By Brent Pritchard

The other day, something interesting happened at Mass. I was one of a few ushers who were standing in the back. Being an usher this particular Sunday was about as easy as it is on Christmas or Easter, but not because all the seats were taken. Quite the opposite. This was dead week for sports, a time when there are no practices or workouts, etc. A time when many families finally get to pack their bags and leave for a much anticipated summer vacation. The hands on my watch read a couple minutes before 11 a.m. A quick scan of the church revealed large groups of empty seats.

People continued to arrive, but that’s when I noticed something I didn’t expect. When I told a man, “You can sit wherever you’d like” I saw this blank look on his face as he stood gazing over the sea of empty seats. On a normal Sunday, when church is packed, I would have found this man and his child one of the few remaining seats that were together and helped them to their row. Instead, this man stood there looking at all the places he could sit and didn’t know where to call it home for the next hour. Then a woman appeared. Like clockwork, she did the same thing! It’s no exaggeration that it probably took them longer to think about where to sit than to actually walk to their seat and sit down once it had been found. I couldn’t believe it. It was crazy!

I don’t know the first thing about how the human mind words, but in that moment I couldn’t help but think that there must be certain situations where people like to be directed.

Then it occurred to me. This is exactly what many aspiring finance professionals encounter as they sit in their seats in the classroom. They are overwhelmed because they may not know the steps that need to be taken to answer a question. This is where the 3-Step Systematic Approach and the TVM Wallet come in:

Here’s an excerpt from my book Would Your Boomerang Return? What Birds, Hurdlers, and Boomerangs Can Teach Us About the Time Value of Money (2023):

I’m with the majority of students who associate with being visual learners. The code was cracked when I realized that the original TVM Rules, which are based on the mnemonic indifferent, also provide the blueprint for the 3-Step Systematic Approach that is applied using the visual aid that is the TVM Wallet and which allows you to succinctly step out the process of applying the Mathematics of Finance in such a way that promotes confidence through a repeatable system.

The Time Value of Money provides you with the opportunity to find your inner artist. Okay, not really, but there is drawing involved. I’ve yet to meet a person who can’t draw stick people, and the timeline is even more basic than that. It really does help to draw a timeline, which is a visual representation of when you expect certain amounts of money to be invested or received.

Who knew that there was drawing in finance?! The 3-Step Systematic Approach, which is executed using the TVM Wallet, is the solution for analysis paralysis as it relates to applying the Mathematics of Finance to analyze and evaluate real-world Time Value of Money situations.

What is the one thing about the Mathematics of Finance that gives you or others analysis paralysis?

Brent Pritchard is an author and college finance lecturer with over two decades of industry experience and cofounder of Boxholm Press, LLC, a family-owned-and-operated publishing company providing educational content, products, and services. He pioneers an innovative and approachable new way of learning and teaching the Time Value of Money as well as thought leadership in other business topics. His most recent book is Would Your Boomerang Return? You can contact him on his website here.