How to calculate the future value of an investment
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3What a regular contribution grows to — how much a fixed monthly or yearly deposit is worth after N periods at a given rate.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | =FV(rate, nper, pmt, [pv]) | rate & nper must match the period: monthly uses rate/12 and years*12. Enter deposits (pmt) as NEGATIVE (cash out); FV returns a positive balance. |
| Google Sheets | =FV(rate, nper, pmt, [pv]) | Identical. Add a starting balance as the 4th argument [pv], also negative. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =FV(rate, nper, pmt, [pv]) | Identical. |
How it works
FV(rate, nper, pmt) compounds a stream of equal payments to the end of the term. Here $100 invested each year (pmt = -100, negative because it leaves your pocket) for 3 years at 10% grows to $331 — your $300 of deposits plus $31 of compounding. The sign convention trips people up: money you pay in is negative and the value you get back is positive, so a positive pmt would return a negative FV. Match the rate to the period — for monthly contributions use rate/12 and nper = years×12 — and add an existing lump sum as the optional [pv] argument (also negative). Set the final [type] argument to 1 if deposits happen at the start of each period rather than the end. For a single lump sum with no recurring payments, FV(rate, nper, 0, -pv) is just pv×(1+rate)^nper (see calculate-compound-interest).
Verified, not just documented
We ran =FV(B1,B2,B3) in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned 331 — exactly the expected result. Every formula here is confirmed by actually executing it.
Functions used
FV — see full Excel, Google Sheets & LibreOffice compatibility for each.