1.
When I was at the high school, many professors said to me the importance to acquire managerial skills to grow in organizations and to have financial skills to have control of my finances. I did not have the intention to abandon my career because I love the idea to design and develop new products, but I knew that a 9-to-5 job does not have the possibilities to convert me into a rich person, but at least I wanted to develop the financial skills.
In 2005, when I finished the high school, I started to work in a restaurant in the city where I live. The company that hired me had an important expansion plan in a moment when the United States of America retail and service is declining. I received a yearly salary of 25,000 USD.
Three years after I started to work in the restaurant, I made the decision to pursue an education in business or finance to develop my financial skills. In my job, I developed skills like client relations, planning, and a time value; those skills will complement other skills that a finance or business course can give me in administration and finances.
There are several options for courses of finance and administration in the United States of America, but I decided to make full time studies. In that time, 2008, I was single, without children, owner of a small apartment and with 40,000 USD in savings. That year was the moment when the financial system in the United States of America suffered a crisis with the bankruptcy of major companies as Lehman Brothers affected the internal situation in my company. I decided to resign to my job to go to the university. The company was affected by the sub-prime crisis, and my position in the company was eliminated. The crisis represented an opportunity for me to take decisions for my financial future.
My chosen finance studies take four semesters with an optional semester to make internship and business relations. The cost of the finance studies are:
■ 45,750 USD in tuition fees. The tuition fees are the costs to pay for the professors, the institution infrastructure and the program studies coordination. The value is average compared to other finance studies programs in the United States of America.
■ 3,050 USD for academic support. The academic support is the tutoring service of the academic institution to help the student to achieve success in the program.
■ 3,550 USD for the global leadership program. The global leadership program enhances the studies curriculum to improve the leadership qualities of the student.
■ 640 USD for the health center (mandatory). The institutions offer a mandatory fee of health services to all the students.
■ 540 USD for the student activity fee. The fee is paid for extracurricular activities that enhance the education experience with other peers that have the same interest in finances and administration.
The total is 53,530 USD for the tuition and university fees (Tulane University, 2016).
The plan is to pay the study program with a loan instead of cash. :
Amount: 53,530 USD
Interest rate: 7%
The payment of the loan starts after the study program.
2.
The desired occupation after the finance or administration study program has two non-exclusive possibilities: Got a job in management in a restaurant or to create a new restaurant. The goal is to increase the previous year salary of 25,000 with a new positive cash flow with higher revenue for me and my future company.
It is possible to calculate the required return of the administration and finances studies investment (Investopedia, 2016):
NV =SUM (Cash_flowN/(1+i)N) (Net Present Value Equation)
Using the value of the net present value of the program in 53,530 USD, the year cost of the loan is 7,621.47 USD, that is, the new job or entrepreneurship will need to generate more than 7,621.47 USD additional to the previous cash flow of 45,000 USD. The new salary must be minimum 32621.47 USD.
That value has high possibilities to be received as a CEO or Manager or an important restaurant chain in the country. Several cities in the United States of America offers job opportunities for a person with administration and finance skills with experience in the restaurant sector. Although the established and new brands of restaurants require personnel with multiple skills to run their companies.
In the case of a new startup, the possibilities depend on of the success of the new company. The opening of a new restaurant is a startup possibility to offer new and innovative dishes to known clients. The key for a startup are the product, business plan, and the possibilities to get funding for the company. Both business plan and get funding are two skills that the administration school gives to the students, knowledge that overpasses the tuition costs of the finance and administration course. Another intangible benefit that gives the course are the new contacts and relations that the students receive; the possibility to know people with access to funding or new business ideas overpasses the tuition costs of the course.
Reference List
Investopedia. (2016). Net Present Value - NPV. Retrieved 21 April 2016, from Investopedia: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/npv.asp
Tulane University. (2016). MBA Cost of Attendance 2015-2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016, from Tulane Full-time MBA: http://mba.tulane.edu/tuition.php
