The full price of a bond includes the accrued interest. First, we calculate the number of days of accrued interest. Because this is a municipal bond, each month has 30 days. Accrued interest is always paid up to, but not including, the settlement date. That means 30 days each for March, April, and May (90 days). Because we do not pay accrued interest for June 30, (on settlement date, the new owner is entitled to the entire six months of interest), there are 29 more days, giving us a total of 119 days. You can set it up like this: 6/30 minus 3/01 = 3 months, 29 days = 119 days.
The next step is computing the amount of accrued interest in dollars and cents. With a coupon of 7% and semi-annual payments, each payment is 3.5% of the $50,000 par value. That is $1,750 each six months. We are going to solve for 119/180 days' worth of accrued interest. With the test center calculator, multiply $1,750 times 119 and divide the product by 180. The result is accrued interest of $1,156.94.
