And you thought Hewlett Packard only made Personal Computers!

Financial calculators are a must for students of finance. It's possible to work out most finance problems by hand, or to use a time value of money table. But in a crunch, when you're taking a finance test and there is little time to spare, a financial calculator is an important resource. One financial calculator that you might consider buying is the Hewlett- Packard 10B, a device that will help you survive your business courses.

Features of the HP 10B:

This calculator has all of the function keys that are necessary to compute time value of money problems. The keypad includes keys for present value, future value, payment amounts, interest rate, number of periods, net present value, internal rate of return, etc. In addition to these standard functions, you can also use this calculator to find standard deviation, square roots, effective interest, amortization, and other functions.

One thing to note about the HP 10B is that it doesn't contain any scientific functions at all. With other financial calculators, you can usually count on at least a few scientific and/or trigonometric functions. But with the HP 10B, all you get are the financial function keys, mathematical operation keys (add, subtract, multiply, and divide), and a handful of other basics (y^x, x squared, etc.). This is strictly a business calculator.

Pricing:

This calculator will cost you anywhere from $30 to $35, depending on where you make your purchase. If you go shopping for this calculator, you might have a hard time finding it. That's because HP has already introduced a newer, slightly more updated version, the Hewlett- Packard 10B II. It offers a few minor changes, but the basic calculator functions are the same. And the good news is that the price of the HP 10B II is almost exactly the same as the HP 10B.

The HP 10B is powered by two small lithium batteries (each one is about the size of a dime). There is no solar panel on this calculator, to help maintain the battery life. If you are a frequent user of your calculator, then you might have to cough up some additional funds to replace the batteries each year. From my experience (and my moderate level of usage), I have only needed to replace the batteries once, and that was after more than 2 years of use.

Final Thoughts:

Hewlett Packard's 10B financial calculator is the one that I use most frequently, when I need a quick answer to a time value of money problem. I teach junior- level finance at a local university and we make frequent use of our financial calculators. This model seems to be the calculator that most students prefer.

The best feature of the HP 10B is ease of use. There is no enter key or compute key, like you find on some other financial calculators. With this calculator, all you do is enter the number, followed by the appropriate key. Then, you press the function key that you wish to solve. For example, let's say that I need to find the future value of an annuity investment that involves depositing $1,000 per year for 20 years, with an interest rate of 8 percent, compounded annually. The key strokes that would need to be entered would be as follows:

1. 1000, then press PMT
2. 8, then press I/Y (interest rate)
3. 0, then press PV
4. 20, then press N

Now, all I have to do is press the FV, and the future value of 45,761.96 displays. It's that simple!

There is only one flaw that coms to mind, with this calculator, and it's with the display panel. When you are pressing keys and entering amounts, the panel only shows the amount that you enter. It doesn't identify the function, like other financial calculators. Using my example above, on some calculators, when you get to the end and want to find the future value, the panel will display "FV = 46,761.96". But with the HP 10B, it only shows "46,761.96". It doesn't show any words or symbols to confirm what you are solving.

The other thing that might bother some people is the fact that there are no trigonometric or other functions available. This doesn't bother me. After all, this is a financial calculator, so I don't expect it to have a wide array of mathematical functions.

Overall, this a a very good financial calculator. Its best feature is the ease of use and the user- friendly input. You are far less likely to make a mistake with this type of calculator, because of its simplistic functionality.

Hewlett- Packard could improve this calculator by adding some descriptions to the display panel, so that you know precisely what the number on the panel stands for. Other than that, this is a good calculator for business students to own. It will help you solve all of your time value of money problems and ace that next finance test.


Be Sure to Click the Links Below to Read Reviews on Other Calculators:

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Texas Instruments BA-II Plus
Hewlett- Packard 12c
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Texas Instruments TI- 83 Plus