Future Value Calculator

How this result is built

Grow a present amount and a periodic payment forward to a future value.

Future value pushes money forward. A negative present value is cash you invest today. A negative payment is cash you add each period. The solved future value comes back positive when those investments have grown into money you could withdraw.

What the opening example is for

The defaults are a $10,000 investment plus $100 a period for 10 periods at 5%. Change P/Y if the period is a month rather than a year.

The walkthrough below uses the numbers already sitting in Future Value Calculator. Press Calculate and the headline should match this page. Then put your own figures in. The math does not run until you press the button, and Clear hides the result.

What each field is doing

The “Periods” line on Future Value Calculator starts at 10. If the label is a rate, type the annual figure the contract uses. If it is money, type the amount that will actually move, not a rounded hope.

Future Value Calculator treats “Interest per year” as its own entry, and the form opens with 5%. Leave that figure only when it matches the statement, the quote, or the plan you are testing. Press Calculate after the edit so the chart and the schedule move with it.

Before you replace it, “Present value” reads -$10,000.00 on Future Value Calculator. A round example is useful for learning the page. It is a poor substitute for the number on your own paperwork, so replace it and run the form again.

Look at “Payment each period” first if you are checking Future Value Calculator: the filled value is -$100.00. The other fields stay put while you change this one. That is the clean way to see what this line is doing inside the result.

The remaining fields

The “P/Y, periods per year” line on Future Value Calculator starts at 1. If the label is a rate, type the annual figure the contract uses. If it is money, type the amount that will actually move, not a rounded hope.

Future Value Calculator treats “C/Y, compounds per year” as its own entry, and the form opens with 1. Leave that figure only when it matches the statement, the quote, or the plan you are testing. Press Calculate after the edit so the chart and the schedule move with it.

Before you replace it, “Payment timing” reads End of each period on Future Value Calculator. A round example is useful for learning the page. It is a poor substitute for the number on your own paperwork, so replace it and run the form again.

The opening result, line by line

Press Calculate on the opening form and Future value is $17,546.74. That is the number the rest of this section is talking about.

N is 10.00 when you run the opening figures on Future Value Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

On this opening pass, i/Y is 5.00%. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

Future Value Calculator reports that pV is -$10,000.00. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

PMT is -$100.00 when you run the opening figures on Future Value Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

On this opening pass, fV is $17,546.74. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

How those lines were produced

Future Value Calculator reports that sum of all periodic payments is -$1,000.00. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

Total interest is -$6,546.74 when you run the opening figures on Future Value Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

On this opening pass, effective annual rate is 5.00%. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

Signs follow a financial calculator: money out is negative and money in is positive.

The formula line on the page is PV(1+i)^N + PMT(1+i·type)·((1+i)^N−1)/i + FV = 0. It is there so you can see the relationship the buttons are using. A schedule, when the page draws one, is that same series written row by row.

A second pass changes only “Periods”, from 10 to 11.00. Future value moves from $17,546.74 to $18,524.07. Nothing else on the form was edited, so the gap between those two results is the effect of that one field on Future Value Calculator. If the gap is tiny, this page is not very sensitive to that entry. If the gap is large, get that entry from a document before you plan around the result.

What this page will not claim

Future Value Calculator compounds the rate you type. Markets do not pay a flat rate, and a fund fee comes out of the return before you should type it. The page is the equation, not a forecast and not a recommendation to buy or sell.

Future Value Calculator stops at its own formula. When the next question is different, open Present Value Calculator (What a future sum is worth today.); Compound Interest Calculator (Interest that starts earning interest of its own.); Finance Calculator (FV, PMT, I/Y, N, and PV, with the sign convention shown.). Do not add those results to this one as if they were the same kind of dollar.

Check the result before you use it

Start on Future Value Calculator by reading the labels, not the headline. The opening labels are Periods (10), Interest per year (5%), Present value (-$10,000.00), Payment each period (-$100.00), P/Y, periods per year (1), C/Y, compounds per year (1), Payment timing (End of each period). If a label is not the fact you have, the result cannot turn into that fact later. The illustration on the form lands on $17,546.74. When you press Calculate and see that same figure, the button and this explanation are using one formula.

Change one field at a time. Write down the headline, edit a single line, and press Calculate again. A large jump means that line carries the result. A line that does not move is a line the formula ignores, which is a reason to confirm you opened the right page. Future Value Calculator is built for one job: What today’s balance becomes. The description on the page says the same thing in a sentence: Grow a present amount and a periodic payment forward to a future value.

When the paperwork disagrees

Then hold the headline next to a source outside the site. That source might be a loan estimate, an account statement, a pay stub, or the public limit named in the methodology. A few cents of difference on a long schedule is ordinary rounding. A different rate, a fee you never typed, or a tax the form does not ask for is not rounding. Correct the input. Do not average the page with the paperwork.

When the outside source still disagrees, Future Value Calculator has reached the edge of what it will claim. It will not phone a lender, pull a county record, or apply a credit you left blank. Send the calculator name, every input, and the result you expected through the contact page if you think the formula itself is wrong. Until that is settled, read $17,546.74 as the output of the fields above and nothing else.

FAQs