Showing posts with label Calculators. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Calculators. Show all posts

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Penny Pincher Calculators

Calculate How Much Money You Can Save

Last year I got a used book on JavaScript at a half-price bookstore and figured out how to make calculators to let you figure out all sorts of things right on a web page.

Last night, I moved my JavaScript calculators from dppmoney.com to right here on Penny Pincher Journal..  I decided it would make more sense to have the calculators on Penny Pincher Journal instead of my other website.

Penny Pincher Calculators are Easy to Use- Just Type in Your Information and Click "Compute"
Penny Pincher Calculators are Easy to Use- Just Type in Your Information and Click "Compute".
This one calculates how long it takes to pay off a credit card and the total cost of payments.
Image Source: Dr. Penny Pincher

These JavaScript calculators are all really easy to use.  I tried to use color-coding and provide some example values right in the calculator so you can easily see how to use the calculators to better understand your financial options.

You can calculate some interesting things, such as how long it would take to save $1 million dollars.  You can also calculate how much you would save with credit card consolidation or how much you would save by refinancing your mortgage.

Penny Pincher Calculators

Here is a list of Penny Pincher calculators to help you save money:

Mortgage Refinance Calculator- calculate how much you would save by refinancing your mortgage.  How much lower would your house payments be after a refi?  Your mortgage is likely you biggest loan- you can save a lot of money if you can get a lower mortgage interest rate.

Debt Consolidation Calculator- calculate how much you would save on interest by combining several high interest debt accounts into a debt consolidation loan with a lower interest rate.  You would be surprised how much you can save on interest.

Credit Card Consolidation Calculator- calculate how much you could save by taking several high interest credit cards and consolidating these into a lower interest credit card consolidation loan.  Some credit card interest rates are 20% or even more.  Find out how much you can save with a balance transfer to a lower rate card.

Credit Card Payoff Calculator- figure out how long it will take to pay off your credit card.  Try out different monthly repayment amounts and see the effect on how long it takes to pay off a credit card and the total amount you will pay.

Monthly Car Payment Calculator- calculate your monthly car payment given the loan amount, interest rate, and length of loan.  How much car can you afford?  How much lower will your car payment be with a 5 year / 60 month loan or even a  6 year / 72 month loan?

Savings Calculator- let's say you deposit a certain amount of money every month and receive interest over time.  This calculator will let you figure out how much your savings will grow over time.

The Millionaire Calculator- this is my favorite.  Enter your savings rate and rate of return to figure out how long it will take to reach your goal.  The default goal is 1 million dollars.  You can also choose to account for inflation and capital gains when calculating how long it will take to get 1 million dollars of purchasing power.

Investment Calculator- let's say you are investing in a retirement fund and want to find out when you can retire.  Input how much you invest and your average return to calculate how long it will take to reach your goal.  You can account for inflation and capital gains tax.

Mortgage Payment Calculator- there is more to a house payment than principal and interest, you also pay taxes and insurance.  Use this calculator to estimate house payments including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance.

Walking Time Calculator- this one is not about money, but useful to figure out how long it will take to walk.  Enter the distance to walk and select your walking speed (leisurely, purposeful, or brisk) to get an accurate calculation of how long it will take to walk.  Walking is less expensive than driving and is healthy as well.

Check out these easy to use calculators to help you find ways to save money.

Copyright © 2015 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Mortgage Refinance Calculator

Mortgage Refinance Calculator

How much could you save if you refinance your mortgage?  A mortgage refinance, also known as a "refi", means that you get a new mortgage for your home at a lower interest rate.  This mortgage refinance calculator shows you how much you will save based on the interest rate of the mortgage refinance loan.

Enter the information for your current mortgage loan information and the interest rate for the mortgage refinance loan in the calculator below and click "Compute" to see how much you can save by refinancing.  Example entries have been filled in for a 100,000 mortgage balance with 30 year term, monthly payment of $537 that started 3 years ago.  The example mortgage refi has an interest rate of 3% and an origination fee of $2000.  Simply change the example information to the information for your mortgage.



