Calculate Future Retirement Fund with Excel FV Function

[@axelroesch]

I have used this before and I have watched videos on this before. I needed a refresher and this was honestly the clearest, most helpful video I have seen on this topic. Thank you!

[@peristiloperis7789]

I don't even use Excel. I just came because I'm a big fan of your channel.

[@ngee4925]

Wow I can't believe I didn't see this until now! This is awesome Ralph! Quick question, if you're currently contributing to multiple retirement accounts (401K and Roth IRA, for example), do you add up the total you contribute for the year and divide by 12 to get the monthly number? Also, if you're already starting with an amount, in other words not starting from zero because you have some saved already, would you add that to the total future value? And if you're contributing to different retirement accounts and each has a diff. rate of return, would you just take the average of those 2 investments over a certain period of time? Also, should you also factor in inflation? Sorry for all the questions Ralph, but I really love this and it got my mind racing! Thanks again!

[@SixMinutesSmarter]

I love this personal finance stuff with Excel, too! 1. It's best if you can contribute to your plans monthly instead of yearly. If you do yearly, you'd still use the FV function but wouldn't need to divide the return by 12 or worry about monthly compounding. All things being equal, the more frequently you invest the better the final return. 2. The FV function has an argument for present value if you already have money invested. It's the 4th argument in the function. You want to include that value there because tacking it on to the total won't get you the compounding of the original amount. 3. If your multiple retirement accounts get roughly the same return, you could average them all and estimate. However, I don't do that. I like the idea of creating several FV calculators side by side to compare the different accounts. This allows me to better keep track of accounts that have different draw dates. For instance, my non-retirement fund can be drawn anytime. My roth ira needs to wait until age 60. My work retirement can be drawn as early as age 58. 4. I don't prefer to factor in inflation in the FV calculations, but you should factor in inflation. Inflation affects buying power, so I would rather use inflation to estimate my cost of living (housing, healthcare, food, etc) at retirement. By having a reasonably accurate COL, I'll have a better idea of what my retirement funds need to be.

[@ngee4925]

@@SixMinutesSmarter ah yes that all makes perfect sense! Seriously Ralph, the stuff you’re showing here should be taught in schools! If you have multiple mutual funds that have different return rates, but you don’t contribute to them equally could you somehow weigh it to get a more accurate depiction (assuming you end up making only one calculator for all your investments)? In other words, let’s say you have a total contribution of $1,000 for the month (nice round numbers) and you contribute $800 of that amount to a 401K that yields an average of 10% annually, but you contribute the remaining $200 to a Roth IRA or some other investment vehicle that yields an average of 6% then is it best to weight the average to get a more accurate overall yield?

[@EMISOPL2010]

I have a list from the bank. Over 45,000 people. I need to arrange columns with first names, second names and last names, sometimes there are twolast names. It looks like this: John Cash, Phillips Ed, Mike Ted Anders, Sara Anna Dumont-Spacey, Johanson Laura, Marin L. Moon. Big differences in the record. Doing this by hand is a nightmare. Do you have a better solution than manual transfer? I've seen your other advices, that's why I'm asking. Thanks for help, Christina. I saw

[@SixMinutesSmarter]

wow. are you saying sometimes the field has last name first, and on others its first name first? If so, that is a bit of a nightmare and I don't have any good advice. Dealing with occasional two-part last names and occasional middle names or middle initials is tricky, but manageable. The program just won't know the order for text fields if the source switches patterns: Sara Johnson vs Johnson Sara.