At the beginning of april, owl corporation has a balance of $12,000 in the retained earnings account. during the month of april, owl had the following external transactions.

1. issue common stock for cash, $8,000.
2. provide services to customers on account, $6,100.
3. provide services to customers in exchange for cash, $2,400.
4. purchase equipment and pay cash, $5,600.
5. pay rent for april, $1,000.
6. pay workers' salaries for april, $2,500.
7. pay dividends to stockholders, $1,100.

required:
using the external transactions above, compute the balance of retained earnings at april 30.

You are the manager of a large crude-oil refinery. as part of the refining process, a certain heat exchanger (operated at high temperatures and with abrasive material flowing through it) must be replaced every year. the replacement and downtime cost in the first year is $165 comma 000. this cost is expected to increase due to inflation at a rate of 7% per year for six years (i.e. until the eoy 7), at which time this particular heat exchanger will no longer be needed. if the company's cost of capital is 15% per year, how much could you afford to spend for a higher quality heat exchanger so that these annual replacement and downtime costs could be eliminated?