Measure investment growth with NPV, IRR, and FV

What you'll build: the future value of regular savings, and two ways to judge an investment.

What you need: the loan tutorials help, but aren't required.

Why this matters: NPV, IRR, and FV are the backbone of every financial model.

Step 1 — Future value of monthly saving (FV)

Save $200/month for 5 years (60 months) at 5% annual interest.

=FV(0.05/12, 60, -200) // => 13601.216568168567

What just happened: FV(rate, nper, pmt) grows your regular deposits with interest.

Step 2 — Net present value of a project (NPV)

A project costs 100 now and returns 50, 60, 70 over three years, discounted at 10%.

=NPV(0.1, -100, 50, 60, 70) // => 43.30305307014546

What just happened: a positive NPV means the project is worth more than it costs.

Step 3 — Internal rate of return (IRR)

The same cash flows, as a single return percentage.

=IRR({-100, 30, 40, 50, 60}) // => 0.24888335662407093

What just happened: IRR is the discount rate where NPV would be zero — here about 24.9%.

Try changing…

• The cash flows inside { } and watch IRR move.

You learned

• FV grows regular deposits; NPV values future cash flows in today's money; IRR is the return rate that makes NPV zero.

Next: explore the Compare pages or the Advanced path.