If you want to use Excel's Goal Seek on multiple cells simultaneously, you'll need a much more powerful tool. Fortunately, one such tool comes with Excel. Let's have a look at the Solver add-in.

A Goal Seek dialog box will open. In the Set Cell box, enter the reference for the cell that contains the formula you want to resolve. We will enter B4 the (Monthly Payment).

In Excel 2003, choose Goal Seek from the Tools menu. Enter -1200 in the To value control and C4 in the By changing cell control. Click OK to see the results ( Figure E ).

See the screenshot below for the Excel spreadsheet after using Goal Seek for this example. Advertisement. Now, let’s look at another example. We want to know how much we need to save annually to reach ...

Goal Seek is useful in a number of other ways, of course, but the tutorial at Chadoo's Pointy Haired Dilbert blog uses retirement savings as a relatable framework for understanding how Goal Seek ...

This article, How to use Excel's Goal Seek analysis tool, originally appeared on TechRepublic.com. If you ask me, Excel's what-if analysis tools are under-used. I often respond to readers with ...