Net present value

Net present value (NPV), also known as net present worth (NPW) is a method for assessing whether future amounts of money are worth more or less than the cost of an investment made today. It is widely used in finance, economics, and project evaluation to judge whether a planned activity is expected to create value. NPV works by converting future cash flows into their “present value,” recognising that money available now is more valuable than the same amount received later. This adjustment reflects factors such as interest rates, inflation, and the opportunity to use money for other purposes. An investment typically has a positive NPV when the present value of its expected future benefits exceeds its initial cost, indicating that it is likely to be financially worthwhile. A negative NPV suggests the opposite. Because it summarises expected gains and losses in a single figure, NPV is a central tool for comparing alternative projects and making informed financial and economic decisions. Net Present Value measures the value of an asset that has cashflow by adding up the present value of all future cash flows that asset will generate. The present value of a cash flow depends on the interval of time between now and the cash flow because of the time value of money (which includes the annual effective discount rate). It provides a method for evaluating and comparing capital projects or financial products with cash flows spread over time, as in loans, investments, payouts from insurance contracts plus many other applications. Time value of money dictates that time affects the value of cash flows. For example, a lender may offer 99 cents for the promise of receiving $1.00 a month from now, but the promise to receive that same dollar 20 years in the future would be worth much less...