Thanks for your help with both of my questions

"joeu2004" wrote:

On Jan 21, 8:13 am, sleeplessinnewjersey
wrote:
I copied the example given in Help to a fresh worksheet
and put in the monthly payment, interest rate and
duration. Please tell me what should I do to get the
calculations made and posted in the worksheet?

The best way to get assistance is to post the formula that you are
using and its results. You do not even say what is wrong. Klunk!
Also, repeat the subject of your question in the text body of your
posting.

The following may or may not be helpful, since I am only making
guesses about the context of your question.

Your subject line says "present value". So ass-u-me you are using the
PV() function. Keep in mind that inflows and outflows must have
different signs (one negative; the other positive), and that interest
rate and duration must be in the same units as the periodic payment.
If you are using monthly payment, annual interest rate must be
converted to a monthly rate, and duration in years must be multiplied
by 12.

For example, consider an annuity that pays $1000 per month with zero
balance after 20 years and an average investment growth rate of 4% per
year. Most people would compute the present value as follows:

=pv(4%/12, 20*12, 1000)

(Change the formula to =-pv(...) if you prefer a non-negative result.
Alternatively, you could write -1000 instead of 1000.)

But for an investment, assuming that 4% is the APY, I would replace
"4%/12" with the monthly compounded rate, namely: rate(12, 0, -1,
1+4%).

Does that help at all?