Wheatworks Blog: Financial Matters

LoanSpread(tm) Calculator Compares 135 Loans at Once with Amortization Schedules

9/6/2008, 3:01 pm

Ruston, LA September 6, 2008 — Wheatworks Software announces LoanSpread 4.7, a major update of its award-winning loan comparison calculator. This financial calculator allows the user to compare 135 loans at once, review detailed summaries of selected loans and print amortization schedules with or without prepayments.

LoanSpread Loan Comparison Calculator is a powerful financial tool for consumers and professionals in banking, lending, financial planning and real estate industries. LoanSpread helps professionals see the big picture quickly when considering the time value of money or a particular lending scenario. The financial calculation results are displayed on a grid of answers making relationships among principal, interest rate, term and payment immediately.

Consumers can use the power of LoanSpread to analyze and compare possible loans more quickly than ever before. Because LoanSpread compares 135 loans at once, borrowers save time. Users can print out the calculation results for all the loans on a simple, easily understood, one-page report containing the financial answer grid.

LoanSpread helps users compare mortgage loans, too. After entering the estimated annual property taxes and insurance, users can choose to include them in the calculation results so that payments, for example, reflect the true monthly loan cost of principal, interest, taxes and insurance.

LoanSpread Loan Comparison Calculator solves for any of the primary loan variables a user wishes. By clicking a button, a user determines which calculated variable is displayed in the answer grid. The financial answer grid updates instantly with the results for 135 different loans.

What’s new in LoanSpread 4.7?

New to version 4.7 is the ability to create and print amortization schedules with prepayments. A user can right-click any loan in the financial answer grid and create an annual or monthly amortization schedule for it. Once the amortization schedule is created, the user can easily add prepayments to a single payment, a range of payments or to all payments.

Available now, LoanSpread 4.7 costs $39.95. Significant discounts on multi-user licenses are offered.

A free, fully-functional, 10-use trial is available for download from: http://www.loanspread.com

About Wheatworks Software

For more than a decade, Wheatworks Software has created award-winning financial calculators for consumers, professionals and companies in the real estate, investment, mortgage and financial services industries. Founded in 1997 by Rick Wheat, Wheatworks Software has released several financial software products including, Home Buyer’s Calculator Suite, Real Estate Calculator Suite, Discounted Cash Flow Analysis Calculator, Home Seller’s Calculator, SaveSpread(tm) and LoanSpread(tm). For more information, please visit http://www.wheatworks.com.

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Tags: amortization schedules, compare loans, financial calculator, loan comparison calculator, loanspread
Category: Automobile Finance, Press, Software Updates | 1 Comment

Money Is for Sale

8/31/2008, 4:31 pm

How we think about something often determines how we interact with it. This is especially true about money.

Most people want more money. But having more money does not make most people happier. It fails to do so because there’s no magic in money. It holds no eternal value. It can bestow nothing of true value upon those who possess it. Money is just money.

Few people think of money as a product that can be bought or sold. But money is exactly that.

Banks do not give money away. Banks are in the money-selling business. They sell it in the form of loans.

When you borrow money from a bank or other lender, you are actually buying the money. What you pay for it, the cost of money, is the difference between the amount you borrow and the total amount paid over time in the form of interest and costs.

Of course, some money costs more than other money. If one lender “offers” you an interest rate of 8.75% to borrow $100,000 and another lender’s rate is of 6.0% (all other terms being equal), buying money from the first lender will cost you more.

A quick way to compare 135 loans at once is to use the LoanSpread Loan Comparison Calculator. The LoanSpread(tm) calculator makes the cost of money obvious and LoanSpread’s Loan Summary feature shows the details of the costs.

Smart people shop around for the best price when they make a purchase. It’s amazing, however, how many people don’t do the same when they’re buying money. Remember, money is for sale. It’s always wise to shop around for the best price. And LoanSpread(tm) makes it easy to understand the cost of money.

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Tags: cost of money, loan comparison calculator, loanspread, money is for sale
Category: Automobile Finance, Banking Information, Consumer Credit, Financial Tips | Comment

Rent or Buy

8/26/2008, 10:00 pm

It’s an age old question. And Google may have an answer.

Is it better to rent or buy a house? You an I know the answer differs depending on a lot of personal and financial variables. What may be better for one is worse for another.

But perhaps Google(tm) can help answer the question in general.

Here is the unscientific, “not based on anything but search engine returns” answer to the rent or buy question.

By a margin of 2 to 1, Google search results seem to recommend renting over buying. How do I know?

I’ve just searched Google for the following phrases and share the results.

“renting is better than buying” on 2,670 pages
“buying is better than renting” on 1,330 pages

It may be apropos of nothing, but it is interesting.

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Tags: rent or buy
Category: Financial Tips, Home Buying | Comment

A ‘Good’ Depression?

8/12/2008, 8:21 pm

Paul B. Farrell’s piece, “America needs a ‘Good Depression’: Seven reasons a ‘good’ depression beats a new Great Depression“, raises some excellent points about the reason dragging out the misery of our current economic condition will only make matters worse. In fact, in the article on MarketWatch.com, he writes, “it’s coming soon, whether you like it or not!” And he supports the statement well.

Summary: You may not agree, but a Good Depression will be a good thing because it will correct many of the faults that allow our economic decline.

It’s a good read on MarketWatch.com

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