Syllabus BA399 (Financial Management)

Hello, everyone!

Welcome to financial management class.

Um, I am Dr. Rajeeb Poudel.

Just to give you quick introduction about me,

I'm originally from Nepal.

Um, Nepal, if you do not know,
it is a very small country

located between China and India.

And Nepal is even smaller than Oregon.

About, I would say just a little bit bigger
than half of the Oregon, right?

About 60% of Oregon in size.

Um, do you know anything about Nepal?

Um, well Nepal has the highest peak
in the world, Mt. Everest. Right?

And that is where I was born.

Just kidding, uh, I've never been
to Mt. Everest.

I would not even go there in dream.

It's difficult of course, right, and
it is also a country of the Buddha,

Gautama Buddha.

Um, he was born in Nepal, right.

Um, and I came to the United States
in 2011 to pursue PhD degree in finance.

So, I have a PhD in finance
from University of North Texas.

And I've been teaching finance since 2013.

You know, I started teaching
when I was in my PhD program

and, um, I have been teaching
at Western Oregon University since 2019.

Right, fall of 2019.

So that's quickly about me, right.

And that's my phone number,
and that's my office

if at all you would like
to visit me in person.

Uh, email, which I think is the best way
to reach me, okay.

And I'm pretty good in responding
to email on timely fashion.

Uh, if it is weekdays, you can
expect response from me

within like a few hours if it is--
if you are sending me email during the daytime.

If it is evening time, maybe you might
have to wait until the next morning.

And if it is a weekend, like you're sending
me email on Friday evening

then maybe you might have to wait
until like Saturday afternoon,

or maybe even Sunday morning.

So, um, but generally I-- I tend to
reply to students email as soon as possible.

Right, and that's my office hours.

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays,

and by appointment if those times
don't work for you, just shoot me an email.

Right, to schedule a meeting
please email me or book a time

at least a couple hours
in advance, ideally.

But if not, let's say you want to meet me
in less than an hour,

just email me and see
if I'm available, okay.

And ideally, you can book a time slot
using this Calendly link.

And if you go in there into that link
it's-- you'll see that each slot is for 15 minutes.

But you can book multiple slots if needed
and for all zoom meetings you can use this link.

Okay. And if I'm meeting with another student
you may be placed in a waiting room.

Um, but you can also email me.

Just that's if you feel that to be comfortable
than going to-- through this link.

Alright, and course description,

this course will provide
an overview of general finance.

And I guess you understand what finance
is, right? Finance, what is finance?

Finance is, basically management of money.

Right, we also oftentimes
call it financial management.

Financial management, finance,
they mean the same thing.

They mean, how to manage money, right?

So, that's what we are going to talk about.

Interest rates, right?

Time-value of money calculation.

One of the most important concepts
in finance is time-value of money. Right.

And then financial information analysis
and financial decision making.

And of course, finance is a lot of overlap
with accounting, right?

Oftentimes I tell my students, finance actually
is the combination of three areas of studies.

Right. One is economics, the other one
is accounting, and the other one is math.

Right. Math, economics, and accounting.

If you combine them together,
that's what finance is. Right?

I mean, bit and pieces
of each of those three areas.

Because for example, economics.

Economics is the study of scarce resources
and money is one of the scarce resour-- resources.

Right. So you can say, finance is
a component of economics.

Actually until 1960s,
finance was not a separate area

but a part of economics itself.

Okay. Um, our course goal, um,
proficiency in using spreadsheets

for financial analysis.

So we will be using excel.

I believe most of you are familiar with excel.

You have used excel for
something or the other.

Right, so we will be using excel
for our financial analysis.

And we will also, uh,
look at financial statements.

Right. And financial statements you all
know what are the financial statements.

Right? Basically we are talking about
three important financial statements.

Income statement, balance sheet,
and cash flow statement.

And we'll also be calculating present value

and we'll be doing other
financial calculations.

This present value, is basically a
part of time-value or money calculations.

Okay. Basically time-value of money says
that money has time-value.

Money at different point of time
means different thing.

Like $100 in 1980, is not the same as
$100 in 2025. Right?

Course material.

Uh, there is a recommended text,
which is freely available, Principle of Finance.

Right, it's provided freely by OpenStax.
A PDF version is available on Canvas already.

I have, uh, uploaded a PDF version
on our Canvas page.

