Birch Company invested in the following securities:

All of the securities are common shares and Birch considers them all to be held for trading. Birch received no dividends from its investments in 2011; however, dividends of $7,000, $1,000, and $1,400 were received from Silver, Platinum, and Copper, respectively, during 2012.
The chair of Birch's executive committee says she needs more information from you to determine whether or not the company should continue to invest excess cash in this manner.
Required:
a. Identify the accounts that would be used and the amounts that would be recorded by Birch Company during 2011 in accounting for its investments.
b. Provide the same information for 2012 for each of the investments.
c. Calculate the amount of net earnings reported each year, assuming Birch reported operating earnings (excluding earnings from investments) of $90,000 in 2011 and $110,000 in 2012.
d. Explain why taking into consideration both the dividends received and the change in the market value of the shares is important in evaluating the performance of short-term investments.

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Market Price Date of Purchase Name of Company Silver Platinum Copper Amount Paid Dec. 31 2011 Dec. 31 February 2011 March 20 June 2011 80,000 45,000 22,000 $70,000 40,000 32,000 2012 $72,000 56,000 25,000