TVM 2$days
TVM Tuesdays is a weekly blog that offers a fun, new take on this age-old topic and financial education insights from Brent Pritchard.
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Your Circle of Business Major Friends Will Thank You.
Not long ago, I shared some exciting news about the launch of our YouTube channel, TVM Rules. If you’re a business student preparing for the start of the semester or know someone who is, adding Lesson 16 of our “FREE Time Value of Money Minicourse” to a to-do list might save some headaches come midterm.
Lesson 16 (of what will be 28 videos) in this Introductory Unit dives deeper into The Perfect Timeline, which I’ve written about on this blog. The Perfect Timeline includes 8 of the 9 building block Time Value of Money equations that deal with present or future value, jam-packed into a timeline that's as short as it can be. Visualization is important. It's also important to be able to support a number with math, which is where the building block Time Value of Money equations come in. The Perfect Timeline provides a twofer by helping learners figure out the timing of the present or future value of an annuity and the present value of a perpetuity.
Copyright 2024 Boxholm Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
Who in your circle of business major friends could benefit from The Perfect Timeline?
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.
The Art of Finance.
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:
Illustration by Scott Alberts. Copyright 2022 Brent Pritchard. All rights reserved.
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.
TVM Rules.
They matter. And yes, it does!
Word of mouth is still and will always be the best form of marketing. (Even a finance instructor knows that!) Will you please help us spread the word about our YouTube channel, TVM Rules, and the book, also known as the “Boomerang book,” that made it possible?
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):
You’ve likely purchased—and had delivered to your house—one or more products that came with parts to assemble, a user manual, and a simple tool. Have you ever had the unfortunate circumstance of opening a box only to find that one or more pieces are missing? It happens from time to time and crushes your ambition. But presumably every one of the user manuals you’ve ever handled has provided all the important or essential information needed. Many user manuals include multiple languages. In this case, the first thing you need to do is locate your language. What good are instructions if the words don’t make sense? While some are far easier to read than others, there aren’t many user manuals out there that require you to go elsewhere because they are incomplete. A company selling a product that repeatedly didn’t include in the box all the pieces that would allow the owner to use the item, including a complete manual and the simple tool, would no doubt get bad reviews and wouldn’t likely be in business for long.
I wouldn’t expect you to think otherwise, yet that’s exactly what I’d found in the market with respect to the content related to the Time Value of Money! The product in the box, more precisely the Time Value of Money content within these other books, was missing pieces of information.
Now I’m a pretty practical guy with a good amount of common sense or street smarts. Having worked in industry, I know that quality work product requires adherence to a certain standard of excellence. This is why restaurants have to dish out good food to stay open for business. Word of mouth is still and will always be the best form of marketing or anti-marketing. So it’s beyond me how these other providers of content on the topic of the Time Value of Money can continue to dish out a product that leaves people with a bad taste in their mouths.
What would it take for you to like our videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel, or tell a friend (maybe even a child-friend) about TVM Rules? What if I told you that your support will ultimately help aspiring and current finance professionals and finance educators?
(I know it takes time, but it’s about time aspiring and current finance professionals had an effective tool for applying the Mathematics of Finance to analyze and evaluate real-world Time Value of Money situations—in the classroom, in practice, or while sitting for an industry designation examination. They’ll thank you, and we thank you for your consideration and support!)
https://www.youtube.com/@TimeValueofMoneyRules
Let the spreading or sharing begin!
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.
Get the Book Today!
Would Your Boomerang Return? provides a fun, new take on how the Mathematics of Finance is learned and taught:
All-in-one resource: all the important information on this all-important topic in one place with chapters in the What and How sections that double as individual lessons
Ease of reference: includes the first-of-its-kind user manual for the Mathematics of Finance with chapters named after sections typically found in an actual user manual for quick look up
Simple and definitive tool: 3-Step Systematic Approach for analyzing and evaluating real-world Time Value of Money situations
Decision-making framework: 23 real-world Time Value of Money questions, space to work out answers, and a "baseball count" system to evaluate understanding of the different types of questions
An easy read: complete with sprinklings of real-life stories and maybe even an ounce of inspiration here and there
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