PurposeTo portray the valuation of financial investments as mental time travel. Design/methodology/approachIn a series of thought investments, $1 invested in an investment fund is mentally projected forward in time and then discounted back to the present – with no objective time passing. The...

We portray the valuation of financial investments as mental time travel. In a series of thought investments, a $1 invested in an investment fund is projected forward in time and then discounted back to the present, both exponentially and hyperbolically. These thought investments feature...

Valuing financial investments can be understood neatly within a framework of mental time travel: an initial sum is mentally projected forward in time; and the projected value mentally discounted back to the present. If there are differences between the initial and present values, then this...