Calculating a Monthly Payment

Ever wonder how to calculate a monthly payment without using a spreadsheet software such as MS Excel?

Well below is the formula:

• P = principal, the initial amount of the loan
• I = the annual interest rate (from 1 to 100 percent)
• L = length, the length (in years) of the loan, or at least the length over which the loan is amortized.

The following assumes a typical conventional loan where the interest is compounded monthly. First I will define two more variables to make the calculations easier:

• J = monthly interest in decimal form = I / (12 x 100)
• N = number of months over which loan is amortized = L x 12

Okay now for the big monthly payment (M) formula, it is:

                              J
         M  =  P  x ------------------------
                      1  - ( 1 + J ) ^ -N

   where 1 is the number one (it does not appear too clearly on some browsers)

Pretty complicated huh?

Well I whipped up a little webpage script to do it all for you if you enter in your 3 main variables (Amount, Years financed, and Interest Rate). I wanted it to use for my blackberry, so it is very mobile-focused. (Read as nothing fancy, but it is fast loading)

Monthly Payment Calculator

Thanks goes to Karl for the above formula.

Technorati Tags: calculator, interest, loan, note, payment, monthly

Living Dreams

Last night I had one of the weirdest dreams ever. I dreamed that I had just awoken from a dream about the greatest murder mystery plot ever conceived. In my dream a was making notes of my dream so that I could write the actual book based on it.

I woke up this morning with all details so fresh in my head that I figured I need not write them down. I had convinced myself that this was a rather cool plot, but now? Nothing don’t remember hardly anything. I guess I was trying to tell myself something.

Maybe it had something to do with he fact that we watched Saw III last night…

Technorati Tags: Saw III, movie, book, dreams

Did you know?

That the coldest and warmest day on record in North Dakota both happened in the same year?

1936 to be exact.

coldest: -60 degrees F in Parshall on February 15th
warmest: 121 degrees F in Steele on July 6th

Now you know!

Technorati Tags: climate, temperature, North Dakota, Steele, Parshall, record, temps

No Frogs for You

It’s a rare thing to witness the extinction of an entire class of
animal. We weren’t around to see the dinosaurs disappear, and the dodo
was just one species of bird — it’s not like all birds slowly
disappeared. But according to many conservation scientists, that’s
exactly what amphibians are facing: Frogs and others in the amphibia
class are on their way out unless the conservation community takes
immediate action.

Wow, it’s hard to imagine that my kids or grandkids may never know what a frog is…

Link

Technorati Tags: frogs, amphibians, life, extinction

Computer Statistic Question

Anyone know or seen where I could find the average number of computers owned by US citizens over their lifetime?

Technorati Tags: computers, statistic

Trump on Business

When buying a business, you can and should expect to make a return of
at least 25 to 33 percent on your cash investment within the first
year. Plus, you will have the opportunity to produce a steady personal
cash flow, and you’ll be building value that will pay you handsomely
when the day arrives to sell the business.

That’s odd, I have never seen a figure like that before. Most times in the case of a new business, they say you will not make much profit the first couple of years…

Link

Technorati Tags: Trump, business

Interesting article on Google co-founder Sergey Brin

It takes a bit of searching to find Sergey Brin’s office at the Googleplex.
Tucked away in a corner of Building #43 on this sprawling campus near
the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, past rows of colorfully
decorated cubicles and dorm-like meeting spaces, Office 211 has a
nondescript exterior and sits far from the public eye. Although it
takes several twists and turns to get there, his office is not
protected—as you would expect for the cofounder of a $150-billion
company—by a Russian nesting doll’s worth of doors and gatekeepers.

Full Link

Technorati Tags: google, sergey brin

Colder than Cold

Yesterday morning on the way to work my pickup gelled up. Had to get the fuel filter replaced to fix it. I must have got a bad batch of diesel when I filled the night before. (It was a 50/50 blend supposedly)

This morning it was even colder (-26 F before windchill) but all is well with all the anti-gel in the tank now!

Technorati Tags: cold, weather, pickup, diesel, gel

Happy Valentines Day!

Worried about getting stuck with the tab for an expensive lobster dinner?

Just show your date this page on how to shuck a lobster while still alive.

That should either land you dateless or at White Castle…

Technorati Tags: valentines day, lobster, shucking

The Price of War

I meant to write about this yesterday but kottke summed it up so great I think I will borrow his words on the subject:

Nina Berman won a prize in the 2007 World Press Photo contest for this heartbreaking photo of a badly wounded Iraqi war veteran and his childhood sweetheart on their wedding day. Their story is here.
“One arm was a stump and his remaining hand had only two fingers.
Later, his big toe was grafted on in place of a thumb. One eye was
blind and milky, as if melted, and his ears had been burnt away. The
top of his skull had been removed and inserted by doctors into the
fatty tissue inside his torso to keep it viable and moist for future
use.” (thx, ayush)
Update: Here are some more of the couple’s wedding photos and more photos of Iraqi vets from Berman here and here.

Technorati Tags: war, iraq, pics, photos