Calculators |
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Mortgage
Payment Calculator
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Affordability |
| What will your monthly mortgage payment
be? In the market for a new home? Find out how much you’re likely
to shell out each month for a new address. |
To arrive at an "affordable" home
price, we followed the guidelines of most lenders. We've allowed a total
debt-to-income ratio of no more than 36%. And we have assumed a housing
payment-to-income ratio of 28% for our conservative estimate, and 33% for
the aggressive one. Before buying, however, you should also factor in other
savings needs, including retirement and college. |
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Renovation
Wizard |
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Refinance
Calculator |
| Will it be worth it to remodel that room?
Using this wizard, you can find out what percentage of return you can expect
to get back from remodeling a room! |
So what rate would you need before refinancing makes sense?
That's what this worksheet is designed to tell you. One thing to keep
in mind, though: The interest rate isn't the only thing to consider when
shopping for a new loan. Refinancing, after all, isn't free. There are
the bank fees, the bills for a new appraisal and inspection, your lawyer's
fee — you name it. This worksheet will help you figure out how much
you'll save on your monthly payments with a lower rate and how long it
will take, given those savings, to repay the cost of getting a new loan.
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Prepayment
Calculator |
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Fixed
Vs Arm Calculator |
| You have some extra cash. Should you invest
it or use it to pay down your mortgage? Look at it this way: When you prepay
part of your mortgage, you end up paying less in interest. But in the bargain,
you also lose part of your mortgage-interest tax break. Your true savings,
then, can be expressed as the difference between your mortgage interest
rate and the rate at which you take your deduction (a function of your total
marginal tax rate). If that net percentage figure is less than the amount
you could make investing the cash, you're better off investing it. |
Which type of loan is best? That depends
several factors: how long you plan to stay in your home, your interest-rate
outlook, your budget, and your tolerance for risk. To
figure out which is best, you've got to consider both your best and your
worst-case scenarios. Our worksheet can help. Just fill in your numbers
and then use the graph and "compare" feature to evaluate your
fixed and adjustable options based on the total amount of interest paid
as well as the amounts of your first and last payments. |
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Points
Calculator |
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Credit
Rating Estimator |
Mortgage points can refer to loan origination
fees (fees charged by the underwriter) or discount points (also known
as loan discounts). The worksheet focuses on discount points, which represent
1% of the total loan amount. By paying a discount point, you can lower
your interest rate. Consider it prepaid interest. |
Mortgage (and other loan) qualification
is increasingly being done by means of "credit scoring." This
is a mathematical analysis which considers many different aspects of your
credit history -- late payments, delinquencies, tax liens, etc -- and expresses
it as a single number, or "grade." This
calculator will "score" your credit using the number of late
payments you have on various credit accounts. This isn't a true "credit
score," but will give you a pretty good idea of how you'd fare. Please
note that different lenders may count late payments older than 12 months
against you; ours doesn't. And different lenders may assign you a higher
or lower score, depending on their internal underwriting requirements. |
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Buy
Vs Rent Calculator |
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Net
Worth Calculator |
| It's almost always better to own your home
rather than to rent. After all, you build equity and get to write off your
mortgage interest. And if you play your cards right, when you sell you'll
be eligible for one of the best tax breaks around. But that doesn't mean
that everyone should be a homeowner. If your move is short-term or if interest
rates are high and property values outrageous, it may be worthwhile to deal
with a landlord for a while. Our worksheet will help you determine which
path is best. |
Use this calculator, and you're going to
be surprised at how much you own. The idea here is to total up all of your
assets (house, car, retirement plan) and subtract your liabilities (credit
card debt, mortgage). The result can be used as a baseline about planning
for the future. Remember, however, this calculator does not account for
any taxes owed on proceeds in an investment portfolio or retirement account.
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Compound
Investment Calculator |
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| Your investments will grow especially well
if you reinvest the profit. You can see how your investments will grow over
time if allowed to grow. |
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