College

You want to know how much you would need to invest today in order to have [tex]\$20,000[/tex] in 5 years. You assume your investment will earn an average annual return of [tex]6\%[/tex]. Which equation could be used to calculate how much you should invest today?

A. [tex]20000 = x(0.06)^5[/tex]
B. [tex]20000 = x(1.06)^5[/tex]
C. [tex]y = 20000(1.06)^5[/tex]
D. [tex]y = 20000(0.06)^5[/tex]

Answer :

To determine how much you need to invest today to have [tex]$20,000 in 5 years with an average annual return of 6%, we use the formula for finding the present value of a future amount. The formula can be stated as:

\[ \text{Future Value} = \text{Present Value} \times (1 + r)^n \]

Here:
- Future Value (FV): The amount of money you want in the future, which is $[/tex]20,000.
- Present Value (PV): The amount you need to invest today, which we are trying to find.
- [tex]\( r \)[/tex]: The annual interest rate as a decimal, which is 0.06 (6%).
- [tex]\( n \)[/tex]: The number of years the money will be invested, which is 5 years.

We rearrange the formula to solve for Present Value (PV):

[tex]\[ \text{Present Value} = \frac{\text{Future Value}}{(1 + r)^n} \][/tex]

Substituting the given values into the formula:

[tex]\[ \text{Present Value} = \frac{20000}{(1 + 0.06)^5} \][/tex]

From the given options, we need to find the equation that matches this rearranged formula:

- Option A: [tex]\(20000 = x(0.06)^5\)[/tex]
- Option B: [tex]\(20000 = \Phi(1.06)^5\)[/tex]
- Option C: [tex]\(y = 20000(1.06)^5\)[/tex]
- Option D: [tex]\(y = 20000(0.06)^6\)[/tex]

The correct option that matches our present value formula is:

Option B: [tex]\(20000 = \Phi(1.06)^5\)[/tex]

This equation correctly represents the relationship where the future value is divided by the growth factor [tex]\((1 + r)^n\)[/tex] to find the present value, [tex]\(\Phi\)[/tex].