^C^IOverview

Loan Accelerator is a program designed to show you the effect of
making additional payments of principal during the course of a
loan.  In addition to this, Loan Accelerator is a full-featured
loan amortization program that allows you to see and print the
amortization schedule of mortgages, installment loans, and other
similar debts.


^C^IWhat's an Amortization?

If you are making payments on a home or car loan, or any other
installment debt, the amount of the payment was calculated by the
bank based on a mathematical determination of the amount you must
pay to cover all the interest at the given rate, and pay off all
the money originally lent (known as the principal), in the fixed
length of time for which you took out the loan.

The amortization schedule is the list of payments from the start
to the end of the loan, with each one broken down by what portion
of it goes to pay off the principal, and what portion is
interest.  Over the life of the loan, the amount of interest in
each successive payment goes down because there is less principal
remaining unpaid, and hence, less money for the bank to charge
you interest on.


^C^IWhy Pay More?

While most people pay exactly the amount of the scheduled payment
every month, this is usually not mandatory.  Most loans (with the
exception of some specialized types of loan with a prepayment
penalty) allow you to pay extra above and beyond the regular
scheduled payment, hence reducing the principal faster than
scheduled, and causing the loan to be paid off earlier and at
less total interest.

You might not realize what a great savings you can achieve by
only a modest additional payment.  At an early stage in the
payback of a loan, most of your payment goes to interest rather
than principal.  Maybe $390 of a $400 payment is merely paying
interest.  Hence, if you pay a mere $10 extra this month, it
doubles the amount of principal you have paid.  These differences
can really add up, as the interest lessens as the principal
balance decreases.


^C^IRunning Loan Accelerator

To run Loan Accelerator outside the ON DISK MONTHLY menu, type:

^C^1LOAN

If the colors are not easily readable on your screen (e.g., if
you are using a laptop with a monochrome LCD screen), type:

^C^1LOAN /M

To start up in "silent" mode (e.g., with the sound turned off),
type:

^C^1LOAN /S

To skip viewing this text file at the start of the program, type:

^C^1LOAN /Q

To see a brief list of these and other command parameters, type:

^C^1LOAN /?


^C^IFor More Information

Full instructions on how to use Loan Accelerator are in the
"Help" text, reachable from the main screen (and most other
places in the program) by pressing F1.

You can view this "About" text again from the main screen (and
most other places in the program) by pressing F9.

Now, press F10 to start running Loan Accelarator!