What Is a Payback Period? The payback period is the amount of time (usually measured in years) it takes to recover an initial investment outlay—as measured in after-tax cash flows. For example, if a ...

Julia Kagan is a financial/consumer journalist and former senior editor, personal finance, of Investopedia. David Kindness is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and an expert in the fields of ...

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