I think this is an excellent book of finance. The author introduces the concepts step by step. The examples inside the book are carefully choosen. Reading the book you can see that is written by a person that knows the subjects perfectly well, but you can also see he is a real Professor.
There are some comments saying that there are many errors in the exercises, that may be true, I didn't have the time to review all the exercises included at the end of the chapters, but from my point of view, the chapters are extremely well written and that's enough for you to understand the topics perfectly well.
The assistant professor that qualified the book with 1 star will remain as that, I mean he will always be assistant professor.
I bought this book for self study prior to starting an MBA program. I have no prior training in finance. The book does an OK job at conceptually explaining the basic principles and gives examples that are easy to relate to (buying vs. leasing a car, etc.), however, there is very little mathematical rigor to go along with the conceptual framework. While this book is good overviw of some concepts, it certanly does not replace a classic Corporate Finance text. What this book does well is teach the reader how to use excel to solve practical problems (as long as they align with one of the provided examples).
The major downside is the sheer volume of errors. The chapter end exercises are filled with errors that make at least 25% of these exercises unusable.
I'm an assistant professor and used this textbook for my "Financial Analysis with Excel" course. This text is poorly written, and the organization and order of topics is incoherent at best. Moreover, the end-of-chapter exercises are riddled with errors, both in the questions themselves and in the spreadsheet solutions that have been provided. These exercises and their solutions were clearly made by some graduate student(s) that didn't give a damn, with little oversight from the author and publishers. The powerpoint slides that come with the instructor materials are also trash, plain and simple. I've spent the majority of my time making my own exercises and lectures, since the ones that come with this book are basically unusable. This has been very costly for me, since I could've spent all that time working on research had I chosen a book that wasn't 100% excrement. If you are a professor, do yourself a favor and avoid this trash, unless you want to waste an entire semester on one class.
After examining the other reviews of this textbook, I find it funny that so many "reviewers" have given this text 5 or 4 stars, given how abhorrent the text truly is. Those of you who "highly recommend" this text either have a nefarious agenda (you work for the publisher or author) or you are simply ignorant or stupid. If you rate this text highly, then you, like the publisher, author, and graduate students who excreted this vomit, are garbage and you are just as responsible as they are for the propagation of this refuse.
We used this book for the Introduction to Finance course in our MBA program and it was simply AMAZING. The author writes in a clear, "friendly" way that is so different from every other dry business textbook. The text makes difficult financial concepts infinitely easier to understand and was a perfect complement to what we learned in class. Whenever I couldn't fully grasp a concept taught in class I simply read the relevant section in the textbook, along with the examples, and invariably gained a much better understanding of the subject at hand. The book is extremely comprehensive as it starts with basic financial concepts (NPV and IRR analysis) all the way through Capital Budgeting, Options, etc. Most importantly, the book is based on EXCEL. Everything that the book teaches includes not just the important financial concepts and tools but how to use them in Excel. The entire financial industry is based on Excel, and I feel much better prepared to compete against students from other schools (who didn't use an Excel based textbook) for a position in finance after graduation. Simply put, the in-depth content, combined with the Excel basis, will make this book the gold standard in undergraduate and MBA level finance courses throughout the world. Highly recommended!
This book has great content and covers a lot of the basics of finance and Excel, but TONS of problems have errors from either past editions not being updated or just being flat out wrong. It's frustrating spending hours just trying to figure out whether or not your answers are right and having to consult other sources and general logic, and sometimes you just end up skipping the problem because there's no point in stabbing in the dark without even knowing if you are correct or not. If it weren't for this issue, it'd be a 4 or 5 star book for sure.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a great real-world understanding of Finance and it's real world medium(Excel). While I've taken many Finance classes throughout college and always came away with the fundamental ideas... the memorized (yet, long-forgotten) formulas and the TI calculator functions have never quite been beneficial for me in the real world.
All the finance-related job positions I've looked at have required a deep understanding of Excel, and many complicated real-world investment decisions I've contemplated would have benefited it from it as well. While some previous reviews I've read mention the discovery of some errors... honestly they have not bothered me in the least.
Out of all the books I looked at, I sincerely believe that I made the correct choice here. This book really is a joy to read, and is nowhere near the dryness I remember from many of the finance books of my past. On top of that, I've begun to learn quite a bit about Excel, which was one of my goals. I've liked it so much in fact, that I have already picked up Financial Modeling, third edition... and cannot wait to get into it.
It's odd that a b-school professor hasn't thought to recruit a gaggle of research assistants and cobble together a book like this. Unlike other finance texts, this book does actually do a good job of teaching the ins and outs of excel. Indeed, if one were interested in learning excel alone, the medium of finance would be a terrific avenue to picking up the program (and vice versa). They make sense together; both are lifeless mechanical knowledge bases that are, sadly, critical to understand. I picked up this book as a means of shoring up Excel skills before beginning a management consulting job and it has been helpful.
