eBook Engineering Economy ePub

This book is not a good book at all. The book has hardly any examples to help you learn the material. It is full of problems at the end of each chapter, but it is hard to solve any of them due to the lack of worked out example problems. The book is full of proofs of the financial formulas, which is a waste of time in the real world. The book is hard to read and even harder to understand. The only good use of this book is toilet paper and it wouldn't do a very good job at that either.

This is a great book, in my opinion.

I placed "5th Edition" in the topic line just to be certain that I am indeed referring to the 5th edition. It appears that Amazon is making no distinction as I posted this review for the 5th edition. Why this review shows for the 6th edition is a mystery to me. Anyway...

I have never read a book that even remotely resembles this topic before taking a class entitled "Economic Decision Making", which utilizes this particular text. I took basic Business Finance in my undergrad studies, but honestly the only thing I remember covering in that class was compounding of interest. This book goes MUCH farther than that.

I am currently on Chapter 17 of the 19. The class is over, but I am continuing with this text because the topic is very interesting to me. The application of this knowledge is very apparent, both in corporate use as well as the home, just to a lesser extent for the latter. The concepts are presented fairly well so I'm not sure why there are a couple of overly-harsh negative reviews (my opinion, of course).

I have struggled with it in a few sections, but this material is new to me, yet I am definitely learning. I have to give it overall a 4-star rating, maybe 4.5, based simply on how much I feel I have learned from the book. It covers the basics of the time value of money and the formulas/tools needed for decision making when trying to maximize value or make the most efficient use of capital.

The preface shows how flexible the ordering of the chapters can be. One can jump around quite a bit in this text. Only a few topics must be covered sequentially, namely chapters 1 through 4. Chapters 5 through 9 can be explored out-of-order, but chapters 1 THROUGH 9 must be covered before anything beyond that point. This is all neatly diagrammed in the preface and understanding this order reinforces the concepts found therein.

Is this for a newbie? I think so. The formulas and their derivations are all there. Did I understand most of the derivations? Absolutely not, but that doesn't mean the tools can't be understood and applied. The rules, guidelines, and procedures for solving problems are all there.

The book has many examples; some that can be worked out mentally while others demand either paper and a calculator or the use of a spreadsheet. The authors illustrate the use of hand-computations as well as spreadsheet models in their examples - both are important. Their application of choice is, of course, MS Excel. I was spreadsheet illiterate before this book. Now I am slowly learning the power of the spreadsheet.

None of the concepts are difficult to understand. From that standpoint, this book is definitely okay for newbies. It covers the many items that must be considered before doing any calculations. Mastering the art of running the numbers, however, requires ambition. Formulas can be remembered by anyone; it's the discipline of using them appropriately and interwovenly that can become overwhelming. It takes practice if you are serious about learning to utilize this material. Be prepared to work the problems - some short and quick, others long and somewhat time-consuming. Use the online quizzes and resources. You will learn.

Perhaps there are better books out there for the beginner? I can't really say because this is my only exposure to this topic. I have seen the mention of Schaum's for the introduction of many complex subjects. Maybe this material can be covered in a more simplistic fashion - a "warm up" guide, if you will - and maybe that is what Schaum's offers, but I am not sure.

For me, it just took a little bit of grinding and sorting through the calculations provided in the examples. I am much better for it, too. I have learned a lot from this book and it will make a great reference for the future. However, I should probably insist that one buy the latest edition (6th edition) as the material on taxes is subject to change with time and this edition (5th edition) was published in 2002.

I say if you are new to this, this text is a good place to start. Also, it has plenty of exercises for the veterans out there who might want to challenge themselves.

Received as advertised.