Mortgage Refi Calculator by Dr. Penny Pincher
Will you save money if you refinance your mortgage?
Copyright (c) 2014. All Rights Reserved
http://pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com
INPUTS
Enter Current Mortgage Balance ($):
Enter Term of Current Mortgage (years):
Enter Current Monthly Payment (Principal and Interest) ($):
Enter Time Since Current Mortgage Started (years):
Enter Interest rate for Refinance Loan (%):
*This interest rate is for the new refi loan, not the current loan!
Enter Origination Fee for Refinance Loan ($):
*This is the cost the bank charges to finance the new loan
Cost of Current Mortgage- now to end ($):
RESULTS- Analysis of Mortgage Refinance
New Monthly Payment ($):
Savings on Monthly Payment ($):
New Loan cost (now to end) ($):
Time to break-even on refi (mo):
Total savings over life of refinance loan:



Mortgage Refinance Calculator Instructions

  • The current mortgage balance is the amount that you currently owe on your mortgage.
  • The current mortgage term is the total duration of your current mortgage, typically 30 years.
  • The current monthly payment is the amount of your principal and interest payments on your current mortgage.  Your total monthly mortgage payment includes Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance.  For this calculation, you need the amount of principal plus interest only.  If you don't have this information handy, don't worry.  You can calculate your principal and interest payment if you know the mortgage amount and interest rate using the calculator below:

Mortgage Calculator by Dr. Penny Pincher
Calculate your Mortgage Principal and Interest Payment
Copyright (c) 2014. All Rights Reserved
http://www.pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com
INPUTS
Enter Initial Mortgage Balance ($):
Enter Term of Current Mortgage (years):
Enter Interest rate for Mortgage (%):
RESULTS
Principal+Interest Payment ($):

You can use this mortgage calculator to calculate the principal + interest payment on your current mortgage using the original mortgage balance and current mortgage interest rate.

If you want to see how Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance contribute to your monthly mortgage payment, check out this mortgage calculator.

  • The time since your current mortgage started is needed to determine how much you can save by refinancing.  You can input decimal values, such as 3.25 years.
  • The next entry is the interest rate for your new refinance loan.  You can look up current refinance rates in newspapers or on the internet.
  • It costs money to get a mortgage loan-this is known as the origination fee.  The Mortgage Refinance Calculator determines how long it will take to break-even on a refinance using the origination fee and your monthly savings.  In this case, the break-even time means how long it takes your monthly payment savings to cover the refinance origination fee.  The refinance loan origination fee is added to the refi loan amount in the calculator.
  • Check the bottom line of the calculator: Total savings over life of refinance loan.  If a negative value is shown for savings, you will loose money over the life of the loan by refinancing!  
    • One way this can happen is if you nearly have your current mortgage paid off.  Let's say you are paying $500 per month and have 5 years left to pay off your mortgage.  If you refinance you could get a new 30 year mortgage and save hundreds of dollars per month on payments- but you will be making payments for 30 more years rather than 5.  
    • So even if the refi interest rate is lower, continuing to make payments longer can still add up to more money paid on interest.  You can pay more by refinancing in a scenario where you have almost paid off your original loan.
    • Note that the calculator assumes you will have the same term for the refinance that you had for the original mortgage.  For example, if the original mortgage was a 30 year loan, the calculator uses a 30 year term for the refinance loan.

Saving Money with a Mortgage Refinance

As you can see when trying out refinance scenarios, it takes some time to break-even on the refinance to cover the cost of the refinance loan origination fee.  Since your interest rate on the refinance loan is lower, you'll save money every month.  It will take months of interest rate savings to cover the refinance fee- perhaps even a few years, depending on interest rates.

Getting a mortgage refinance makes sense only if you will be staying in your current house for awhile.  You can use the calculator to see how long you would need to stay in your current house for a mortgage refinance to make sense.

Another good use of the calculator is to see how much money you would actually save by refinancing before going through the effort- and fees- to get a new mortgage loan.

If you are interested in how mortgage payments are calculated, the mortgage payment formulas used in the calculators are from the Mortgage Professor.


