Looks good to me. The answer is equal to 15000*1.15^5
, which is how I would calculate it by hand. In these types of functions (present value, future value, rate of return) a negative value generally denotes a payment into the investment, while a positive value indicates what you withdraw from the investment.
The third parameter is the payment made each period (a period being a year, they way you've set things up). So if you put money in, or took money out, each year, you would have a non-zero value there.
I noticed that you used semicolons (;
) between your parameters. In my Excel 2007, I have to use commas (,
). Maybe that's a configuration or internationalization difference.