Use the present value formula to determine the amount to be invested now, or the present value needed. The desired accumulated amount is $\$ 50,000$ after 13 years invested in an account with $4.8 \%$ interest compounded monthly. The amount to be invested now, or the present value needed, is $\$$ (Round to the nearest cent as needed.)

Step 1 ：Given that the desired accumulated amount is $50,000 after 13 years invested in an account with 4.8% interest compounded monthly, we need to determine the amount to be invested now, or the present value needed.

Step 2 ：First, we need to convert the annual interest rate from percentage to decimal. So, 4.8% becomes \(0.048\).

Step 3 ：We know that the interest is compounded monthly, so the number of times that interest is compounded per year (n) is 12.

Step 4 ：The time the money is invested for in years (t) is 13.

Step 5 ：We can use the present value formula, which is given by: \(PV = \frac{FV}{(1 + \frac{r}{n})^{nt}}\), where PV is the present value, FV is the future value, r is the annual interest rate (in decimal), n is the number of times that interest is compounded per year, and t is the time the money is invested for in years.

Step 6 ：Substituting the given values into the formula, we get: \(PV = \frac{50000}{(1 + \frac{0.048}{12})^{12*13}}\)

Step 7 ：Solving the above expression, we find that the present value (PV) is approximately 26823.213484007134.

Step 8 ：Rounding to the nearest cent, the amount to be invested now, or the present value needed, is \(\boxed{\$26,823.21}\).