[Blindmath] Math of Finance

[Birkir R. Gunnarsson]

Hi

Excel is your friends for all things finance. Ask if you are allowed
to use Excel rather than a calculator.
You can solve all interest compounding problems in Excel, and you can
use it to generate simple diagrams. It should be sufficient to
generate what you need for a course like this.
You can get a head start by Googling many of the issues covered, plus
the word Excel. There are already plenty of demo spreadsheet with
explanations and text that can help you solve the problems.
For something more heavy duty you can use R, especially in Console
mode. You can also use it to generate diagrams, but Excel is
preferable I think, if they let you use it.
This is a very fun subject and should be a fun course.
I can come back with some suggested sites with informative Excel
spread sheet as necessary.
-Birkir

On 7/25/11, Brice Smith <brsmith2424 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As part of my general education requirements at college, I'm required
> to take a couple of general math courses to graduate. I've found a
> general ed course called Math of Finance and it looks exciting. From
> what I've been able to gather, the course centers on solving financial
> word problems. topics include simple and compound interest, annuities
> and their application to amortization and sinking fund problems,
> installment buying ,calculation of premiums of life annuities and life
> insurance. Is anyone here familiar with math of finance or has taken a
> course on the topic? Is the material fairly accessible or easy to
> solve without too much sighted assistance? Specifically, here is what
> I'm wondering:
>
> The course requires a business calculator. The suggested model is the
> HP-10B. Is there an accessible business calculator that I can use with
> Jaws or another program, or is this an area where I'll need sighted
> assistance to press buttons?
>
> Finally, while the course involves word problems, the syllabus talks
> about how creating diagrams called "time diagrams" will be essential
> for success for most students. Again, for those of you who have taken
> or know math of finance, is this an area where I will struggle
> independently or may need to hire a reader or other assistance during
> the semester?
>
> Thanks for any help. As you can probably tell, I'm not a real strong
> math student and am really just trying to graduate next May.
>
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