An engineer has two investment options to choose from:

a. Broker A is asking the engineer to invest $10,000 now for five years and earn 12% interest rate compounded monthly for the first three years and 15% compounded semi-annually the last two years

b. Broker A is asking the engineer to invest $10,000 now for five years and earn 10% interest rate compounded monthly for the first two years and 17% compounded quarterly for the last three years.

Which option would you recommend?

c. Following discussions with some investment bankers, the engineer is informed that she could earn at least $12,000 profit on her $10,000 in five years. Prepare a counter offer for your selected broker by estimating a combination of interest rates (and compounding periods) that will earn approximately $12,000 (+ - 10%).