Compound Interest Formula Derivations

Showing how the formulas are worked out, with Examples!

With Compound Interest we work out the interest for the first period, add it to the total, and then calculate the interest for the next period, and so on ..., like this:

Make A Formula

Let's look at the first year to begin with:

$1,000.00 + ($1,000.00 × 10%) = $1,100.00

We can rearrange it like this:

So, adding 10% interest is the same as multiplying by 1.10

(Note: the Interest Rate was turned into a decimal by dividing by 100: 10% = 10/100 = 0.10, read Percentages to learn more.)

And that formula works for any year:

• We could do the next year like this: $1,100 × 1.10 = $1,210
• And then continue to the following year: $1,210 × 1.10 = $1,331
• etc...

So it works like this:

In fact we could go straight from the start to Year 5 if we multiply 5 times:

$1,000 × 1.10 × 1.10 × 1.10 × 1.10 × 1.10 = $1,610.51

But it is easier to write down a series of multiplies using Exponents (or Powers) like this:

The Formula

We have been using a real example, but let us make it more general by using letters instead of numbers, like this:

(Compare this to the calculation above it: PV = $1,000, r = 0.10, n = 5, and FV = $1,610.51)

• When the interest rate is annual, then n is the number of years
• When the interest rate is monthly, then n is the number of months
• and so on

Examples

How about some examples ...
... what if the loan went for 15 Years? ... just change the "n" value:

... and what if the loan was for 5 years, but the interest rate was only 6%? Here:

(Note that it is 1.06, not 1.6)

The Four Formulas

So, the basic formula for Compound Interest is:

FV = PV (1+r)ⁿ

• FV = Future Value,
• PV = Present Value,
• r = Interest Rate (as a decimal value), and
• n = Number of Periods

With that we can work out the Future Value FV when we know the Present Value PV, the Interest Rate r and Number of Periods n

And we can rearrange that formula to find FV, the Interest Rate or the Number of Periods when we know the other three.

Here are all four furmulas:

How did we get those other three formulas? Read On!

Working Out the Present Value

In other words, we know a Future Value, and want to know a Present Value.

We can just rearrange the formula to suit ... dividing both sides by (1+r)ⁿ to give us:

So now we can calculate the answer:

It works like this:

Working Out The Interest Rate

We need a rearrangement of the first formula to work it out:

(Note: to understand the step "take nth root" please read Fractional Exponents)

The result is:

r = ( FV / PV )^1/n − 1

Now we have the formula, it is just a matter of "plugging in" the values to get the result:

Working Out How Many Periods

When we want to know how many periods it takes to turn $1,000 into $2,000 at 10% interest, we can rearrange the basic formula.

But we need to use the natural logarithm function ln() to do it.

(Note: to understand the step "use logarithms" please read Working with Exponents and Logarithms).

Now let's "plug in" the values:

Conclusion

Knowing how the formulas are derived and used makes it easier for you to remember them, and to use them in different situations.