FoulWeather's Simple (and cheap) DCF Spreadsheet Tutorial

Conclusion

So there you have it. If you skipped all the way to the back of the tutorial looking for the answers, see the previous page. Hopefully you found the tutorial to be interesting and perhaps even educational. If not, well, tough. I wrote it as much to teach myself how I put a spreadsheet together than as an educational tool.

What Next?

There are tons of things to do. You should now have the skills to start putting together your own valuation spreadsheet. Some things you can do include adding more detailed information, such as earnings and accounts receivable. Add different types of valuations. Add more detail, such as taking into account diluted shares. Track annual and quarterly data for a company. Add multiple growth scenarios for easy comparison. Explore the built-in spreadsheet functions (such as FV and NPV, which automate some of what we did explicitly). Automatically import data from financial web sites. Write a better tutorial than mine. Give up on this spreadsheet and valuation stuff and buy an index fund. Go take a nap. The choice is yours.

If you are intrigued by spreadsheets and what they can do, take a look at some of the following advanced spreadsheets that are much better than what I have done:

You may find that one of those spreadsheets works better for you than compiling your own, in which case this tutorial may have still been worth the price of admission if for no other reason than to get you more comfortable with what is going on under the covers. Good luck, and may all your future cash flows be free.

-FoulWeather

Comments, corrections, suggestions to: num6java@yahoo.com

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