Final answer:
The discounted payback period determines the recovery time for an investment based on discounted cash flows. The initial investment must be recuperated within the first 3 years using a 5% discount rate to be acceptable according to the firm's criteria.
Step-by-step explanation:
The discounted payback period is the time it takes for a project to break even in terms of discounted cash flows. In this case, we discount the future cash flows of $15,000, $16,000, $13,000, $18,000, and $19,000 at an interest rate of 5% to calculate when the initial investment of $45,000 is paid back.
To calculate the discounted cash flows, we use the formula:
Present Value = Future Cash Flow / (1 + Interest Rate) ^ Number of Years
This results in discounted cash flows for each year, which we then sequentially subtract from the initial investment to find the payback period.
The firm's requirement for a discounted payback period of 3 years or less means that we need to check if the cumulative discounted cash flows cover the initial investment within the first 3 years. Based on these calculations, we are able to determine the acceptability of this investment for the firm.