Pat,

I have assumed any cost of the variable rate poilicy above the fixed cost policy comes out of the
savings account pricnicpal, interest, or both.

Put your headings in cells A1:E1, then is A2:E2 put these values/formulas:

A2 100
B2 500
C2 =B2-A2
D2 =IF(ISNUMBER(E1),E1,0)*0.04
E2 =IF(ISNUMBER(E1),E1,0)+C2+D2

Then copy B2:E2 down as far as you need, and put in your escalating premiums into column A.

Note that the 0.04 could be a cell reference, if you expect that the interest rates will change.
Perhaps:

=IF(ISNUMBER(E1),E1,0)*F2

and then enter the interest rate assumptions in column F, as percentages...

HTH,
Bernie
MS Excel MVP


"PatJennings" wrote in message
...
Actually, it is more complicated than that which I stated in the question. Let me try to give a
better explanation. The problem involves the age-old dilemma of buying low cost insurance with an
escalating premium cost rather than a fixed-price, higher cost premium and investing the
difference between the two. At some point, the initially low-cost insurance premium becomes more
costly than the fixed-price premium. At that point, the "earnings" or balance in the "invested
account" would be used to offset the higher cost of premium. Also, since there is no longer a
difference to invest, no additional money can be added to the account.

For example, assume for argument's sake that the cost of the low premium is $100 and the cost for
the fixed price premium is $500. In the first year, there would be $400 to invest. For the second
year the cost would be $110 and $500; third year $120 and $500. Each year the difference in
premiums would be added to the investing account and, for simplicity, earn interest at, let's say
4% per year. At some point in time the originally priced $100 will increase and become greater
than the $500. At that point, the investing account would have to supply the difference. Interest
would continue to be earned on the account balance.

My columns a
Low Cost, Fixed Cost, Difference, Interest, and Account Balance, which is the sum of the preceding
two columns

I would like to provide for the eventualities stated in the first paragraph.

Hope this makes it clearer. Thank you for any help you may offer.
Pat

"Bernie Deitrick" <deitbe @ consumer dot org wrote in message
...
Pat,

Your question is a bit unclear. What does your data table look like? Does it have interest
earned in the second column, or total balances?

Bernie
MS Excel MVP


"PatJennings" wrote in message
...
I have a column of years and a column of numbers representing annual amounts placed in a savings
account for the year. I would like to calculate the balance of interest earned added to the
balance of the account and then calculate the interest earned on the accumulating amounts each
year. The results would be the account balance displayed in an adjoining column. So far, I have
not found a worksheet function for that. Could someone point me in the right direction? Perhaps
there should be several columns of data?
Thanks