Recommended Reading:
How to Become a Millionaire- The Millionaire Calculator

Credit Card Consolidation Loan Calculator

Copyright © 2014 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy




Saturday, January 18, 2014

Debt Consolidation Calculator

Debt Consolidation Calculator

A good way to save money on interest and potentially reduce your monthly debt payments is to consolidate your debt.  Debt consolidation means combining several credit cards or other loans into a single loan with a lower interest rate.  If you have a good credit rating and enough income to make payments on a consolidation loan for your debts, you can get a much lower interest rate than typical credit card interest rates.  This allows you to pay the debt down faster since the interest rate is lower, and you may be able to reduce your overall monthly payments as well.

How does debt consolidation work and how much can you save?  Find out by using the Debt Consolidation Calculator to analyze your debts.

Debt Consolidation Calculator
How Much Can You Save with Debt Consolidation?
Current Debts and Loans
Current Payoff Plan
Enter Debt Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):
Total Interest ($):
Enter Debt Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):
Total Interest ($):
Enter Debt Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):
Total Interest ($):
Enter Debt Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):
Total Interest ($):
Step 1: Debt Analysis
Current Debt Summary
Total Balance ($):
Total Monthly Payments ($):
Total Cost to Payoff:
Debt Consolidation Plan
Enter Credit Card Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):
Total Interest ($):
Total Savings with Debt Consolidation:
Step 2: Update Debt Consolidation:
Change Interest Rate or Monthly Payment and Recalculate...
Copyright (c) 2014 Dr. Penny Pincher. All Rights Reserved
http://pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com

Using the Debt Consolidation Calculator

Enter information about your debt payments and loans in the Current Debts and Loans section of the calculator.  Enter the debt balance, interest rate, and monthly payment that you are currently making.  You can enter up to 4 debts in the calculator.  If you have less than 4 debts to enter, just enter 0 as the balance for the extra debt entries in the calculator.

Next, click "Compute" in the Step 1: Debt Analysis section.  This will calculate the payoff time, total of your payments, and total interest for each debt account.  The sum of all of your debt balances will be entered under Current Debt Summary, along with the total of your monthly debt payments and the total that you will pay under your current plan.

An example debt consolidation loan will also be entered under the Debt Consolidation Plan section of the calculator.  The default amount of the debt consolidation loan is the total of the debts entered under Current Debts and Loans.  The interest rate is 6%, and the monthly payment on the consolidation loan is the same as the total current payments on your debts.

You will be able to see how long it will take to pay off a consolidation loan and how much money on interest payments you will save.  The blue box shows your total savings with a debt consolidation loan.

Recommended Reading:
How to Become a Millionaire- The Millionaire Calculator

Credit Card Consolidation Loan Calculator

Copyright © 2014 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Credit Card Consolidation Loan Calculator

Credit Card Consolidation Loan Calculator

A credit card consolidation loan allows you to pay off your high interest credit cards with a low interest bank loan.  If you have good credit and high enough income, you can get a credit card consolidation loan from a bank and save a lot of money on interest.  How much money can you save with a credit card consolidation loan?  Find out with the Credit Card Consolidation Calculator!

Credit Card Consolidation Calculator by Dr. Penny Pincher
How Much Can You Save with Credit Card Consolidation?
Current Credit Cards
Current Payoff Plan
Enter Credit Card Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):
Total Interest ($):
Enter Credit Card Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):
Total Interest ($):
Enter Credit Card Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):
Total Interest ($):
Enter Credit Card Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):
Total Interest ($):
Step 1: Credit Card Analysis
Current Credit Cards Summary
Total Balance ($):
Total Monthly Payments ($):
Total Cost to Payoff:
Credit Card Consolidation Plan
Enter Credit Card Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):
Total Interest ($):
Total Savings with Credit Card Consolidation:
Step 2: Update Credit Card Consolidation:
Change Interest Rate or Monthly Payment and Recalculate...
Copyright (c) 2014. All Rights Reserved
http://pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com


How to Use the Credit Card Consolidation Loan Calculator

Update the Current Credit Cards section with the information from your current credit cards.  Enter the credit card balance, interest rate, and monthly payment that you are making.  The Credit Card Consolidation Calculator can process up to 4 credit cards.  If you have less than 4 credit cards, simply enter a zero balance for the extra credit cards in the calculator.

