What is the value of money?
The value of money is an economic concept,the basis of which is the assertion that capital must constantly bring income to its owner. Therefore, today the value of money is much greater than in the distant future will be estimated the same amount. "Father" of this concept can be considered Leonardo Fibonacci, who developed this concept back in 1202. However, a scientist who lived in the Middle Ages did not yet take into account the possibility of depreciation of bills under the influence of external factors, since in his time there were only coins made of precious metals and copper coins for small settlements.
And the value of money in time, which isfundamental concept of the theory of finance, depends on two main factors - risk and inflation. And the most susceptible to depreciation paper denominations, the rate of which is not tied to the "troy ounce," in contrast to credit banknotes, subject to exchange for gold. Therefore, the time value of money at present is an indicator used by economists of all modern states, which is especially evident in the development of credit programs.
At the same time, the value of moneyis conditioned by the premise that a person will prefer to receive a certain amount right now than the same number of denominations of this denomination in the distant future. When citizens or entrepreneurs make deposits to the bank, each of them wants to earn money on this and receive income in the form of interest. Therefore, when carrying out financial transactions, it is necessary to take into account the time factor, and when analyzing long-term transactions, it is simply incorrect to sum up the quantities related to different periods.
Calculations
The cost of money, like other economicindicators, calculated by special formulas. So, in financial management, when executing work with monetary values in different time frames, such amounts are first reduced to one period. To do this, all flow of payments should be recalculated at the discount rate, which is the percentage used to calculate the flow of future income at a certain amount of current value. In addition to inflation, this indicator includes the level of profitability that the depositor wants to receive for using the bank's savings.
Banking system
In the financial sphere, the cost of money is obligatoryis calculated at the time of drawing up a loan or deposit agreement, since the document specifies the size of the interest rate. For example, if a depositor decided to invest $ 5,000 into a deposit for five years at 12%, then by the end of the term he will receive $ 8,000. This means that the time value of money for this period has increased by $ 3,000. And it increases precisely because owning these funds now, a person gets the opportunity to profitfully invest their savings, make them work for themselves, as a result of increasing their own savings and making a profit.
Influence of inflation
However, after a certain number of yearsthe added value, consisting of the deposit amount and the profit, which in our example was $ 8000, will have a lower purchasing power than a similar amount of money five years ago. This is explained by inflation, which led to a depreciation of the contribution, the real income will be much less than $ 3000.
Therefore, the composition of the interest rate is notonly the risk premium, but the inflation rate, which is calculated in advance, taking into account the rate of currency depreciation. And in the period of hyperinflation backfilled unpredictable value can only be rated as for this amount you can buy the same quantity of goods as before the implementation of the deposit. For example, such situations often occur in developing countries, where the contribution is carried out not in dollars but in an unstable local currency.
