Cardinal Company is considering a five$-$year project that would require a $$2,855,000$ investment in equipment with a useful life of five years and no salvage value. The company's discount rate is $14\%.$ The project would provide net operating income in each of five years as follows:

Sales

Variable expenses

Contribution margin

Fixed expenses:

Advertising, salaries, and other fixed out$-$

of$-$pocket costs

Depreciation

Total fixed expenses

Net operating incomeClick here to view Exhibit $12$B$-1$ and Exhibit $12$B$-2,$ to determine the appropriate discount factor$($s$)$ using table.

Foundational $12-14($Algo$)$

$14.$ Assume a postaudit showed that all estimates $($including total sales$)$ were exactly correct except for the variable expense ratio, which actually turned out to be $50\%.$ What was the project's actual payback period? $($Round your answer to $2$ decimal places.$)$

Payback period

years