Next, click "Compute" in the Step 1 green box.  This will calculate the payoff time, total of payments, and total interest cost to pay off each of your credit cards.  Your total credit card balance, total monthly payment, and total cost to pay off your current credit cards is calculated and shown in the Current Credit Card Summary section of the calculator.

Example values will be automatically entered under the Credit Card Consolidation section.  The total credit card balance will be filled in, an interest rate of 6% will be entered, and your total monthly payment on your current credit cards will be used as your payment on your credit card consolidation loan.

The payoff time, total of payments, and total interest paid for the example consolidation loan is calculated.  The blue section shows the total savings achieved with a credit card consolidation loan.

You can change the interest rate or monthly payments for the consolidation loan and click "Compute" in Step 2 to update the results.  You may want to try making a higher monthly payment to pay off your loan faster and save even more money on interest.


Recommended Reading:
Savings Calculator

How to Become a Millionaire- The Millionaire Calculator

Copyright © 2015 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Friday, January 17, 2014

Credit Card Payoff Calculator

Credit Card Payoff Calculator

Find out how long it will take to payoff your credit card with the Credit Card Payoff Calculator.  Enter your credit card balance, monthly payment, and interest rate.  The Credit Card Payoff Calculator outputs the time to payoff your credit card and also the total amount of your payments to payoff the credit card.


Credit Card Payoff Calculator by Dr. Penny Pincher
How long will it take to payoff your credit card?
Copyright (c) 2014. All Rights Reserved
http://pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com
INPUTS
Enter Credit Card Balance ($):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
Enter Monthly Payment ($):
RESULTS
Payoff Time (months):
Total of Payments ($):


With the Credit Card Payoff Calculator, you can check how much the interest rate affects your time to payoff a credit card.  For example, if you are paying 12.9% interest and you transfer your balance to a new credit account with 0% interest, will this help you payoff your credit card faster?  With the default settings of a $5,000 credit card balance, 12.9% interest, and a $350 monthly payment, it would take 15.6 months to payoff the credit card at a cost of $5457.53.  If you could get a 0% introductory rate, you could pay the credit card off in 14.3 months and save $457.53.

You can also check the affect of making bigger payments on your credit card to payoff the balance faster.  If you pay an extra $100 per month, how much faster will you payoff your credit card and how much money will you save on interest payments?  For the default example, if you increased the payment by $100 to $450 per month, you would payoff the credit card in 11.9 months at a cost of $5353.32 at a savings of $104.21.

Credit Card Payoff Calculator Instructions

Calculator Inputs:
Enter Credit Card Balance ($):  Your total credit card balance.
Enter Interest Rate (%):  The annual interest rate on your credit card.
Enter Monthly Payment ($):  The amount you pay on your credit card every month.

Calculator Outputs:
Payoff Time (months):  How long it will take to payoff your credit card.  Note that fractions of a month are shown in the calculator.  For example if paying off your credit card will take 12.3 months, this would require 12 full monthly payments and a partial payment on the 13th month.
Total of Payments ($):  The total of your payments to pay off the credit card, including interest.

This site run by Drexel University introduces the basic formulas used to calculate compound interest for calculating credit card payoff time and cost.

Recommended Reading:
Savings Calculator

How to Become a Millionaire- The Millionaire Calculator

Copyright © 2014 Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Monthly Car Payment Calculator

Monthly Car Payment Calculator

Use this calculator to find out your monthly car payments.  Simply enter the loan amount for your car, the length of the loan in years, and the interest rate.


Car Payment Calculator by Dr. Penny Pincher
Calculate your car payment!
Copyright (c) 2014. All Rights Reserved
http://pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com
INPUTS
Enter Loan Amount ($):
Enter Length of Loan (years):
Enter Interest Rate (%):
RESULTS
Monthly Payment ($):



For example, the default values in the Car Payment Calculator calculate car payments for a car loan of $28,000 for 4 years with an interest rate of 6%.

