Manuel wants to buy a bond that will mature to $\$ 6500$ in eight years. How much should he pay for the bond now if it earns interest at a rate of $2.5 \%$ per year, compounded continuously? Do not round any intermediate computations, and round your answer to the nearest cent.

Step 1 ：Given that the bond will mature to $6500 in eight years and it earns interest at a rate of 2.5% per year, compounded continuously.

Step 2 ：We use the formula for continuous compounding, which is \(A = Pe^{rt}\), where \(A\) is the amount of money accumulated after n years, including interest, \(P\) is the principal amount (the initial amount of money), \(r\) is the annual interest rate (in decimal), and \(t\) is the time in years.

Step 3 ：In this case, we know \(A = 6500\), \(r = 0.025\), and \(t = 8\), and we need to find \(P\).

Step 4 ：We can rearrange the formula to solve for \(P\): \(P = A / e^{rt}\).

Step 5 ：Substituting the given values into the formula, we get \(P = 6500 / e^{(0.025*8)}\).

Step 6 ：Calculating the above expression, we find that \(P = 5321.75\).

Step 7 ：Final Answer: Manuel should pay \(\boxed{5321.75}\) dollars for the bond now.