Teaching Time Value of Money Using an Excel Retirement Model

The time value of money (TVM) is required knowledge for all business students. It is traditionally taught in finance and accounting classes for use in various applications in the business curriculum. These concepts are also very useful in real life situations such as calculating the amount to save for retirement. This paper details a retirement model that can be built during class to teach TVM. While traditional teaching methods give small pieces of the TVM picture, then exercises to reinforce that partial knowledge, this model incorporates many TVM techniques into one Excel modeling exercise. The model incorporates both TVM functions that are included in Excel and other formulas that must be entered into Excel by the student modeler. Unlike some other articles that focus on how much should be saved annually assuming a constant salary, this exercise focuses on a percentage of income to be saved. The model also addresses an assumed growth factor in the salary and the issue of inflation. This modeling tool is presented to adults in graduate level classes, so it incorporates the fact that they might already have some savings coming into this retirement planning exercise. This method of teaching TVM has several objectives. Primarily, the exercise contributes to the learning of TVM concepts and techniques. It also shows how the equations modeled here can be used to solve retirement planning questions, while contributing to the personal financial literacy of students, and improving model building skills in Excel.