# Excel query

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-query/317967>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 21, 2005, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-query/317967 "2005-08-21T11:18:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-query/317967/1 "2005-08-21T11:18:22Z")

</div>

I’m trying to create a personal budget using Excel. Two handy functions are FV (to calculate what my total savings will be in X years) and PMT (to calculate how much I need to save each month in order to reach a particular goal).

The problem is, plugging the same numbers in gives different results for the two functions. Is it me or Excel?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-query/317967/2 "2005-08-21T11:29:12Z")

</div>

I meant to post this in general questions. Sorry.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-query/317967/3 "2005-08-21T11:36:25Z")

</div>

FV is for future value of investments and PMT calculates repaying a debt so I don’t think you should consider them interchangeable.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-query/317967/4 "2005-08-21T11:45:25Z")

</div>

> [@don't ask](#):
>
> FV is for future value of investments and PMT calculates repaying a debt so I don’t think you should consider them interchangeable.

Well yeah, but should one be the inverse of the other, more or less?

Let’s call the result of FV(rate, nper, Payment, pv) “FutureVal”.

If I execute PMT(rate, nper, pv, FutureVal), shouldn’t the result be the same as the “Payment” argument passed to FV?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-query/317967/5 "2005-08-21T11:48:58Z")

</div>

No. One is charging you interest, the other is crediting you with interest.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-query/317967/6 "2005-08-21T12:45:04Z")

</div>

I just needed to insert a minus in front of the pv in PMT.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-query/317967/7 "2005-08-21T13:24:23Z")

</div>

exactly

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [August 21, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-query/317967/8 "2005-08-21T14:16:17Z")

</div>

I see no debate here.

You’ll get more mileage over in **GQ** (where you will next find it).