A time value of money calculator that works like the financial calculator used on the CFA, CFP, and other exams. Enter any four of the five values and solve for the fifth.
Time value of money problems relate five variables: N, the number of periods; I/Y, the interest rate per year; PV, present value; PMT, the payment made each period; and FV, future value. Given any four, the fifth is fully determined. This tool mirrors how a financial calculator such as the BA II Plus handles the same problem, including the sign convention: money you pay out is negative, and money you receive is positive. Select which variable to solve for using the buttons above, enter the other four, and the result updates automatically.
This is the part of TVM problems that trips up most students. If you borrow money, that loan amount is a cash inflow to you, so PV is positive, while your payments are outflows, so PMT is negative. If you are saving for a goal, your contributions are outflows, so PMT is negative, while the future value you are building toward is what you will eventually receive, so FV is positive. Getting the signs backwards is the single most common source of TVM errors on exams, and it is deliberately enforced here the same way a real financial calculator enforces it.
P/Y sets how many payments or compounding periods occur per year, most commonly 12 for monthly loans and savings plans. I/Y is treated as a nominal annual rate, divided evenly across the periods you select, which matches how most introductory coursework and exam questions present the problem. The Timing toggle switches between ordinary annuities, where payments occur at the end of each period such as a typical loan or mortgage, and annuities due, where payments occur at the beginning of each period such as many lease and insurance arrangements.
| Solving For | Typical Use Case |
|---|---|
| FV | How much a savings or investment plan will be worth in the future |
| PV | What a future lump sum or bond payment is worth today |
| PMT | The required loan, mortgage, or lease payment |
| N | How long it will take to pay off a loan or reach a savings goal |
| I/Y | The implied interest rate or required return on an investment |
Time value of money is foundational material on the quantitative methods sections of CFA Level 1, CFA Level 2, and CFA Level 3, and it underlies the retirement and education funding calculations tested on the CFP exam. It also appears throughout the SIE exam and Series 65 in the context of bond pricing and annuity products. If you plan to sit for any of these exams, you will eventually need to run these same calculations on a physical financial calculator, so practicing the mechanics here, including the sign convention, is direct exam preparation.
This usually means the sign convention was entered inconsistently, such as PV and PMT both positive when one should represent money going out. It can also happen when solving for N with inputs that would require a negative number of periods. Double check that outflows are negative and inflows are positive.
Set PMT to 0. Any of the five fields can be zero except the one you are solving for, and PV or FV problems with no periodic payment are common on exams, particularly for pricing a single cash flow or zero coupon bond.
I/Y here is a nominal annual rate. If you were expecting an effective annual rate, remember that with more than one compounding period per year the effective rate will be slightly higher than the nominal rate this tool returns.
Yes. Use the Timing toggle to switch from End of period to Beginning of period. This changes the calculation to reflect that each payment has one extra period to grow, which raises FV and PV slightly compared to an ordinary annuity with otherwise identical inputs.
Time value of money problems appear directly on CFA, CFP, and securities licensing exams. Practice for free.
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