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- Loan Warrior Amortization Program
-
- The LoanWarrior (LW) is a basic tool used in calculating loan
- characteristics. One of the most popular uses of
- amortization programs is to provide the user a quick look at
- the loan schedule of potential home mortgage payment
- schedules. In practice, however, LW can be used for any type
- of amortizing problem. The dictionary defines the term
- "amortize" as : 1. To liquidate (a debt) by installment
- payments or payment into a sinking fund. While there are
- other types of uses for amortization schedules, the following
- documentation is intended to be used in terms of this
- definition.
-
- Running Loan Warrior : LW will run on any IBM PC/XT/AT or
- compatible with 128K memory available. Two different modules
- are available, Fixed and Variable. These are accessed from
- the Main Menu. The Main Menu is accessed directly from the
- disc with the command 'STARTLW2'. LW is not copy protected, and
- therfore may be transfered easily to fixed disc by copying
- all of the files on the disc.
-
- LoanWarrior Available Options : The following is a description
- of each menu in LW, presented in the order the menus appear.
-
- (1) Start Menu : From here you can run LW with or without an
- existing data file. If you choose an existing data file, a
- list of files available is shown; you must enter one of these
- file names with the proper extension. If you choose to run LW
- without an existing file, a dummy file is input for you to
- edit.
-
- (2) Input Definition Menu : Four variables define the loan -
- interest rate (percent), term (years), initial principle ($),
- and compounding period (year or month). You may edit one or
- all of these from this menu.
-
- (3) Accelerated Principle Payments : If you choose this
- option, you can put money toward added principle payment,
- above the scheduled fixed payment. This money goes directly
- toward reducing the principle, and thus reduces the term of
- the loan and the final total interest paid. This is useful
- to determine the effect of regular added payments and/or lump
- sum payments on the life of the loan.
-
- To use this option, you will be asked to input interest rates
- for any given block of periods you specify, with the "last
- year" being input for all remaining periods. For example, if
- you have an adjustable rate mortgage, with interest increasing
- from 7%, one percent per year for 3 years:
-
- LW Prompt enter:
-
- first period to be changed : 2
- last year to be changed : 4
-
- interest for period 2 : 8
- interest for period 3 : 9
- interest for period 4 : 10
-
- Note that the rate for all periods after 4 will be 10 also.
-
- (4) Variable Interest Rate (only on Variable module) : The
- interest rate applied to each period can be specified with this
- option. This is useful in determining the effect of ARM's
- (adjustable rate mortgages) on the loan schedule. Input data
- the same way you did in (3).
-
- (5) Report Destination : You may designate your printer or
- monitor as the output device.
-
- (6) Specify Output Period : In a given analysis, you may
- designate one specific block of periods you wish to view/print.
- This is helpful when you have, for example, a 30 year loan and
- are using monthly analysis (360 periods), and only wish to see
- the 15th year (months 180 to 192). Input 180 as start and 192
- as finish. When using the accelerated principle option with
- this, you may inadvertantly specify a period that only
- partially exists, or doesn't exist at all because your
- additional payments pay the loan off sooner than you think. If
- the first period you specify exists, but the loan ends
- somewhere in between, you will just be shown the final period.
- If the first period does not exist, you will immediately get
- just the final period, with no report header.
-
- (7) Report Format : You may designate either a Summary (only
- inputs, calculated payment per period and total interest
- paid) or Detailed (loan status per period; principle payment,
- interest payment, total interest paid to date, principle
- remaining) reports. A detailed report on a long term loan
- with monthly compounding will produce a very large amount of
- data. (See (6) to help with this problem)
-
- (8) Saving a Data File : After the reports are processed,
- you will be asked if you wish to leave the program, return to
- the main menu, or save the current data. If you choose to
- save the data, you will be asked to input a file name (up to
- 8 characters) with thr proper extension (.FIX or .VAR,
- depending which module you are in).
-
- Note that option 3 is the only difference between the Fixed
- and Variable LoanWarrior Modules; in all other repects they
- run in the same way.
-
- Good Luck!