Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to portray the valuation of financial investments as mental time travel. Design/methodology/approach: In a series of thought investments, $1 invested in an investment fund is mentally projected forward in time and then discounted back to the present –...

We portray the valuation of retirement savings in terms of a mental time travel journey in which a proposed contribution to a pension plan is projected forward to the plan member's retirement date and this projected value is then discounted back to today, thereby giving a present or personal...