If the market interest rates are currently 12%, how much does the lottery have to invest today?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Lottery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “If the market interest rates are currently 12%, how much does the lottery have to invest today?”

  1. Dave W Says:

    If the payments are made at the end of each year, then that’s a basic net present value of an annuity calculation:

    PVoa = PMT [(1 - (1 / (1 + i)^n)) / i]

    = 12000 * [(1 - (1 / (1 + .12)^10)) / .12]
    = 12000 * [(1 - (1 / 3.10584820834421)) / .12]
    = 12000 * [(1 - 0.321973236590696) / .12)]
    = 12000 * 5.65022302841087
    = 67802.68

    or the easier way is to use the new present value of an annuity function in a spreadsheet with 12000 as the payment, .12 as the interest rate, and 10 as the term.

    If they’re paying the first $12000 up front, then 9 more payments over the next 9 years, do the same calculation as above using 9 as the “n”, which gives $63939.00, plus the initial $12,000 for a total of $75939.00

  2. BigBen Says:

    You just have to discount future value to net present value (NPV) using that interest rate. Assuming Joe already get paid today, the lottery have to invest another $63939 now to ensure Joe get paid $12000 every year (12% interest) for another nine years.

    NPV=P/(1+i)^n

    e.g.
    - Yr 0 $12000 = $12000 NPV @ 12% interest
    - Yr 1 $12000 = $10714 NPV @ 12% interest
    - Yr 2 $12000 = $9566 NPV @ 12% interest
    .
    - Yr 9 $12000 = $4327 NPV @ 12% interest

    so, the lottery need a total of $63939 investment to match $12000 yearly payment. I used this to calculate my stock intrinsic value anyway.

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