Mortgage

Version 1.1

Mortgage – A fixed-interest-rate mortgage loan calculator

Welcome

Mortgage version 1.1 is an English language program to help evaluate fixed-interest-rate mortgage loans. Mortgage will find the loan principal, interest rate, duration or payment when given the other three.

You can do what-ifs, such as, "What will my payment be if I borrow $100,000 at 7% for 30 years?" or "How much can I borrow at 6.25% for 25 years if I can afford $1,100 monthly payments?" You can then change one or more of the loan numbers and find a new value for one of the other numbers.

Mortgage will show you the total amount paid and the total interest paid for a loan.

With a set of loan numbers, Mortgage can show a repayment schedule, with the amount paid toward principal and interest for each month, as well as copy the schedule to the system clipboard, or print it.

Mortgage is not suitable for car loans. Other loans are calculated in a different manner that Mortgage does not support.

Numbers provided by Mortgage may not agree exactly to the penny with those of an actual loan. Because Mortgage is not warranted to be free of all defects, you must consult a lender before making any final decisions about obtaining a loan.

Mortgage requires Microsoft's free .NET Framework version 2.0. Your computer may already have it. If not, Mortgage's setup program will offer to download it from Microsoft. The Framework is a 22.4 MB download.

Quick Start

Figure 1

To start Mortgage, click Start»Programs»Mortgage»Mortgage.

Enter any three of the four mortgage loan numbers of your choice, as in Figure 1. Click the Find button beside the missing number. You may then change any of the four loan numbers as desired and click a Find button. Repeat as desired. Click Show Report to see the loan repayment schedule, shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2

Adjust the Closing Date if needed. The report will be updated when you stop adjusting. Copy the report to the Windows clipboard or Print the report with the appropriate buttons.

Main Window

Figure 3

A fixed rate mortgage loan has four primary numbers (see Figure 3) associated with it:

· Principal - the amount of money you borrow from the lending institution

· Annual Interest Rate - the (yearly) percentage rate charged for the mortgage

· Duration - the number of years it will take to repay the mortgage lender

· Monthly Payment - the amount of money you pay each month to retire the mortgage

The four numbers are interrelated. If you provide three of them, Mortgage can determine the fourth. Enter any three numbers and click the Find button beside the space for fourth. The fourth number will appear.

If what you type isn't a valid number, you will see a small circle with an exclamation point in it (see Figure 4).

Figure 4

Move your mouse pointer over the circle to see an explanation of the error. Correct the error to remove the error indicator.

Either one or four Find buttons will be enabled when three or four valid numbers are present. You can type four valid numbers but there is no reason to do so. At least one number must be determined by clicking a Find button before the Show Report button is enabled and the totals are shown. This is true even if you enter the same four numbers from an earlier Find.

After Finding a fourth number, you can change any one, two or three numbers (changing four isn't useful) and find a new number. You can repeatedly change and find numbers as much as you like.

Two other mortgage numbers are:

· Total Interest - the sum of all interest you pay as part of your monthly payments

· Total Paid - your total outlay for the mortgage; it is the sum of the principal and the total interest

The totals appear when a Find button is clicked. It is worth noting the total interest paid is often as much as or more than the amount borrowed. To reduce the total interest paid, reduce the principal or duration of the loan, or increase the monthly payment, and (re-)Find a number.

Menus

The main window menus are:

File

Show Report - show the report window to view, copy and print the mortgage repayment schedule

Exit - close (end) Mortgage

Help

Contents - show the help contents for Mortgage

About - show Mortgage's version, copyright, author and link to Mortgage's web page

Buttons

The main window has seven buttons:

· Find (four buttons) - find the respective number when the other three numbers are specified

· Clear All - clear all of the numbers

· Show Report - open the repayment schedule report window

· Exit - close (end) Mortgage

Report Window

Figure 5

The six numbers from the main window are repeated in the summary at the top of the repayment schedule report (see Figure 5).

Below the summary is a list of monthly payments, with one line for each month in the life of the loan. The first two columns, Month and Year, are based on the Closing Date below the list. Because mortgage payments are made in arrears, the first payment is due the month after the closing date. That's why the example in Figure 4 shows January 2008 as the closing date but February 2008 as the first payment date.

Select a closing date by clicking the up and down arrows for the month and year. The report will update one second after you stop changing the closing date. Click the Now button to set the closing date to the current month and year.

Click the Copy button to copy the entire report to the Windows clipboard. You may also right-click almost anywhere in the window for a pop-up Copy All menu item.

Click the Print Preview button to preview the entire report. You may also right-click almost anywhere in the window for a pop-up Print Preview menu item.

Click the Print button to print the entire report. You may also right-click almost anywhere in the window for a pop-up Print All menu item.

Click the OK button to close the report window and return to the Mortgage main window.

Mortgage rounds the numbers it displays to the nearest cent. This can cause apparent one-cent discrepancies among the numbers in the repayment schedule. Calculations are made to high accuracy behind the scenes, though.

Menus

The report window has no menu.

Buttons

The report window has five buttons:

· Now - set the closing date to the current month and year

· Copy - copy the entire report to the Windows clipboard

· Print Preview - show a print preview dialog for the entire report

· Print - show a print dialog for printing the entire report

· OK - close the Mortgage report window

Uninstalling Mortgage

Be sure to close Mortgage and its help before uninstalling it so all Mortgage files can be removed from your computer.

You can uninstall Mortgage with Add or Remove Programs in the Windows® Control Panel.

License

Mortgage is copyright © 2008 by Ron Charlton. You may freely distribute its unmodified setup file. You shall not distribute Mortgage or any of its component files by any means other than its provided setup file.

You shall not charge anything other than a nominal media fee for distributing the Mortgage setup file.

Author

Ron Charlton

9002 Balcor Circle

Knoxville, TN 37923-2301 USA

Phone: 865-694-0800

E-mail: charltoncr<at>comcast<dot>net (A clickable e-mail link is near the bottom of the following web page.)

Web Page: http://home.comcast.net/~charltoncr/

Bug reports, complaints, suggestions and kudos are appreciated.

Credits

· Mortgage was compiled with Microsoft Visual Basic 2005.

· Mortgage help was created with HelpNDoc (free for personal, non-profit use).

History

· v1.1 (2008-02-24) - First public release

Document last revised: 3/7/2008 5:50:33 PM

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