Excel : convert text to numbers

In downloading bank credit card statements I found I could not SUM the numbers
They actually had a blank or space at end of number "41.70 "
The Paste Special,  Format cells  ways of converting text to numbers would not work
This did it
the Left got rid of the blank
But the Value was needed to force balance to an numeric

=VALUE(LEFT(E2,LEN(E2)-1))