Brandon Company is contemplating the purchase of a new piece of equipment for $53,500. Brandon is in the 30% income tax bracket. Predicted annual after-tax cash inflows from this investment are $20,880, $17,400, $10,440, $6,960 and $3,480 for years 1 through 5, respectively. The firm uses straight-line depreciation with no residual value at the end of five years.

The payback period in years (rounded to the nearest 10th of a year) for this proposed investment is (assume that the after-tax cash inflows occur evenly throughout the year):