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Which calculator should I use?

If you don't see an answer, please feel free to ask.
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The Most Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Which calculator should I use to record seller-financed payments and calculate payoff amounts?

A. Use the Loan Payoff Calculator. It lets you enter each payment. It supports missed, skipped, and extra payments. It supports interest rate changes.

Q. Which calculator lets me enter irregular repayments and see the remaining balance?

A. Use the Loan Payoff Calculator. Enter payments on their actual dates. It supports missed, skipped, and extra payments. It supports interest rate changes.

Q. My lender and I disagree on the amount I owe. Which calculator will compute the current balance?

A. Use the Loan Payoff Calculator. Enter the complete payment history. The calculator computes the balance using your actual payments and any rate changes.

Q. How do I calculate annualized rate of return (IRR) or gross return for stocks, options, bonds, or mutual funds?

A. Use the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) Calculator. Select Help in the calculator for setup instructions.

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General Financial Planning

Q. Which calculator should I use to plan quarterly college savings over 12 years?

A. Use the Savings Calculator for a quick estimate. For a more detailed plan, use the Investment Calculator. It supports inflation and tax adjustments.

Q. I lent $45,000. After one year, I will receive $1,067.17 for 48 months. What is my rate of return?

A. Gross return: 13.8%. Annualized return: 4.5%. Use the Internal Rate of Return Calculator.

Explanation: The rate of return is not equal to the loan’s stated interest rate. The payment was calculated on $45,000 at 6.5% for 48 months. The first payment occurs after a one-year delay. No interest is earned during that year.

Q. Will a $200,000 cash purchase rented at $6,000 per year for 10 years and sold for $220,000 achieve a 9% return?

A. No. The result is about $58,565 below a 9% target. Use the Net Present Value Calculator.

Note: This investment does not meet the target because the NPV is negative.

Q. I will save every other month: $1,000 now, $2,200 starting in 5 years, and $3,000 starting in 10 years. What will the balance be after 5, 10, and 20 years? What if interest rates change?

A. Use the Ultimate Financial Calculator. It supports irregular deposits and interest rate changes.

Q. After I retire, how long will my savings last if I withdraw $2,500 per month and earn 8%? What will I have after 10 years?

A. Use the Annuity Schedule calculator. It shows the depletion date and balances by month and year.

Q. What is the interest on a $50,000 loan for 70 days at 11.5% (simple interest)?

A. The interest is $1,102. Use the Interest Calculator.

Q. In 20 years, what monthly amount will match the purchasing power of $6,000 today if inflation is 3% for 5 years and 4% for the next 15 years?

A. You will need $12,525 per month. Use the Inflation Calculator. Do the calculation in two steps.

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General Business Questions

Q. How many units must we sell to break even on a new product?

A. Use the Break Even Point Calculator. Enter fixed costs, unit price, and unit variable cost.

Q. Should we lease or buy office furniture? How does depreciation affect the decision?

A. Use the Lease vs Buy Calculator. It includes depreciation in the comparison.

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Loan Planning

Q. Which loan costs less: $150,000 at 8.5% with 0 points, or $150,000 at 8.0% with 3 points paid upfront? What if I move after five years?

A. Use the Accurate Amortization Schedule. Run one case with points and one case without points.

Q. How much interest will I save if I pay an extra $100 per month toward principal? Which calculator should I use?

A. Use the Extra Payment Calculator. It also compares extra payments with investing the same amount.

Q. I must provide a Regulation Z APR disclosure. Which calculator should I use?

A. Use the APR Calculator. It is compliant with the Truth in Lending Act.

If we did not answer your question, please ask it below.

Questions?
Ask them here. We're happy to help.

  • Tima Ebell Anderson says:

    Greetings,

    We like your web site and the ease of using the calculator and its completeness in the output it produces, especially for your loan amoritization calculator. My question is if I began my payment schedule in 2019 and run it for say 60 months does the calculations for payments take into account that 2020 is a leap year with 29 days in February rather than 28?

    • Karl says:

      Thank you. The answer to your question is, it depends. It depends on the compounding method selected. If you select a compounding frequency based on either weeks or months, then the answer is now. That’s because all months are assumed to be the same length. However, if you select either daily or exact date / simple compound (or continuous) then the answer is yes. These frequencies use exact day counts.

