Crackles

The FV function should work and match any correct on line calculator.
The sign depends on whether you are considering the annuity as an
investment or an outflow of money. In either case the absolute value
should be okay. You did not mention and interest rate, but, usually
that is a factor, and is the first argument in the Excel FV formula.
You need to make sure the periodicity of the interest matches the
periodicity of the payments. That is if you are making monthly
payments and are using an annual percentage rate, you need to divide
the rate by 12. The second argument is the number of periods, often
months or years. The third argument is the regulear investment
amount. The fourth argument is the present value, which should
correspond to your initial investment. There is a fifth argument that
indicates whether the first, and subsequent, payments are at the
beginning or the end of the period. That could cause a minor
difference if you assume end of period and the on line calculator uses
the beginning, but, unless it is a high interest rate and very few
periods, it won't amount to 5%. So, the formula

=FV(0,12,100,0,0) would return -$1,200 since you would be investing
(or paying) $100 per period for 12 periods and have no interest, no
initial investment, and since there is no interest it would not matter
whether you paid at the beginning or end of the period. If you don't
like the fact that it returns a negative $1,200 you can make the 100 a
-100 or put a negative sign in front of the FV.

Good luck.

Ken


On Aug 20, 3:50 pm, Crackles McFarly wrote:
I was needing a formula in EXCEL to calculate the future value based
on initial investment, number of years AND regular investments of $XXX
per month during the years.

I've tried several formulas, they give neg numbers or results that do
NOT seem the same as online calulators, off by as much as 5%!

thanks for help.