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Fundamentals of Investments

Running head: INVESTMENT ANALYSIS Kerri A. Gentz 7-1 Final Project: Investment Analysis SNHU October 11, 2019 INVESTMENT ANALYSIS 2 Client analysis Investment refers to the act of committing funds in the present moment in a particular form with an expectation that in future, the act will gain some returns (Gillet & Salaber-Ayton, 2017). Investment has the likelihood of having a variation of the actual return deviating from the expectation from minimum to maximum. The deviation is known as investment risk. Therefore, any investment has risk and return (Meissner, 2018). The type of investment will determine what the investor can earn and how much additional monetary value they can gain in form of financial assets. Financial assets have three main characteristics namely liquidity, risk and return. Return is the gainful reward of an investment, risk is the variation of the return from the expected while liquidity refers to the ease of converting assets into cash. Age of an individual is an important consideration when constructing a portfolio of an individual (Aliu & Dehning, 2017). Different age have different investment strategies. Risk tolerance is another important factor that needs to be consider. Both the future and current needs of capital of an investor and the risk tolerance will determine the investment allocation of the portfolio among various asset class. The risk/return principle trade off applies for the fact that the higher the risk, the huge the return on the investment while lower returns is associated with lower risk. Determining an efficient asset allocation will require a careful analysis of the client's nature. Ezra, currently at the age of 26 is single and planning to get engaged and she will thus require an engagement ring costing $5000 almost immediately. Ezra also requires $10000- $15000 in the next period of 12-24 months that will be used to finance the wedding. Ezra is currently employed and earns $70000 per annum that is expected to cover his normal living expenses and taxes that is approximated to be $4800 and he expects to save $1000 per month as INVESTMENT ANALYSIS 3 savings. At the current moment to date, he has saved at least $15000 using the 401K plan with a cash savings amounting to $20000. Risk tolerance Ezra has a higher risk tolerance because of his young age and because he is employed, investment is not a requirement that it becomes his income source (Gillet & Salaber-Ayton, 2017). The tolerance level of Ezra is moderate to high as indicated by his plan on losing at least 30-40% of capital invested if higher returns are offered. This means that based on the investment he has made, he expects a higher returns. Ezra is not planning for his risk tolerance to adjust after getting married. The liquidity of Ezra is low due to the higher amount of cash he saves and the fact that he does not have so much expense to cover. Therefore, we conclude that Ezra should be classified under the capital and growth preservation category. Ezr