That said, there are countless errors in the explanations to the chapter exercises, rendering them nearly unusable at times. In some instances, it feels like a previous edition was not properly updated and in others, there are flat out mistakes in calculations, logic, or methodology. I've worked through the first two chapters and approximately 10 of the 50 exercise solutions are incorrect in some way. It's a shame Oxford (a terrific press) wasn't more diligent in the editing process. It's quite sloppily done (rushed to market?) and Professor Benninga (or Oxford) should consider releasing a corrected exercise update to those who purchased the book. For students planning on using the book for self study, I would look elsewhere until this issue is resolved.
I own both the first and second edition of this book,they are both excelent texts that are fun to read. However if one is gong to learn and remember the various excel methods one must work with many of the exersises in each chapter. The first edition was full errors in the exersises second edition is a little better,but still a lot of errors. I dont think all those who have rated the book with 5 stars have systematically worked through all exersises.
its also strange that Benninga does not applies matrix calculation in his book, something that would simplify many of the methods.
I highly recommend this book to learn finance principles as it is well organized, highly readable, well explained, and integrates many practical Excel spreadsheets to illustrate Finance Principles. There is so much to learn here! I am systematically going through it from start to finish to help me teach Financial Excel to MBA students. (Just like I did with Simon's Financial Modeling book) Thank you!
Simon Benninga's "Principles of Finance with Microsoft Excel" is an excellent introductory text for anyone looking to learn more about finance. The language remains easy-to-understand, without losing the critically technical aspects necessary for such a rigorous, demanding skill.
Most importantly, from the interactions I have had with author Benninga, he is a very respectable and responsive expert in the field. He can articulate complex viewpoints both to the layman and seasoned expert.
I would highly recommend looking at this book and purchasing it for your needs.
Awesome book!As a result of the Great recession I'm in the midst of career change from Information Technology to Business/Finance. I found this book to be a great teaching tool for learning Finance, and also Excel. I'm using the book on a self-study basis prior to my Finance courses in the fall, and I know I'll be well ahead of the curve when my classes begin. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning Finance. Thanks Professor Benninga.
The combination of a rigorous (albeit introductory) academic presentation with Excel wholly integrated is simply outstanding. I started with BMA's Principles of Corporate Finance and could hardly stay awake. This book, on the other hand, is exciting. I read every chapter, completed every problem and I recommend you do the same. Afterwards I got the author's Financial Modeling and I am similarly pleased.
Principals of Finance with Excel is by far the best and most useful finance text that I've used. In fact, my class is using a different text and I had to buy this book as a reference because the other was lacking in practical application instructions. My plan was to sell, as I normally do, this textbook back at the end of the semester but I've changed my mind. This book is so useful that it is going to stay with me as I head out of school and into the workplace. The concepts are explained clearly (but its not wordy) and the best part is the step-by-step instructions to transfer the concept into action with excel.
The CD that comes with the text is very helpful, it has all of the excel spreadsheet examples and answers to the exercises provided for you with Mr. Benninga's notes and cell formulas. I would certainly make sure that you get a new copy or a used copy with the CD.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to improve their working knowledge of excel or finance or both: This is the ultimate handbook to the use of excel for finance.
This is my first semester teaching with Benninga's Principles of Finance with Excel, and I am finding it to be a useful, intuitive and effective alternative to traditional Finance textbooks. Benninga manages to successfully teach both finance and excel in this authoritative, yet accessible text. My students are surprised with how "easy" finance is, and I'm thrilled to see them applying relatively complex financial concepts at an early stage in the course. Benninga's instructor materials are thorough and effective, and the student CD is helpful and relevant. Perhaps my favorite thing about Benninga's approach to finance is that it makes finance accessible to students who do not love math. By using excel, Benninga takes the focus away from arithmetic and places it on analysis, thus making finance appealing to a much broader array of student. I fully recommend this text.
It is rare to find a book that can systematically guide one with no prior knowledge of a field to feeling comfortable with many of the basic concepts of the discipline. Dr. Benninga's book accomplishes this, meeting its goal of providing an understanding of the requisite concepts and applications for making financial decisions. It is replete with examples, each clearly delineated both in text and Excel spreadsheets reprinted in the text; each building on the prior examples. Essentially every example reflects real decisions, e.g., buying versus leasing, mortgages, depreciating equipment, buying securities. It also includes clear instructions on using the revelent Excel features but its focus is financial modeling, not Excel. I found the book both relevant and a joy to read, working the examples as I progressed. I highly recommend this book to anyone who, like me, barely knew words like depreciation or annuity let alone what they meant. It would be a great textbook for a finance course but it is also superb for self-study. Although I am an total neophyte in finance, I suspect this book falls in the very rare category of books like Richard Feynman's Lectures in Physics which can provide insight into a subject regardless of ones prior knowledge.
Product Details :
Hardcover: 816 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (September 24, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0199755477
ISBN-13: 978-0199755479
Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 1.6 x 9.3 inches
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