Problem with Goal Seek

[C.M. Marsh]

I have tried the example problem provided by Microsoft
(Excel's help) and get nothing but errors. I have tried
for about 2 hours, everything I know (been using Excel for
many years). I am using Office XP Pro and Windows XP
Pro. This is a very simple example and I can't get see
what I'm doing wrong (if anything)

loan amt 100000
term, months 180
interest rate --should solve to 7.02% (I entered seed
values such as .065 and formatted as %; also left blank,
etc.)

payment ----cell pmt(b3/12,b2,b1)...goal is to pay no
more than $900. Interest should come up as 7.02%

Excel keeps saying it might not have found a solution -
then comes up with ridiculous interest rates. Thanks.

 

[Niek Otten]

The rate you get is the rate per period, in your case per month. Seeding
better be done with monthly rates also.

 

[Dan E]

C.M.

If you have a positive value in the loan amount then the
payment must be a negative value. Microsoft's example
is correct, however a $900 payment for you is -900 from
your cash flows.

IE
You get $100,000 (your +$100,000)
You pay $900 (your -$900)

goal seek to get -$900

Dan E