Payback
Investments and payback time
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Payback time is widely used to determine the attractiveness of an investment. Payback time is the number of periods required for cumulative benefits to equal cumulative costs.
In general - the smaller the payback period, the better the investment.
Undiscounted Payback
Undiscounted payback can be expressed as
F0 = F1 + F2 + ... + Fnp (1)
or
F0 - (F1 + F2 + ... + Fnp) = 0
where
F0 = initial investment
F1 .. = cash flows in future periods
np = period where initial investment equals accumulated future cash flows
Discounted Payback
Discounted payback can be expressed as
F0 = F1 / (1 + i) + F2 / (1 + i)2 + ... + Fnp / (1 + i)np (2)
or
F0 - [F1 / (1 + i) + F2 / (1 + i)2 + ... + Fnp / (1 + i)np] = 0
where
i = interest rate
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Related Topics
- Economics - Engineering economic concepts - cash flow diagrams, discount rate, internal rate of return - IRR, income taxes, inflation
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