Talk:Present value

2007 & 2009 comments
"Present worth" incorrectly redirects to present value, and, it would seem, the rest of the internet - not properly contrasting present worth and present value. A separate article on present worth should be made to avoid confusion.

Excerpt from: Fabrycky, W., Thuesen, G., & Verma, D. (1998). Economic Decision Analysis (3rd Edition ed., Vol. I). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, United States of America: Prentice Hall.

" Present Worth. The present worth is a net equivalent amount at the present that represents the difference between the equivalent disbursements and the equivalent receipts of an investments cash flow for a selected interest rate. Determining the present worth equivalent and the summation of the individual present worths to obtain the net present worth. [...] The present worth has several features that make it suitable as a basis for comparison. First, it considers the time value of money according to the value of i [interest] selected for the calculation. Second, a single and unique value of the present worth is associated with each interest rate used, no matter what the investment's cash flow pattern may be. "

Is this listed in some other article other some other title? --207.5.115.85 (talk) 23:32, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

This is poorly written. By no means is this an analytical definition of present value. There is also no mention of exponential e, or the correlation between PV and FV, or its applications in discounting.216.165.37.38 03:21, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

The article states at the end of the second paragraph: "The project with the least present value, i.e. that costs the least today, should be chosen." This is obviously not true. You want the want to get the most present value for what you pay in costs. 70.21.126.95 (talk) 19:45, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Clarity needed
As others have stated, this article is unclear and poorly written. They appear to have meant that the technical details were inaccurate; my meaning, however, is that for the layperson, this explanation sheds no light whatsoever on the term. I came here from the America's Got Talent page, which says that the grand prize for that competition is a $1 million annuity "or present cash value," and I didn't know what that meant. Having read this article, I still have little clue what that meant. Please improve both the technical and non-technical explanation. Lawikitejana (talk) 23:27, 26 June 2010 (UTC)

Hypothetical future value
"Hypothetical Future Value", as used by Jeffrey Skilling (former executive at Enron), was nothing like "Present Value" discussed in this article. Is the redirect from Hypothetical Future Value to Present Value appropriate?

Years' purchase
This section is in completely the wrong place, it seems to me. This might be an interesting historical account of the use of present value, but it doesn't define or introduce present value. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Steve De (talk • contribs) 16:37, 21 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Agree. I've moved it to the bottom of the article for now, where it is less intrusive. Burritok (talk) 03:36, 14 December 2022 (UTC)