You just graduated from Carlson today and are beginning your first job. You are planning to start investing for retirement and want to retire in 35 years. You will open the account today with the $30,000 your parents gave you for graduation and will begin investing an equal sum at the end of each month, starting one month from today with your last payment made the day of retirement.

You assume you will need money for 30 years of retirement.Because you want to travel after retirement, you want to receive semi-annual payments.You plan to collect the first payment the day you retire.You will receive the last payment six months prior to the end of the 30-year retirement period.You believe that you will require $120,000 every six months to fund your retirement.

You believe that your investment will earn approximately 8% EAR with monthly compounding during your investing years (until retirement) and 4% APY with semi-annual compounding during your retirement years.

How much will your monthly investments need to be in order to fund this plan?