Investment Payback Calculator
Evaluate recovery of an upfront investment using five separate annual cash inflows, with and without discounting.
Five-year net present valueExample$1,372.36
- Simple payback (interpolated)
- 3.33 years
- Discounted payback (interpolated)
- 4.26 years
How to calculate investment payback
Unrecovered investment = initial cost − cumulative inflows; discounted inflow in year t = inflow ÷ (1 + discount rate)^t
Five-year horizon with nonnegative annual net inflows. Discounting uses year-end flows. Payback interpolates within the recovery year as a planning approximation. Later cash flows and salvage are excluded unless entered in year five.
Worked example
An illustrative scenario. “Reset to example” restores it in the calculator.
- Initial investment at time zero
- $10,000
- Year 1 net cash inflow
- $3,000
- Year 2 net cash inflow
- $3,000
- Year 3 net cash inflow
- $3,000
- Year 4 net cash inflow
- $3,000
- Year 5 net cash inflow
- $3,000
- Annual discount rate
- 10%
Five-year net present value: $1,372.36
Investment Payback FAQ
What if the investment is not recovered within five years?
The result shows the remaining unrecovered amount and omits a payback time. This is a horizon limit, not a claim that recovery will never happen. Unlike CAC payback, this model uses project cash flows.