Mortgage Term Analyser
by Toby Williams

In the early years of a repayment mortgage (as distinct from an endowment), fixed monthly repayments consist almost entirely of interest, and hardly any capital. With fluctuating interest rates, the outstanding debt at the end of a year might even increase! Only after several years does the balance start to shrink; then the interest reduces, so the capital element of the monthly payment starts to rise. This effect snowballs in the later years.

Often, a modest additional payment could skip the early years and cut them off the mortgage term. This application allows calculations such as this to be displayed in a graphical form.

The application is not multi-tasking, but automatically fills the screen in the current mode, and it is fully interactive. As the mouse traverses the menu buttons, a dialogue window offers prompts and information, and full help is given on each menu icon simply by moving the pointer over the relevant icon.

Moving the mouse over the graph area, the interest rate and extra payments are displayed, for the month under the pointer: click Select to change the interest rate (from then on), or Adjust for an extra payment (in that month only).

Fixed payments are listed on screen and the time scale can be zoomed. Repayments for a fixed term can even be calculated: this uses successive trial and error. A graph of interest rate is drawn underneath the repayment graphs. Data and parameter alterations can be saved to a file. 

Regular use of this program will help you to keep the cost of your luxuries in perspective!

 RISC User 1992
