How likely will you make the fantasy football playoffs? It’s week 11 of the Fantasy Football season, which means there’s only three more weeks until the Fantasy Football playoffs. All your hard work up to this point – drafting your team, closely following daily fantasy football podcasts and injury reports, and agonizing over who to play in your Flex spot – rests upon what happens in these next few weeks. Continue reading “Monte Carlo Simulation – Fantasy Football playoff predictor”
Build a sports league power ratings spreadsheet
Need a way to track results and calculate power ratings for your tennis, ping pong, chess, or video and board game leagues?
As you might guess from much of the content posted over the past couple years, we at Spreadsheetsolving are huge fans of sports and games. There’s something about competition that sharpens the senses and motivates you to do your best. There’s also something satisfying about there being a clear winner and a loser when the game is over.
So what can you do when you’ve organized a group to play tennis, ping pong, magic, etc. and you want a system to track results and assign people ratings based on their match histories?
Continue reading “Build a sports league power ratings spreadsheet”
What makes a good business? Part 3 of the IRR trilogy
This post was inspired by reading a Quora response where the child of a top 1% family says that one of the advantages of his upbringing is that his parents taught him about how business works. “Business” is a somewhat broad term that some schools say takes two years and $120k in tuition to “master”. However, as we typically do in this blog, we can educate ourselves on some of the central concepts of business on our own through spreadsheets!
Our hope is that anyone with internet access can find this page and play around with spreadsheets to begin to think about what makes a good business. Now if only this site could also provide the exotic travel experiences, connections, and the ability to take risks with a safety net that growing up in the 1% also provides… Continue reading “What makes a good business? Part 3 of the IRR trilogy”
Make a Buy vs Rent calculator spreadsheet
Is it better to buy or rent a house? Advice on this problem comes in all shapes and sizes, from the dogmatic idea that homeownership is the American dream, to some more nuanced methods like calculating the price to rent ratio. What would you do if you found a great house and are deciding whether to buy it or keep on renting? *Note: We’ve updated this analysis and spreadsheet, given changes in the economics of housing due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from late 2017. For the latest, please see A 2019 update of our House Rent vs Buy IRR Spreadsheet
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Is medical school “worth it”? An introduction to Internal Rate of Return (“IRR”)
Finance hiring is down, law school grads are having a tough time finding real law jobs, so what is an ambitious but risk averse college student to do with his or her life these days? Okay, right now the answer is computer science. Yes seriously, do computer science. But let’s pretend it is the year 2001 and the only other option respectable option is medical school. But doesn’t med school take a lot of time (4 years school plus 3-7 years residency/fellowship) and cost a lot of money? How can we figure out if going to med school and not earning doctor money until 7 years from now is worth it financially relative to just entering the workforce and working for those 7 years? Continue reading “Is medical school “worth it”? An introduction to Internal Rate of Return (“IRR”)”
How to analyze a nonprofit Form 990 with a spreadsheet
“The more you give, the more you get, that’s being alive” – The Money Song, Avenue Q
Charitable giving serves a valuable purpose in our society. It allows organizations in health, education, social services and others to provide benefits to people who otherwise couldn’t afford them. It allows people who have built up wealth to give back and make a difference. The federal government even subsidizes charitable giving by allowing donations to be deducted from income reported for taxes (effectively kicking in up to 39.6% of each donation). It’s a great system that is meant to fund those people and organizations in need. At least that is how it should be. Continue reading “How to analyze a nonprofit Form 990 with a spreadsheet”
Compare college endowment growth with (lack of) enrollment growth
For high school seniors, January 1st marks the college application deadline, the culmination of months of high stakes essay writing, testing, and filling out applications. This is then followed by four months of anxious waiting for the decisions to come back. Having applied to college over 15 years ago, I’m always shocked at how much harder getting into college appears to have gotten – acceptance rates for top schools have fallen to just 5-8%. With lower acceptance rates comes increased stress and pressure to perform. Continue reading “Compare college endowment growth with (lack of) enrollment growth”
Will you pay more or less taxes when you get married?
Summer and Fall are generally regarded as “Wedding season,” a time when love and celebration are in the air. December, on the other hand, could be regarded as “Should we get legally married for tax reasons before the end of the year” season, a slightly less romantic affair. Continue reading “Will you pay more or less taxes when you get married?”
Build a Spreadsheet to help you choose a healthcare plan
Will you save more with standard PPO or a high-deductible PPO Saver plan with a Health Savings Account?
It is currently Open Enrollment season at many workplaces, which is when employees choose their medical insurance and other benefits plans for the upcoming year. It’s also the time of year when people grumble “why is the US healthcare system so complicated” and just elect whatever plan they had in the prior year. Building a spreadsheet can help someone compare the costs and benefits of each of the plans under a variety of different assumptions about tax rate and healthcare expenditure. Continue reading “Build a Spreadsheet to help you choose a healthcare plan”
Pick up basketball: Should you shoot more 2 pointers or 3 pointers when you play winners’ take?
The NBA basketball season just started last week, and the three point shot is having its moment. Despite some high profile doubters, the Warriors are the reigning NBA champions due to very impressive three point shooting. Also, the total number of three pointers taken in the NBA has steadily risen over the past 35 years.
Is it better to take a three pointer or a two pointer? The theory behind this is pretty simple, and can be done without a spreadsheet. Because a three pointer is worth 50% more than a two pointer, if a team can hit three pointers with at least 2/3 the percentage that they hit two pointers, then they would be better off taking more three pointers. Continue reading “Pick up basketball: Should you shoot more 2 pointers or 3 pointers when you play winners’ take?”
A Simple Fantasy Football Auction Draft Spreadsheet
Last year, we demonstrated how someone can make a fantasy football draft spreadsheet to help make the best decision in each round of a traditional snake draft. While most leagues use snake draft, eventually you might be faced with a league where someone suggests an auction draft. They might cite something like this article to make their case. At first you might feel intimidated, but once you remember that every auction round is just a data driven decision, and that spreadsheets are great at solving data driven decisions, you can build something to give yourself the best chance to succeed! Continue reading “A Simple Fantasy Football Auction Draft Spreadsheet”
Do you want the stock market to go up or down?
At first glance, it sounds like an obvious question – surely it is better when stocks go up, right? From watching the ads on CNBC, it would seem that higher stock prices directly translate into more steak dinners and golf vacations while lower stock prices mean bringing your own peanut butter sandwiches to work (jelly is for bull markets). Continue reading “Do you want the stock market to go up or down?”