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
Copyright (c) 2014. All Rights Reserved
http://pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com
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.


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

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Walking Time Calculator- How Long Would It Take to Walk?

Walking Time Calculator

Walking is an easy form of exercise that requires no special equipment.  You can save money by walking instead of driving- but how long will it take to walk to your destination?  Find out with the Walking Time Calculator!

Find how long it takes to walk any distance using this simple walking time calculator.  Select the units you would like to use for distance: miles, kilometers, or blocks.  Select your walking speed: leisurely, purposeful, or brisk.  This article describes the different walking speeds.  Input your walking distance and push "Compute".  The time required to walk the given distance at the selected walking speed will be displayed.


Walking Time Calculator by Dr. Penny Pincher
Copyright (c) 2014. All Rights Reserved
http://pennypincherjournal.blogspot.com
Units:
Miles
Kilometers
Blocks (650 feet)
Walking Speed:
Leisurely (3.1 mph/5.1 km/hr)
Purposeful (4.2 mph/6.8 km/hr)
Brisk (5.9mph/9.5 km/hr)
Enter distance to Walk:

Result: Time to Walk= seconds
Result: Time to Walk= minutes
Result: Time to Walk= hours

* Remember to click "Compute" to update the results when you change units, speed, or distance!

Your walking time is calculated and is presented in seconds, minutes, and hours.  The resulting time in seconds is equivalent to the time in minutes, which is equivalent to the time in hours.  The different time units are shown to allow you to look at the result that makes sense based on your walking distance.

Walking Time Calculator Instructions

The Walking Time Calculator calculates your walking time in seconds, minutes, and hours and give you the answer for how long it takes to walk any distance.  Simply set the units that you wish to use to enter your walking distance, type in the distance, and click "Compute".

Walking Speed Calculator Input

  • Leisurely walking speed is actually the average human walking speed of 3.1 mph which is 5.1 km/hr.  
  • Purposeful walking is the speed people walk when they want to get somewhere- it is a comfortable walking speed for most people at 4.2 mph or 6.8 km/hr.
  • Brisk walking speed at 5.9 mph or 9.5 km/hr is very fast walking- most people could not sustain a brisk walking speed without being in top condition.  Typically, you only see people walking at brisk walking speed during training or perhaps at an airport trying to catch a flight.

Walking Distance Calculator Input
I included units of blocks since people often think in terms of blocks when walking in a city.  Blocks are different lengths in different places- blocks are even different lengths within the same city.  In my area, blocks are about 650 feet long on average.

Walking Time Calculator Outputs
All of the results outputs from the Walking Time Calculator are equivalent- you get your walking time presented in seconds, the same walking time presented in minutes, and the same walking time presented in hours.

The walking calculator result is output in seconds, minutes, and hours so you can pick the one that makes sense based on the distance you are walking.  For example, if you are only walking a few blocks then the result in minutes would be the most useful.  If you are walking a long distance, the result in hours is easier to comprehend than looking at a very large number of seconds.  If you want to check walking time for very short distances, the results in seconds is easiest to understand.

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

Recent Penny Pincher Posts