For this part of the course project, you will demonstrate your ability to illustrate the functions and impact of banking and monetary institutions and to provide a recommendation guided by them.

In your role as a financial advisor at Eagle Consulting, you are performing a complete financial analysis for Melinda Jacobsen, a successful business executive who is retiring in 10 years. A portion of this analysis covers the question of whether Ms. Jacobsen should refinance her home in order to provide additional funding for a long-term retirement investment.

Because "above and beyond" customer service is critical to the success of Eagle Consulting, in addition to providing a recommendation on possible refinancing options, you want to provide Ms. Jacobsen with some background information on the Federal Reserve and how it affects interest rates.

Using the information about Melinda Jacobsen's goals and the information you uncover during your research, you will write a recommendation document that explains the Federal Reserve, how the Federal Reserve affects interest rates, possible loan options, and a final recommendation for what loan she should choose.

To complete this assignment, do the following:

1. Download and read theEagle Consulting Info Sheet.
2. Write a 3 page recommendation structured in three parts:Explanation of how the Federal Reserve impacts interest rates (1.5 pages)
3. Explanation of loan options (1 page + Excel chart)
4. Recommendation for a loan (.5 page)
6. See below for details on each of the three parts.

Part 1: Federal Reserve's Impact on Interest Rates

1. Discuss how the Federal Reserve uses the following tools to impact interest rates and the economy:Open market operations
2. Discount rate
3. Reserve requirements

Part 2: Loan Options

1. Research the current mortgage interest rates for a 10-year, 15-year, 20-year, and 30-year loan.
2. In Excel, graph the interest rates using years as the X-axis and interest rates as the Y-axis.
3. Using the graph, describe the following:Type of yield curve presented in the graph
4. Relationship between interest rates and number of years to maturity
5. Impact that risk and inflation has on the interest rates as the maturity date is lengthened

Part 3: Recommendation

1. Make a recommendation to Ms. Jacobsen on what mortgage loan to take (10-year, 15-year, 20-year, or 30-year).
2. Justify your recommendation.

If you need assistance with using Microsoft Word or Excel, please visit theVideo Tutorialspage in theCourse Materialsfolder.

Submit these files as a single zipped ".zip" file to the drop box below. For more information about zipped files, please see theTechnical Requirementspage located on theResourcestab. Please check theCourse Calendarfor specific due dates.

The name of the file should be your first initial and last name, followed by an underscore and the name of the assignment, and an underscore and the date. (Mac users, please remember to append the ".zip" extension to the filename.) An example is shown below:

Jstudent_exampleproblem_101504