Car Loan Terms and Interest Rates

Typical terms for a car loan are 4 years or 5 years.  You can also get 3 year car loans and even 6 year car loans.  The longer the car loan you get, the more you will end up paying in interest.  However, an advantage of taking a longer car loan is that you can get a lower monthly payment.  Try entering different loan lengths in the Car Payment Calculator to see the effect on your monthly car payment.

The type of car you buy can affect the interest rate you get on a car loan.  The interest rates are lower on newer cars.  Banks have less risk in loaning money to buy a new car, because this asset is more likely to hold its value than an older car.  You can find car loans under 5% interest on newer cars.  Older cars can have interest rates of 10% or more.

Surprisingly, in some cases it may actually cost less to buy a newer car because of the lower interest rates you can get to buy a newer car.  The purchase price of an older car will be less than a newer car, but the total cost of paying the loan can be lower for a newer car if the interest rate is significantly less.  You can use the Car Payment Calculator to see the impact on your car payment of  buying a less expensive car at a higher interest rate vs. a more expensive car at at lower interest rate.

This site has some sample car payment calculations- you can enter the test parameters of  a 3 year loan, $15,000 car price, and 7%  interest rate and match the example calculation of $463.16 per month using the Car Payment Calculator.

Copyright © 2014 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Savings Calculator for Savings Accounts with Interest

Savings Calculator- How Much Will Your Savings Be Worth?

The bad news:  Interest rates on savings accounts are very low.  It is almost impossible to find a savings account with an interest rate of even 1%.

The good news:  You can still grow your money without risk in a safe savings account.  But how fast will your savings account grow?

The Savings Calculator calculates how much your savings account balance grows over time.  Just enter your investment time, your starting balance, and how much you save every month.  You can also adjust the interest rate (rate of return) and click "Compute".



Savings Calculator by Dr. Penny Pincher
How much will your savings grow?
Copyright (c) 2014. All Rights Reserved
http://pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com
INPUTS
Enter Investment Time (years):
Enter Starting Investment Amount ($):
Enter Monthly Investment Contribution ($):
Enter Average Annual Rate of Return (%):
RESULTS
Amount Obtained in Current Dollars ($):

Savings Interest Calculator

With the default settings, the Savings Calculator will calculate how much money you will save in 10 years if you start with $1,000 and save $350 per month.  The interest rate of 0.85% on a savings account is pretty good right now, but you can find savings accounts at 0.85% interest, especially if you look online.  The Savings Calculator uses monthly compounding to calculate the interest on your savings account balance.

If you are interested in growing money faster than you can with a savings account, check out this Investment Calculator.  It is set up to show you typical returns from stock market investments, including effects of capital gains taxes.  However, when you move from a savings account to investing in stocks, you will lose the safety of knowing that you will not lose money from a bank account.  But with the interest rate so low, you might want to take some risk for the possibility of a much higher return.

With the Savings Calculator, you can try out some scenarios to see how your savings grows.  For example, you can check how fast your savings grows if you save $100 extra per month.  Is it worth moving to a different bank to get 0.25% more interest on a savings account?  You can use the Savings Calculator to find out how much your savings will grow.

Copyright © 2014 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

How to Become a Millionaire- The Millionaire Calculator

How to Become a Millionaire

You can become a millionaire by inheriting a million dollars or more- that is the easiest way!  As long as you still have one million dollars after paying taxes on the inheritance, you're all set.  But most people do not have wealthy relatives who will leave them enough money to become a millionaire.

You can become a millionaire by landing a high paying job such as a doctor, CEO, or professional athlete.  Some highly paid individuals make more than one million dollars every year from their job.  But earning such a high salary takes hard work and years of training- and not everyone has the skill and talent to earn a high salary.

