The Prior Values Node

The next node we need to set up for this Driver Model is the Prior Value node. The Prior Value node works in conjunction with a Timeseries node. It works by creating a loop which stores a specified node value from a previous timestep to be used in the next one.

Since we want to find out how much of the loan will be left at the end of 12 months we can use the Prior Value node to store the value left on the mortgage at the end of every month. Prior Value nodes have two input slots, The first takes an initial value, and the second takes all values produced by the input node after the initial value. For example we know the initial loan amount is 160000, at the end of the first timestep that value will be different. This final value will be fed into the Prior Value node so that we can use that new value in the next timestep.

To set up the Prior Value node:

  1. Drag a Prior Value node onto the workspace to the right of the Loan Amount node.
  2. Rename this node Amount Left on Loan at that Start of the Month.
  3. Attach the Loan Amount node to the Prior Value node via the top port. Connecting to Prior Connecting to Prior
    Warning

    The connecting lines will be dotted until the scenario has run or until the node has been edited, such as setting the node to Publish to Results.

This is all we can currently do to set up the Prior Value node until we have our second input. In the next page we will set up the Calculation nodes we will need to create the true input for the Prior Value node. Once this input is created we can attach the nodes together and view the final result.