Too many financial decisions are made without factoring in the time value of money. Whether providing financial planning advice related to a client’s retirement, advising a client about a business ...

Claire Boyte-White is the lead writer for NapkinFinance.com, co-author of I Am Net Worthy, and an Investopedia contributor. Claire's expertise lies in corporate finance & accounting, mutual funds, ...

The basic premise of finance is that money has time value -- a dollar in hand today is worth more than a dollar in the future. The study of finance seeks to make it possible to compare the value of a ...

Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. Marguerita is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor ...

An annuity is an insurance contract you purchase to receive payments for a specific period, such as 30 years, or for the rest of your life. By applying a mathematical formula consisting of variables ...

The time value of money sounds like one of those boring economic concepts that a small business owner doesn't have time for – but that would be wrong. Future value and present value are monetary ...

The basic premise of finance is that money has time value -- a dollar in hand today is worth more than a dollar in the future. The study of finance seeks to make it possible to compare the value of a ...

Calculate the present value of each year's cash flow by dividing by (1 + discount rate)^number of years. Sum all present values to find the total value of projected cash flows, which in this example ...