Forum Discussion
FV, PV, NPER - How often do you use them?
Hello, I'm learning Excel level 2, in my college courses, and was wondering how often are FV, PV, and NPER used in your field (if you are in any financial role?).
1 Reply
- mathetesSilver Contributor
If you don't mind a gentle pushback, that seems a strange question. I'm not in any official financial position--retired, in fact, over 20 years ago--but most of my current spreadsheet work has to do with managing my own finances. As such, whether I use FV, PV, NPER frequently or infrequently seems somewhat beside the point; the point being that I know the functions exist and they're here to be used when they're needed. Were you planning to learn them only if the average of all users "in any financial role" turned out to be "weekly or more" or some other arbitrary indication of "OK, it's worth studying this one"?
Here's a suggestion, based on having used spreadsheets for at least two or three times as long as you've been alive: find a good Excel resource--I used to do this with the old hard-copy printed manuals--and read all the way through it at least once a year. I guarantee you'll find functions that you didn't know existed and that work to do something more smoothly than what you've been doing. As any seasoned user of Excel (or its predecessors) knows, there are always multiple ways--different combinations of different functions and formulas--to get from point A to point B. That's why just reading through a comprehensive source of good descriptions of all the functions always turns up a good "Ah ha!" moment. Here's one such resource I'd recommend.