Problem 8-15 Comparing Investment Criteria [LO 1, 3, 4, 6] Consider the following two mutually exclusive projects: Year Cash Flow (A) Cash Flow (B) 0 –$428,000 –$41,500 1 42,500 20,700 2 63,500 13,000 3 80,500 20,100 4 543,000 16,900 The required return on these investments is 14 percent. Required: (a) What is the payback period for each project? (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answers to 2 decimal places (e.g., 32.16).) Payback period Project A years Project B years

Payback period (A)  is 3.44 years

Payback period (B)  is  2.39 years

Explanation:

Cash Flow (A)   –$428,000; $42,500;  $63,500;  $80,500;  $543,000

Cash Flow (B)   –$41,500; $20,700; $13,000; $20,100; $16,900

The payback period will note consider discounting rate, thus we do manual counting till the cash flow equal to zero (0)

Payback period = Number of Years immediately preceding year of break-even + (investment - cashflow of Years immediately preceding year of break-even)/ cashflow of year break- even

Project A will be break even in Year 4, then

Payback period (A)  = 3 years + ($428,000 - ($42,500+$63,500+$80,500))/ $543,000 = 3.44 years

Project B will be break even in Year 3, then

Payback period (B)  = 2 years + ($41,500 - ($20,700+$13,000))/$20,100 = 3.44 years = 2.39 years

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