You have $30,000 to invest and you need $45,000 for a down payment and closing costs on a house. If you want to buy the house in 2 years, what rate of interest do you need to earn? What are you looking for? PV = FV = NPER = Use the RATE formula: RATE(nper,pmt,pv,fv) Compute RATE = (Note that the rate will display as a whole percent, you need to format the cell to see the decimal places.) Note that the FV is entered with a negative sign in the formula to follow the sign convention. You have $15,000 to invest right now and you figure you will need $25,000 to buy a new car. If you can earn 9% per year, how long before you can buy the car? What are you looking for? PV = FV = RATE = Use the NPER formula: NPER(rate,pmt,pv,fv) Compute NPER =