Question on Maths

[aspirin_ash7]

Hey, im not really good at maths ( really i suck at it)
and am just wondering if anyone can help me with this question..

How long will it take for 17,000 invested at 15% per annum to grow to 32 300??

AND

If john nivests 20000$ at 10% per annum until he has 32,000, for how many years will he have to invest the money??

THANKS IN ADVANCE

[plato]

You should use the TVM facility on your calculator
Question 1 - Enter I=15, PV=-17000, PMT=0,FV=32300,P/Y=1,C/Y=1. Then solve this for N. The answer = 4.59 years.

You should see that PV is negative and FV is positive. Think of a positive number as an amount you receive - it's always great to get money. Then PV is negative because you have to pay it into an account sopmewhere, so this money leaves you. Think of paying out money as being negative.
I=15 shows the annual interest rate.
PMT = 0 because you are not making any payments each year - if you did make regular payments, enter this amount as a negative because you are paying money which leaves you.
C/Y indicates the number of compounding periods per year (ie how many times interest is calculated and added to the account). In this case, interest is paid once a year.
P/Y is the number of regular Payments made each year. You can make this the same number as C/Y but will be disregarded in the calculator's working since PMT=0 has been set.


Question 2 - Enter I=10, PV=-20000, PMT=0, FV=32000,P/Y=1,C/Y=1. Then solve this for N. The answer = 3.36 years.
If this question is related to Question 1, you should check that the two values you gave for the amount invested are not the same.

[aspirin_ash7]

hmm wow this is really complicated but i think i got my mind around it!!
cheers bud 

[lolaser]

You should also note that if the question says that the money is paid at the end of each year, that you would have to state it will take 5 years, not 4.59 years. As 4.59 years would be wrong due to the money not yet being accredited to the account.