You turned 25 years old on December 20, 2022 and you work as the Assistant to Mark Sullivan, the CEO and owner of Alpha Financial Planners. Your salary for 2023 is $50,000 and is expected to increase four percent per year until you retire in 40 years. Your salaries are paid at the end of every year. Your average tax rate is 20 percent.

On December 28, 2022, Mark encouraged you to consider obtaining a CFP certificate from an accredited university. This will enable you to be promoted to a CFP. Mark indicated that upon promotion your annual salary will become $65,000 and is expected to increase three and a half percent annually until you retire at the age of 65. Your new salaries will still be paid at the end of each year. In addition, you will receive a one-time bonus of $5,000 payable January 1, 2024. Because of the higher salary, your average tax rate is expected to rise to 25 percent.

Nevertheless, Mark indicated that you will be responsible for all the expenses associated with the certificate. He also pointed out that you could enroll in a one-year, full-time (meaning you cannot work while enrolled), certificate program offered by a local university; classes start on January 5, 2023. Tuition is $7,000, while books, study material and a financial calculator cost another $1,000. All these expenses are due at the beginning of the certificate program; i.e., they are due on January 5, 2023.

Mark asked you to take two days off to think about his proposal and decide how you would like to proceed. You replied that you have enough money saved over the years of your employment to cover the costs of the certificate, but still you want to crunch the numbers before you decide whether you will enroll in the CFP certificate program. Mark said that this is appropriate and explained to you that for any time value of money calculations you want to do in reaching your final decision, you could use a four and a half percent discount rate; the approximate interest rate on student loans.

Based on the above information, what will your decision be? Carefully show and explain in detail all calculations you perform in order to reach your decision.

All else the same, what is the minimum starting CFP salary Mark should offer to make you decide to get the CFP certificate? Again, provide detailed explanation of your calculations.

Finally, supply an Excel file. Make sure you do not hard-code values in your Excel file; instead use Excel functions to get your answers.