Re: [libreoffice-users] Question

Now that Dave was kind enough to translate the problem into common 
financial terms I recognize, finding the FV function is easy.

Menu->Insert->Function->Select Financial->FV
OR, use the function wizard to accomplish the same.

I've always hated word problems, I could never translate words into math 
equations.  But the OP asked about calculating compound interest which 
is not the same as future value.  Calculating FV is definitely an 
important first step.

This link: 
http://www.ehow.com/how_2166243_calculate-compound-interest.html shows 
the same formula Dave provided (albeit Dave's formula was much more 
helpful), but they go the extra step of showing that the compound 
interest is actually the Future Value minus the Present Value.

I had to scratch my head over this a few times and re-read the link 
quite a few times before I finally saw the answer sitting there in front 
of me.  They calculate the interest on $1000 in the example link - show 
that FV = 1210, and finally show that the interest ends up being the FV 
of $1210 minus the original PV of $1000: so interest earned is $210.

I would never have recognized the formula in the link as being FV, and 
so without Dave's help I couldn't have figured any of this out.


On 11/27/2013 04:12 PM, Dave Liesse wrote:
> I've had troubles in the past finding specific financial functions, as 
> well.  Can't help from the function standpoint in this case, but you 
> could always fall back on the actual equation:
>
> FV = PV*(1+i)^n
>
> where FV is future value, PV is present value, i is the periodic 
> interest rate, and n is the number of periods.
>
> Dave
>
>
>
> On 11/27/2013 15:10, Cliff Scott wrote:
> > I haven't done much spread sheet formula work so please don't mind a 
> > couple
> > of simple questions.
> >
> > I would like to do two things:
> >
> > 1. Calculate compound interest on an amount given the rate and number of
> > interest periods. Looking at the list of functions there are lots of 
> > ones
> > that come close to that, but I wasn't able to find one that would do 
> > exact
> > that.
> >
> > 2. How do I write a conditional loop in Calc? If I want to calculate a
> > formula for 10 iterations how would I do that? For instance
> > Value=Value*N+Value. That would give me the compound interest also. I 
> > can do
> > it with a bunch of cells strung out each one representing one interest
> > period, but for any length of time it becomes unwieldy.
> >
> > Thank you very much for any help.
> >
> > Cliff


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