What else can you do to become a millionaire?  The most realistic way for most people to become a millionaire is through investment.  If you invest a small amount of money slowly and steadily, you can become a millionaire.  But how much do you need to invest, and how long will it take to become a millionaire?

The Millionaire Calculator

This JavaScript calculator will tell you how long it will take to become a millionaire.  The investment goal is set at 1 million dollars.  Enter your starting investment amount (it is zero if you haven't started investing yet), and enter the amount you can invest every month.  Click "Compute" to find out how long it will take to become a millionaire.



Millionaire Calculator by Dr. Penny Pincher
How long to reach your financial goal?
Copyright (c) 2014. All Rights Reserved
http://pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com
INPUTS
Enter Investment Goal ($):
Enter Starting Investment Amount ($):
Enter Monthly Investment Contribution ($):
Enter Average Annual Rate of Return (%):
Adjust for Inflation?:
Enter annual inflation rate (%):
Adjust for Capital Gains Taxes?:
Enter capital gains tax rate (%):
RESULTS
Time to Reach Investment Goal (years):
Amount Obtained in Current Dollars ($):
Total Gains from Investment ($):
Total Capital Invested ($):

How Long Will It Take To Become a Millionaire?

You can adjust parameters in the Millionaire Calculator such as your rate of return on investment, and whether or not inflation and capital gains tax is taken into account.  The long-term historical return from the stock market averages about 8% per year, so this is a reasonable figure to use for planning.  The long-term inflation rate is around 3%.  If you want your future investment to be worth 1 million dollars in today's dollars, you will need more than 1 million dollars.  Prices tend to go up over time due to inflation.  For example, a car that costs $35,000 today might cost $70,000 years in the future.  You can check the "Adjust for Inflation" box on the calculator so that your investment will have 1 million dollars of value in the future when each dollar does not buy as much.  As a result, you will need to get more than 1 million dollars to reach your goal.

Capital gains taxes are taxes that are collected when the value of your investment goes up.  The good news is that you may be able to avoid capital gains taxes if you invest in retirement accounts such as ROTH, IRA, or 401K plans.  If you just want to put money in the stock market and take it out any time without any restrictions, then you'll likely need to pay capital gains tax.  You can check the "Adjust for Capital Gains Taxes" box on the calculator to see how this affects the length of time to reach 1 million dollars through investing.

Read more about how to get rich through investing.

Copyright © 2014 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Investment Calculator- How Long to Reach Retirement?

Investment Calculator

This investment calculator determines the time to reach your financial goal.  How long would it take to make a million dollars from your investments?  This calculator provides an answer.

This investment calculator allows you to input the average rate of return from your investments as well as allowing adjustment for inflation and capital gains taxes.  The investment calculator is developed in JavaScript and runs in your web browser.  Just enter your financial goal, set the parameters, and click "Compute".

The default goal is one million dollars.  Depending on your retirement plans or financial goals, you can adjust the Investment Goal in the investment calculator up or down.


Investment Calculator by Dr. Penny Pincher
How long to reach your financial goal?
Copyright (c) 2014. All Rights Reserved
http://pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com
INPUTS
Enter Investment Goal ($):
Enter Starting Investment Amount ($):
Enter Monthly Investment Contribution ($):
Enter Average Annual Rate of Return (%):
Adjust for Inflation?:
Enter annual inflation rate (%):
Adjust for Capital Gains Taxes?:
Enter capital gains tax rate (%):
RESULTS
Time to Reach Investment Goal (years):
Amount Obtained in Current Dollars ($):
Total Gains from Investment ($):
Total Capital Invested ($):

Investment Calculator Instructions

Enter Investment Goal ($):
How much are you trying to accumulate from your investments?

Enter Starting Investment Amount ($):
If you a current investment to use as a starting point, you can enter that amount.  Otherwise enter 0 if you do not have any investment already.

Enter Monthly Investment Contribution ($):
Inter the amount you can invest every month going forward.

Enter Average Annual Rate of Return (%):
The long-term historical return from the stock market is about 8%, including the Great Depression and other economic downturns.

This page provides a good reference on compound interest calculations.  Monthly compounding of investment returns is used in the Investment Calculator.

