Howdego,

When you used Nper(2.9%/12,505,16472) the result you got was -31 months
(that's *minus* 31 months). So that's your clue that you entered something
wrong.

Excel uses the sign to show the direction of cash flow. By convention,
negative numbers are cash flowing out of your pocket, positive numbers are
cash into your pocket. If you borrowed $16,472, this is a positive number,
because you received the cash. Every month, you fork out $505, so this
number is negative.

In practice, as long as you have opposite signs for opposite cash flows, you
will get the correct results. That is Nper(2.9%/12,-505,16472) will yield
the same results as Nper(2.9%/12,505,-16472)

Regards,
Fred.

"Howdego" wrote in message
...
Ah! I see. I didn't put the minus sign on the payment line. I get the
34
months as you do when it is in, but 31 months when it is out. Do you know
why that is so? Is that considered an illogical input?

"John Bundy" wrote:

I get 34 in excel, did you convert your rate correctly?
Rate cell=0.029/12
PMT cell=-505
PV cell=16472

The formula would look like this
=NPER(0.002417,-505,16472)
--
-John
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"Howdego" wrote:

I have figured the nper for a loan on a number of amortization
schedules on
the net. However, when I use the npr function in Excel, I get a
different
number of periods. Why would this be? For example, in excel for a
2.9/12 %
loan, 16,472 pv , 0 fv and a $505 per month payment, I get 31.4 months
of
payments. However, on the internet programs, i get 34 months. Does
Excel
figure this differently?