An amortization calculator is an excellent tool to use when it comes to finding out how much your loan is going to cost you. This is a basic calculation that is likely to be near impossible for the average person to figure out on their own can tell you what you need to know. The calculator will spit out a wide range of information. It will tell you how much your monthly payment will be. It will tell you how much of that payment will go towards interest and how much will go towards principal on the loan. And, it will tell you the grand total of all that you will spend on your mortgage.
What Is It?
An amortization calculator allows you to input some very basic information and it will then tell you just what this information will be.
- Input the amount of the mortgage to be. This is the cost of the mortgage, the money borrowed, not the amount the home costs.
- Input the interest rate that the mortgage will have. When doing so, the more accurate you can be about your own interest rate quote the better.
- Input the term of the loan. This is the length of time it will take for you to pay off the debt.
Out comes the amortization schedule with a good amount of information with it. You will find out just what you will be paying for that loan. The calculator does not require you to supply any of your personal information as it simply uses these few things to provide information to you.
The calculator can be used to tell you how much you will pay per month on the mortgage that you have taken out. But, you can then use this as a tool to help you find the right type of loan for you. An example is the terms of the loan. While you may think that taking the longest time possible to pay back the loan is the right choice, use the amortization calculator to determine how much it will cost you to go with a 30 year loan in interest as apposed to a 25 or a 20. It may be wiser to go with the shorter terms with a little extra per month if the difference is significant.
This also works for helping you to determine how much of a home you can afford. For example, if you can only afford to pay $800 dollars per mouth, then you can use the amortization calculator to determine with the going interest rate just what dollar amount the home you purchase can be. You should do this before you head out to look for a home too.
As you can see, there are many ways that this simple tool can work for you. You will take it and use it from the beginning of your search for a home and come up ahead of the game. If you do not, you are likely to find yourself paying more or even worse, not realizing just how much you are paying when you factor in interest and the duration of the loan for your mortgage. Use an amortization calculator and find out now.