Or you can just access
the book via this link.

Either way, right, it's up to you
whether you want to use the link

or just use the PDF version that's
already uploaded on Canvas for you, right.

And there is another recommended book called,
Essentials of Corporate Finance 9th edition.

This book is basically, I-- I have this book
as a recommended text

because the PowerPoint that I use,
is from this book.

And I like the structure of-- of the--
of this book, but again,

you don't need to buy this book.

This book can set you back at least
like $50-$60, maybe even $100

depending on whether you buy
older edition, newer edition, Ebook,

or um, a physical copy of the book.

Right, so, um, between
these two, again, if you--

since you already have access
to this free book,

I-- I would say you don't really need to buy
the second recommended book. Okay.

Uh, required device. Any device that
supports MS Excel or Google Sheets

as I said alreadythat we will be
using Excel for our financial calculations.

Right. The required app.
Again, Excel or Google Sheet

We will do all calculations, including
financial calculations using MS Excel.

and Excel is freely available to all,
uh, Western Oregon University students.

You just need to use your, um, I--
I will tell you later how to access, um,

MS Excel for free. Okay?

If you do not already have free
access to Excel, that is.

Some valuable services
offered by this school,

you can go through that yourself,
and this file, this pdf file,

is there on Canvas already, okay?

Attendance, given the online nature
of the class,

you have the flexibility to create
your own schedule,

however, all the assignments must
be completed by specified deadlines,

including midterm and final exams.

And the schedule is there on page 4, okay.

And to succeed, I recommend staying
up to date with the material

as you would in a face to face class.

Cramming multiple chapters right before
a test is not advisable and may lead

to poor grade, okay?

Um, in case of illness, please notify me
as soon as possible so that

we can, um, look for alternative
way for you to submit the assignment.

Instructional methodology;
lecture will be recorded

and available on YouTube, okay?

I will upload all the links
for all of my lectures on Canvas.

And -- along with the PowerPoint slides.

Okay, PowerPoint slides are also
available on Canvas.

And the link to the lectures,
the video lectures,

are also available on Canvas.

And I tend to closely follow
the recommended books,

I sometimes adjust the focus
of the material covered.

If you miss any video lectures,
you are responsible for the missed content.

Alright, assignments; there will be
ungraded assignments, in the works of this,

they will not be graded, but they are
for your own practice.

Okay.

And graded homework.

There will be 5, or actually,
I believe there will be 6

graded homework assignments.

I guess 6, not 5.

Will be assigned via Canvas,
due at midnight,

as noted in the schedule on page 4,

if you need more time than the deadline,
just email me, just ask me,

"hey, can I get an additional day or two
days extra for this particular homework?"

and that's fine, but please do email me
before the deadline and not after the deadline.

Okay.

Um, but you may request to submit
any late homework even after the deadline.

Okay, but by the pre-final
week of term,

which will incur 25% penalty.

So you can submit late assignment,
but with 25% penalty.

Up until the pre-final week.

Okay, by pre-final week, we mean the
week before the finals exam, right.

The last week of the regular class.

Graded homework counts for 35 points.

Initially, each question will
be assigned one point.

Okay, and at the end of the course,
I will add 10% of your earned points

to your-- to your right--
to your homework points,

capped at 35 points.

So for example, if you have 30 points
at the end of the course,

I will add another 10% to that 30 points,
so you will actually have 33 points.

So if you have 25 points,
you will actually have

25 plus 2.5, or 27.5 points.

Okay.

I'm doing that because sometimes
students don't do well on

any one homework, okay, so
that ideally should not hurt you, right,

that's the reason.

A project;

a project assignment
worth 15 points

is due as per the schedule.

Submission after the deadline but before
midnight of the following day

will incur a 25% penalty.

No submission will be
accepted after that, okay?

Reading, you are expected
to read textbooks

to compliment video lectures,
especially the free recommended book, right.

Examinations, there will be midterm
and final exam, each will be

worth 100 points, so total 200 points
for the exams.

Both exams include a 25 point
take home portion

and 75 point conventional exam,
which is also online,

both of them will
be accessible online.

For the take home, you will have like,
5-6 days to work on it, right,

just like a regular homework.

The conventional exam,
once you start your conventional exam,

once you begin it, you have to finish it
within a set time.

For the midterm, you have to finish midterm
with 90 minutes once you begin the test.

