Net Present Value

I wish I had an easy button. I think it's a brilliant idea, not to mention a great ad. Right now I'm making the commute from Provo to Salt Lake City to go to school. Most of the time it would be a lot easier to hit a button and be home, rather than have to make the two hour journey.

Business has a version of the easy button. It's called net present value. When you're looking at a decision in finance, you just see if the net present value is positive. If it is, you should invest your money in it. If it's not, don't bother.

So what would I do with a net present value button? I could save a lot of time when I listen to music, especially classical music. I'd just hit play, then reach over and tap the NPV button. The song would either be worth my time or it wouldn't. Maybe I want to tell someone at work that they're really getting on my nerves. Just slap the NPV and see if they would even pay attention to what I said.

I think the most often these days about how to spend my time. I've got the ever present commute, school, homework, group projects, cleaning the house, paying the bills, and more importantly spending time with my wife Jenny and son Tanner.

That's really how the NPV button would be best put to use: Having a way to know that whatever I was going to do would be worth doing, since it was taking me away from my family.

And that's really what the easy button would be about, too. Just hit that sucker and our Saturday is free to do whatever we want. Thanks, Staples! That was easy.