Adjust for Inflation?:
The Investment Calculator allows you to choose whether or not to adjust your investment goal for the effects of inflation.  The long-term average rate of inflation is around 3%.  You may want to adjust your goal for inflation  If your investment goal is to reach one million dollars, you will need more than one million dollars in the future to purchase what one million dollars can buy today.  Since prices are rising slowly but steadily, you can automatically adjust your investment goal to account for inflation.

Adjust for Capital Gains Taxes?:
If you are investing in taxable investment accounts, you'll want to account for capital gains taxes.  For example, if you make $1000 of gains from an investment and you have to pay 28% capital gains tax, you'll need to come up with $280 for the IRS.  If you check the capital gains option, the tax payment is taken from your investment amount.

If your investment is in ROTH, IRA, 401K, or other tax-deferred investment accounts, you will not need to pay capital gains taxes if you follow the rules.

When payment of capital gains tax is selected, the total gains plus total capital invested will exceed the account balance result.  The difference between these totals reflects the removal of funds to pay taxes as capital gains are realized.

Investment Calculator Results

Time to Reach Investment Goal (years):
This result shows how long it will take to reach your investment goal in years, based on the input parameters.  If it will take more than 100 years to reach your goal, the calculator returns "More than 100!" for the time that it will take.  If this happens, either try investing more or choose a smaller goal.

Amount Obtained in Current Dollars ($):
This result is the amount obtained at the time your goal is reached.  The Investment Calculator uses monthly totals, so the amount obtained may be slightly larger than the goal at the end of the last month of your investment.  If you adjust for inflation, the amount obtained can be significantly more than your goal- this reflects the reduced value of money in the future due to inflation.

Total Gains from Investment ($):
The total gain from your investment is shown.

Total Capital Invested ($):
Your total investment of capital is shown.


Recommended Reading:
How to Make 1 Million Dollars by Investing Your Car Payment

How to Get Rich


Copyright © 2014 by Dr. Penny Pincher.  All Rights Reserved.  Privacy Policy

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Mortgage Payment Calculator

Mortgage Payment Calculator

The Mortgage Payment Calculator below estimates your monthly mortgage payment.  Enter your home's value, the amount borrowed, and interest rate to find out your monthly payment.  The Mortgage Payment Calculator is written in JavaScript and runs in your web browser.  Find out your mortgage payment right now for free!

If you know your tax or insurance cost, you can enter these costs into the calculator.  If you don't know the tax and insurance costs, the Mortgage Payment Calculator also estimates your property taxes and insurance costs and calculates your monthly payment including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance.


Mortgage Payment Calculator by Dr. Penny Pincher
Calculate monthly home mortgage payments
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Enter value of home ($):
Enter amount borrowed ($):
Enter interest rate (%):
Enter length of loan (years):
Step 1:

Click to Compute Monthly Principal and Interest Payment
and Typical Taxes and Insurance
Principal + Interest
Monthly payment ($)=
Taxes + Insurance
Enter annual property tax ($): (typically 1.38% home's value)
Enter annual insurance cost ($): (typically 0.35% home's value)
Principal + Interest + Taxes + Insurance
Monthly payment ($)=
Step 2:

Optional: Click to Update Total
If You Want Enter Your Own Tax & Insurance Costs

Mortgage Payment Calculator Instructions

Enter the basic information required to calculate mortgage payment amounts in the top lines of the calculator:

  • Value of your home
  • Amount borrowed
  • Interest rate, for example enter '5' for 5% interest
  • Length of loan in years

Click "Compute" to see your monthly mortgage payment for principal and interest.  The calculator will automatically calculate typical property tax and insurance cost based on the home's value and enter these in the calculator.

The calculator will also calculate your total monthly mortgage payment including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance.

Optional: If you know your actual property tax or insurance costs, you can replace the automatically calculated estimates and enter your own values.  Click "Update" to update the monthly mortgage cost using your own figures for taxes and insurance.

This monthly payment formula is used in the Mortgage Payment Calculator.


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