Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. Dr. Melody Bell is a personal finance expert, entrepreneur, educator, and researcher. Melody ...

First determine what type of annuity you have ...

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 ...

Here's how to calculate the present value of a perpetual annuity that promises to pay flat or growing annual payments with helpful examples. A perpetual annuity, also called a perpetuity, promises to ...

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 ...

Net present value and the profitability index are helpful tools that allow investors and companies make decisions about where to allocate their money for the best return. Net present value tells us ...

When a company is making capital budgeting decisions -- whether it's something as small as buying a new copier vs. servicing an old one or as big as entering a new market -- it must weigh the expected ...

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 ...