You just moved into a new, well-paid job. You wish to invest some of your salary each year in a retirement account. You plan to do this with 15 end-of-year deposits, as follows: the first deposit will be $8,000, and each deposit thereafter will be $600 larger than the previous one.

a) If the financial account earns 5% annual interest, how much will you have in the account after 15 years?

b) If the inflation rate averages 3% per year, and the interest rate for the financial account remains unchanged, what will be the purchasing power, measured in today's dollars, of the amount accumulated in the fund?