Thursday, March 12, 2009

Mortgage Payment Calculator

A mortgage payment calculator is the first thing most people search for when considering refinancing a mortgage, or buying a new home. Using a mortgage calculator, you can apply today's interest rate to the amount of your new mortgage, and find out what your new monthly mortgage payment will be.

You can easily find a mortgage payment calculator online. For example, there are free mortgage calculators on several sites, which allow you to enter the interest rate, the term of the mortgage, and the mortgage principal amount, in order to calculate your new monthly payment.

The formula to calculate the monthly payment on a mortgage is one of those horrible bits of high school Math that most people try to forget as soon as they have sat the exam - if not before - so there is really no alternative for most people, than to use a mortgage calculator.

You may find that your spreadsheet software has a function which will calculate monthly payments for a mortgage, although in most cases an online mortgage calculator is easier to find - and simpler to use!

The next question ir consider is whether the new monthly payment is affordable. As a rule of thumb, your mortgage repayment should amount to no more than a third of your after-tax income. This will ensure that your payment is affordable.

If the new monthly mortgage figure comes out to be more than a third of your after-tax income, you will need to reconsider your purchase, or find a better interest rate.

You can use the mortgage calculator to work out how much you can afford to borrow. Simply enter the interest rate and term of the loan, and then adjust the amount of the principal until the mortgage calculator shows a monthly payment equal to one third of your after-tax income.

Combine that figure with any down payment or equity you have available to calculate the total price you can afford to pay for your new home.

Whether you use an online mortgage payment calculator or not, it is very important that you don't overextend yourself by borrowing more than you can afford. Use the mortgage calculator to make sure your new mortgage is affordable.

Mortgage Payment Calculator

Today's Mortgage Rates

Mark Bennett is a staff writer for MoneyTalks, and contributes regularly to other financial sites.

A Wells Fargo Home Equity Line Of Credit - What You Really Need To Know

Have you taken the opportunity to look closer at a Wells Fargo home equity line of credit recently? This revolving credit line that homeowners can tap into has some pretty good features. Here's a closer look at what Wells Fargo is doing.

A home equity line of credit is similar to a loan with the main difference being that you can take out funds at any time up to the total amount of the credit line.

This is better than a loan in many cases because you are only using what you need instead of taking out a big lump sum. Wells Fargo home equity lines of credit make it possible to only have to use your money when you really want to.

Naturally, what you use the money for is completely up to you. Many use it to pay off high interest debt, medical bills or a home improvement project to further increase the value of their home.

Wells Fargo offers a wide array of convenient options in gaining access to your funds. It can be through your checking account, ATM, Wells Fargo credit card, or simply by visiting your local branch bank.

This type of home equity line of credit being offered by Wells Fargo has a standard 10 year open credit period. After that time your repayment begins.

Funds that you take out of your HELOC may be paid back with small minimum payments or in some cases it can simply be an interest only payment.

Depending on the Wells Fargo plan and size of the credit line, payments can be stretched out for as long as 30 years after the credit period ends.

As with most home equity loans or lines of credit, interest rates are based on the Prime Lending Rate at the time of your loan. Since this is a line of credit, your rate will be variable, meaning it can go up or down. This is something to consider before taking out a HELOC.

A Wells Fargo home equity line of credit, like any other credit line, will have certain fees involved when signing up. These fees can include appraisal fees, loan fees and others as well. It really depends on the type of loan and your credit history.

If you are looking at setting up a home equity line of credit you will want to take a good look at what Wells Fargo has to offer.

By the way, you can learn more about a Wells Fargo Home Equity Line Of Credit as well as more information on everything to do with home equity loans by visiting http://www.HomeEquityLoansA-z.com

Car Donation Tax Deductions

There are many nonprofit charitable organizations that accept car donations. Some of the vehicles are broken apart for parts, while some are used as part of a ?wheels to work? program that provides transportation to help people get to work. Other nonprofit organizations will sell your donated car and use the proceeds from the sale of your vehicle to fund important job training and employment programs for people with disabilities and other disadvantaged conditions that keep them from being successful in the workplace.

In the past, you were able to donate a vehicle and receive tax credit for the fair market value of the vehicle you donated. A new law that took effect January 1, 2005 changed the tax deduction process to make it harder to claim the full value of your donated vehicle. Today, the new law states that you will only be able to deduct the proceeds the charity gets from the sale of the car minus the cost of necessary repairs. The charity must provide the donor written acknowledgement of receipt of the vehicle, as well as the sale price of the vehicle. This could be problematic because the sale price of the car will be significantly less than the true market value of the vehicle. Charitable organizations disapprove of this new law because it will discourage many potential donors, thus hurt the charity. However, it should not discourage potential donors if the charity is their favorite nonprofit, and they know that they are truly helping people get back on their feet. A tax- deduction is nothing compared to helping someone in need.

The only way to deduct the full fair market value of your vehicle is if the charity does not sell your donated vehicle. It the charity uses your vehicle for a program like ?wheels to work? and acknowledges your donation in writing, you can claim the full fair market value.

Car Donations provides detailed information on Car Donations, Used Car Donations, Charity Car Donations, Car Donation Tax Deduction and more. Car Donations is affiliated with Donate a Used Vehicle.