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Getting Started
The TI-84 Plus is a fairly easy, but more difficult than most, to use financial calculator which will serve you well in all finance courses. This tutorial will demonstrate how to use the financial functions to handle time value of money problems and make financial math easy. I will keep the examples rather elementary, but understanding the basics is all that is necessary to learn the calculator. -
Setting Up Finance Calc
There is one adjustment which needs to be made before using this calculator. By default the TI-84 displays only two decimal places. This is not enough. Personally, I like to see five decimal places, but you may prefer some other number. To change the display, press the MODE key, then the down arrow key once (to the Float line). Next, use the right arrow key to highlight the 5 and press Enter. Finally, press 2nd MODE to exit the menu. That's it, the calculator is ready to go. -
Example 1 - Future Value of Money (The problem)
We'll begin with a very simple problem that will provide you with most of the skills to perform financial math on the TI-84: Suppose that you have $100 to invest for a period of 5 years at an interest rate of 10% per year. How much will you have accumulated at the end of this time period? -
Future Value of Money (Made Simple)
In this problem, the $100 is the present value (PV), N is 5, and i is 10%. Before entering the data you need to put the calculator into the TVM Solver mode. Press the Apps button, choose the Finance menu (or press the 1 key), and then choose TVM Solver (or press the 1 key).
Field Entry
N 5
I% 10
PV -100
PMT 0
FV 0
P/Y 1
C/Y 1 Now to find the future value simply scroll to the FV line and press Alpha Enter. The answer you get should be 161.05. -
Example 2 - Present Value of Money (The Problem)
Suppose that you are planning to send your daughter to college in 18 years. Furthermore, assume that you have determined that you will need $100,000 at that time in order to pay for tuition, room and board, party supplies, etc. If you believe that you can earn an average annual rate of return of 8% per year, how much money would you need to invest today as a lump sum to achieve your goal? -
Present Value of Money (Made Simple)
We already know the future value ($100,000), the number of periods (18 years), and the per period interest rate (8% per year). We want to find the present value. Go to the TVM Solver and enter the data as follows: 18 into N, 8 into I%, and 100,000 into FV. Note that we enter the $100,000 as a positive number because you will be withdrawing that amount in 18 years. Now move to PV and press ALPHA ENTER and you will see that you need to invest $25,024.90 today in order to meet your goal. -
Example 3 - Solving For a Number of Periods (The Problem)
Suppose that you have $1,250 today and you would like to know how long it will take you double your money to $2,500. Assume that you can earn 9% per year on your investment. How long will it take to get to this amount? -
Number of Periods (Made Simple)
This is the classic type of problem that we can quickly approximate using the Rule of 72. However, we can easily find the exact answer using the TI 84 Plus calculator. Enter 9 into I%, -1250 into PV, and 2500 into FV. Now scroll up to N and press ALPHA ENTER and you will see that it will take 8.04 years for your money to double.