Time Value of money investment criteria

a) You are planning to retire in 25 years time. Immediately after your retirement, you wish to go for a round the world trip lasting one year. Your monthly expenses for the trip work out to be 9000 and the first withdrawal will be made at the end of the month after your retirement. You also want to provide yourself with 35,000 a year for next 15 years on your return from the world trip. How much you should save every month to provide for the above if the effective rate of interest is 14% per annum.

b) Your firm has a retirement plan that matches all employee contributions with employer contributions on a two-to-one basis. That is if an employee contributes 1,000 per year, the company will add 2,000 to make the total contribution 3,000. The firm guarantees a fixed 6 per cent return on the funds. Alternatively, you can provide for retirement yourself, and you think you can earn 9 per cent on your money. The first contribution will be made one year from today. At that time and every year thereafter, you will put 2,500 into the retirement account, the same amount as you would have contributed to the company pension fund. You plan to retire in 30 years. Are you going to be better off participating in the company scheme or making your own arrangements? Explain the basis of your answer (ignore any tax considerations).

c) The manager responsible for the pension fund of Ruthin plc has to present a report to the Board of Directors on the financial position of the fund. He decides to use the position of the typical employee to illustrate the funds position. There is 30,000 currently held in the fund for each employee. The typical employee has 15 years to go to retirement and the companys actuary has proposed that the company should anticipate having to fund pension payments over a retirement period of 12 years for the average employee. The average pension payment per annum is expected to be 12,000 and the rate of return expected on the pension funds investment is expected to be 6 per cent. The manager needs to determine the constant annual sum that the company needs to put into the pension fund for each of the next 15 years to be able to meet the funds obligations. Determine this annual sum. (Assume all payments into the fund and all pension payments are made at the end of each year.)