  • Norman Rabek says:

    Do C-Value and SolveIT have automatic updates and bug repairs? Do they require an annual payment or are they a one time purchase?

    • Karl says:

      I’m not sure by what you mean by "automatic" exactly. If either is upgraded, a user would have to download and install the update. So I guess you would not call that automatic.

      The price you see $49 / $69 respectively, is a one time charge for the current major version 2.x / 6.x. Updates within the major version are free. When I make a major release, 3.0 / 7.0, those upgrades will most certainly not be free. What will they cost? I have no idea. Prices are set until an update is completed.

  • pankaj says:

    I m thinking of investing Rs.2.5 million for the next 6 years . and concerned company will pay me back around 23 million. which calculator ishould use calculate my annual return.

    • Karl says:

      Is this one investment, and then you wait 6 years, or are their additional investments? If there are additional investments and you want to know your rate-of-return, use this IRR calculator. If there is a single investment, you use the IRR calculator for a single investment too, but the ROI calculator is a bit less involved and it is designed explicitly for one-time-investments.

  • Patrick Allossery says:

    Hi, below is a list of calculators that I require for a financial services website (WordPress) in Canada. You already offer a few calculators that match my list, but I’m looking to acquire/have made a full set. Do you take custom orders? If so, can you contact me to discuss?

    Looking forward to hearing back from you,
    Patrick

    Life Insurance
    •Life Insurance Calculator

    Retirement Planning Tools
    •RRSP Calculator
    •RRSP Illustrator
    •RRSP Loan Planner
    •RIF/LIF/LRIF Calculator

    Education
    •RESP Calculator

    Investment Planning
    •Investment & Regular Deposits
    •Investment & Regular Withdrawal
    •Advantage of Early Investing
    •Registered VS Non-Registered Investing

    Mortgages
    •Mortgage Qualifier

    • Karl says:

      Thank you for contacting me. I replied to your email address.

      • Robin Rickerson says:

        The balloon calculator won’t let me set up a monthly schedule that shows $0 amount paid for the first 23 months but adding interest accrued onto the principal amount with month 24 starting a payment that would amortize $63,750 over 120 months and simple interest. With a balloon payment due month 60. Please help….again these are the terms of the loan:
        $63,750 loan amount
        Starts 2/26/2021
        Simple interest at 6%
        10 year amortization
        1st payment not due until month 24
        Balloon payment due month 60

        • Karl says:

          Thank you for clarifying. I assume that you are setting the "First Payment Due" date to the date it’s due in month 24?

          The terms of your loan has what we call an "initial long period," that is, it’s longer than the month which is normally between payments.

          The issue you have is how to account for the interest that is accruing. This calculator has 4 options to give users full control. Please see this setting below the dates:

          "Long Period Options?:"

          You can even have it so there is no interest accrued. But I doubt if the lender would like that.

          If you don’t see how the setting work, you can go to this page. Scroll down and the setting are explained.

  • Steve K says:

    I want a tool that will help me allocate money. I want to find cases where it really does make sense to pay off a mortgage rather than invest in stocks. For the NASDAQ, I want a 10% chance that it will go down and stay below 70% of its current values for 5 years or more, a 40% chance of it treading water, and 50% chance of it going up 10-20% a year, which it seems to have done forever. So, if someone has $100K and they don’t pay of a $50K mortgage, but instead put $100K in a wide variety of stocks, bonds, and real estate, they may be taking a great risk. I want to quantify that in a way I can explain.

    • Karl says:

      Sounds like an interesting model. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything that will do what you want.

      • Steve K says:

        My friend has $500K and a $100K mortgage at 4.5% (ideas are accurate, details are changed for privacy). With closing costs of $2K to get a mortgage loan at 3%, my suggestion is that he pay off the mortgage clear and then invest the rest in dividend and value stocks split with S&P 500 and technology, in other words, a diversified portfolio. I am making this suggestion because my friend is not financially literate and a dive of 20-50% in tech stocks would ruin him without these two hedges (paying off the mortgage and diversified investing. If I run your investment tool twice, I can generate scenarios for a rising and fall market. I can run it two more times (total of 4) to account for closing or not of the mortgage. I realize that people think of the money freed up by a mortgage as nearly free money, but that is not necessarily so.

