A PHAT Time in Cash Flow Analysis

About a month ago, my phat co-worker friends, Papa Jon, Magnum BI, and I (code name Dr. Woo) dug deep within our beings and decided to take a Cash Flow Analysis class through UCI Extension. 3 working professionals (we like to think..hee hee) hittin the books once again after a 6+ year hiatus from academia. What were we thinking?!!! Let Dr. Woo lay down the skinny on our phat time thus far...

Syllabus: Course MGT 252: Intro to Cash Flow Analysis. It is a 10 week course, one night a week, 3 hours for each class. The course is focused more toward the developing Financial Planner pursuing their CFP (or equivalent), or to any working financial professional, looking to gain or sharpen his/her understanding of valuation of assets, stocks, equity, and how real world economic events affect financial planning.

After the first couple weeks, we're like "what are we stooges getting ourselves into?!". As relevant and informative as the class is, we each agree that we are totally glad we are taking this together. Yeah, to soothe the serious academic aura, we take it upon ourselves to make sure that we create a PHAT TIME during this experience! Before class we stop over at the University Center for dinner and some last second homework completion; cramming if it is a quiz night. On the way to class, during class, during break, and after class, we humor ourselves with little tid-bits about who the hardcore students are, who the lost ones are (ooh, ooh, me, pick me!"), who we think the professor looks like, and his little "ism's". Our favorite is when the professor asks the class a question, and less than a split second after, says "hello?!" as if someone is to always have the answer on the tip of the tongue, ready for immediate deployment. While we are pretty serious during most of the class, when we hear the "hello?!!", one of us just wants to blurt back "McFly!!!".

Quite honestly, I am having the most fun that I could ever remember for a class. So far, we each have learned a lot from the subject matter, AND we find ourselves laughing a storm as we carpool back to the office after class. I swear laughter is a gift - and a great way to unwind from a long day. I'm so glad I'm doing this with 2 gentlemen that I have great respect for and learn from everyday at work. Amongst the 3 of us, we each have 6+ years of Real Estate experience in Lease Administration, RE Accounting and Operations Management. We have great commradirie with one another and with the others in our office. We work with other relatively young, energetic and talented professionals, who are committed to helping our fledgling, yet fast growing regional office succeed. PHAT props to the co-workers!!

I am really thankful for being where I'm at now, in this company, amongst these co-worker friends. But boy, it is hard work!!! Life is not without its struggles. But my learning curve is like this "/", and as much struggle and hard work that is, it's totally worth it. I had shared this sentiment with my co-workers not too long ago after they had gotten me a small gift for the new place: very seldom does a workplace impact you in so many facets of your life, relationally and professionally. It is very empowering, and fun to work.

From class, Present Value is PV = FV / (1 + i)`n

Conversely, Future Value is FV = PV x (1 + i)`n.

Translation: The future value of our relationships is equal to the present value of the time and experiences we have now, multiplied by the addition of 1 person's interest in sharing those experiences over time.

Here's to PHAT times and PHAT experiences!