments
• life insurance
• IRAs

Most importantly, you should also learn to draw (with the help of a financial calculator and/or spreadsheet software) informed conclusions from financial information presented in the media or by bankers, salespeople, etc.

Lectures:  In practice, after a quick review of the ratios and percentages, we will cover roughly one section of the text per lecture.  Please come to each lecture prepared with your financial calculators, as we will do many examples and you will want to work the calculations on your own simultaneously.  

Labs:  On eight Mondays (see the schedule below,) we will meet in a computer classroom.  Our goal during these lab sessions will be to learn to use spreadsheet software to perform financial calculations.  No prior knowledge of such software is assumed, but because of obvious time constraints, general introductory material to spreadsheets is limited to the first few labs.  If you have never used a spreadsheet program before, you might find the some of the Excel tutorials in the links section of this page helpful.

Project:  Homework, quiz and test problems are necessarily limited in scope and complexity and may often be solved by the use of rote recipes.  In order to demonstrate a deeper level of understanding of the concepts and methods introduced in this course, students will complete a final project, due during the fourteenth week of classes.

Tips for Success:  In order to master this material (or the material in just about any math class) we recommend the following:

• Come to class regularly:  Don't forget to bring those caculators!
• Read the relevant section(s) of the text before class: It's like looking at map before you start your trip.
• Work on the assigned homework as soon as possible after the lecture: Do as much as you can on the day of the lecture, and do the rest before the next lecture;  don't put it off!  Experience shows that students who wait more than two days to try their homework are likely to be C students. 
• Always ask yourself:  "Does my answer make sense?"  If you conclude that a monthly mortgage payment on a $200,000 house is $78,422.33, you've probably made a mistake.   Get in the habit, before starting a calculation, of deciding a ballpark range you think the answer should be in.
• Keep up with the computer assignments:  Finish them within a week.
• Get help on problems you can't solve:   This could mean looking at the answer, discussing with a fellow student, asking a question inclass, coming to office hours, getting help form a tutor, computer lab assistant, etc.  Again, the key is to do this as soon as possible!
• Review before the tests:  If you've followed the other suggestions, a brief review is all that will be necessary.
• Start the project early:  Always a good idea!
  

Homework

Homework will not be collected and graded. However, it is in your best interest to work through every problem assigned below, since quizzes will be based very closely on homework problems.