  • Janet says:

    Need an amortization schedule that I can calculate number of months to pay off balance. I know loan amount, interest rate, and payment amount. I’d like to compare how many months it take to payoff if I should make a lump sum.

  • Gerald GIOVANELLI says:

    I need a calculator to calculate the rate of return on an investment which pays monthly dividends (DRIP) which are not fixed amounts and also to which I periodocally add additionall cash sums at any time.
    I am thinking of the IRR calculator.
    Will that do the job or can you make a suggestion?

    • Karl says:

      The IRR calculator is a good choice.

      You can also use the Ultimate Financial Calculator on this site. You can set the UFC for an investment cash flow, and under Settings, select Analytics and turn on IRR. The calculated IRR will appear in the report header. You might like the UFC because of its reports and it is easier, in my opinion, to add and repeat cash flows. It will take more time to learn, however.

      • Gerald GIOVANELLI says:

        Thank you for your prompt reply.
        I think I would like to have the IRR calculator.
        What is the cost and is there a monthly or annual fee?
        How do I purchase it?

        • Karl says:

          You’re welcome. Even better, there’s nothing to buy, and there’s no fee for the IRR calculator. Please use it as much as you like.

          • Gerald GIOVANELLI says:

            Hi Karl,

            Thanks again
            I am embarrassed to ask this but I don’t seem to see where the present market value can be entered other than the lower section where the calculations have been made and it does not allow any entrees.
            Can you please help me?

          • Karl says:

            No problem. The "Initial Investment" is the present value. You’ll enter the amount and all other additional investments as a negative number, and then all paybacks, dividends, etc. as a positive value. Enter the final value (perhaps current value) on a date you pick for ending value or sale as a positive number. Click on the calculator’s help button for some more details.

  • Winggirl Media says:

    Hi. I have implemented your Savings Calculator on a website. Please can you assist by letting me know if you can “lock” the interest rate so that users can not change them? Thank you!

    • Karl says:

      I have not tested this, but the way I would approach it is to have a developer add "disabled" to the HTML element. That should turn the input to gray and prevent users from changing the value you set.

      • Winggirl Media says:

        Hi Karl. Thanks for replying. Please can you help to identify where the element is in the CSS? My developer is struggling to find it. Thanks so much!

        • Karl says:

          Elements are not in the CSS. Classes and IDs are.

          Elements are in the PHP file, specifically "calculator.gui.php," located in the "en" folder or directory.

          The developer should look for a line similar to this:

          <input type=”tel” class=”calc-control num” id=”edRate-sv” maxlength=”8″ size=”16″ value=<?php echo $rate ?>>

          I think, but I’m not sure, as I said I’ve not tested it, they will want to add "DISABLED" after the "size" attribute.

        • Karl says:

          There are four or five places in the code where this line is located. The one that needs to be edited depends on the size option you have selected for the calculator. (small, medium etc.)

  • Linda Irick says:

    I need an amortization that has “Late Fees”.

  • Loring Tocchini says:

    I am searching for a calculator that:
    1) Tabulates multiple financing events over the course of a year(s) with changing interest rates for each event. The events could be monthly, daily etc each with the potential for a different rate of interest for each individual event with the same entity. Must allow for compounding daily, Quarterly, Semiannually, Annually and allow for payments being made over time; regularly or irregularly and apply late fees.
    2) Based on inputs, it must summarize each year’s accumulated interest rate data, and accumulated principal borrowing data (by month if possible) for each financing event individually and in summary in one table. The ability to produce amortization payment schedules with regular payments regular or irregular is needed as well.

    Do you have a calculator that accomplishes the above that can be purchased and used by multiple users?

    • Karl says:

      I’m not sure what you mean by "multiple financing events." Are these multiple loans? Or multiple loan advances within the terms of a single credit line?

      The UFC will handle the latter. That is, a credit line loan where there are multiple borrows. The payments and interest rate changes can occur on any day. The calculator will allow you to track as many different credit lines as you need as individual calculations stored in different files. It will NOT aggregate across credit lines however.

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