So you're sitting down as if you're
taking the actual exam, right,

conventional exam, and you will
have 90 minutes to complete the exam.

So that is the only difference between
the take-home and the conventional exam,

take-home has like
5,6,7 days for you to work on that,

and take-home actually is a practice
for the conventional exam,

that's the whole idea, right,

just so you know what kind of
questions you can expect

on the regular, conventional exam.

Um, take-home is the benchmark, okay?

So all exams must be
completed by the deadline.

And what will be on the exam,
topics covered in the video lecture,

PowerPoint slides, um,
the graded homework,

ungraded homework,

they will all be fair
game for the exam, okay?

Grade evaluation,
2 exams, 200 points,

assignments or homework, 35 points,

and the group project, 15 points.

So that's 250 points.

Academic integrity, you all know that,
no copy and pasting

from any online sources including from
an AI, right, please do not use

ChatGPT or any other other AI
to, like, completely write your project

or to do the homework for you, right?

Disability accommodation, if any of you
need any kind of accommodation,

please do email me in advance,
at least a few days before the test,

so that I have all the accommodations
ready for you and I need to receive

such email from the Office of
Disability Services, okay, ODS,

before I can give you any kind
of accommodation.

I have to receive email
from them, okay,

that's like the rule.

Student success, if I feel like
any of you could use help

to succeed in the courses, I could
refer you to student success center, okay.

And they may reach out to you to help you
build strategies to do better in the course.

If you will be absent due to military orders,
please do email me as soon as possible

to discuss alternative arrangements
if you are missing any homework

or tests on time, okay.

So the schedule below,
originally designed for an

in-person Tuesday and Thursday class,
serves as a benchmark

for this online class to ensure that
we stay on the right class --

sorry, right track, okay.

Um, so here, if you see,
I have dates, right.

And these dates actually correspond
to Tuesday and Thursday, okay.

Again, this is just as a benchmark.

So -- that's the idea, right.

However, please know that these
assignment and project dates,

they are all specific to this class
and must be strictly followed.

These are all the deadlines
for the assignments.

This is the date for the test.

So your midterm, main exam,
not the take-home,

take-home will be available for
at least a week before the due date,

but the actual conventional
exam which is 75% of -- of

both of midterm and final,
um, they will be open

between these dates, okay.

And you can start your test
anytime during the dates

specified below but once you start
the test you will have limited time

to complete it, okay?

And it must be done in one sitting,
that's the idea.

For the midterm, it's 90 minutes,
not 80, okay?

Um, I will go and change that.

So the chapters mentioned below
in bold correspond to the second

recommended book, so this is chapter
1, 2, 3, 4, that corresponds

to the second book, right,
which is what I follow for the lecture,

the PowerPoints, okay.

One, the chapters are ordered
in the parentheses, right, these,

units correspond to the free book,
the first recommended book.

If you are using the free book,
look for these topics

within that free book, okay.

What if I do not find some
topics in the free book?

Then just search for these topics
on Investopedia.com, right.

Investopedia.com is like the Wikipedia
or encyclopedia of finance.

It has, like, virtually all the terms
that we will cover in this class.

And it is a reliable website,
a reliable source for finance stuff, okay.

And that's the final exam.

Assignment, projects, and take-home
portion of the test are due on

the specified day by midnight.

And if you look at these dates, they are
either Wednesday's or Thursday's.

If we're finishing a chapter on Tuesday,
the assignment for that chapter

will be due on Wednesday.

If we finish a chapter on Thursday,
right, I'm following these days,

then that assignment will be due
on Wed-- sorry, Sunday.

Okay.

And this is the deadline to create a group
for the project, project group, right,

project is done in a
group of three people.

It's a small project.

It's nothing big, a small project,
three group -- three team members.

And if you already know someone
you want to work with,

you can create your own group, okay.

By the deadline, otherwise I will
randomly assign you to a group.

That's fine, okay.

Changes to the syllabus,
if any changes are made,

a new copy of the syllabus
will be posted on the Canvas

and announcements will be made
on the Canvas, okay.

Um, you can go through
these other stuff on your own,

Title Nine, um, the wellness information
and information technology.

And COVID-19 information.

Alright, so, that's all I have
for you today.

Um, if anytime you have
any questions,

just feel free to shoot me an email
and good luck with everything!

Alright, um, alright bye!