This manual is available online by selecting ﾔHelpﾕ from the Tools Menu. Use this document if you wish to print the help text.
INTRODUCTION
AmortView was developed to assist consumers in making informed decisions when either choosing a lender or analyzing and modifying an existing mortgage. Not only will this program calculate all available mortgage options available in the Canadian market, it will also allow for balloon payments, annual payment increases and benchmark comparisons.
The interest on a Canadian mortgage is calculated semi-annually, in that half of the stated interest is paid to the lender every six months, regardless of the type of loan. Other countries ( such as the US ) calculate interest more frequently and in the process generate relatively costlier mortgages. This version of AmortView uses the semi-annual method of interest calculation and was written to service the needs of Canadian consumers. Future plans include the development of a US version.
OVERVIEW
Calculation Methods
AmortView offers you two calculation methods. The first method calculates a period payment ( or blended payment ) from a user entered amortization period. A blended payment consists of both interest and principal. The individual payment amount remains the same over the life of the mortgage as the principal portion increases while the interest decreases.
The second method reverses the process by calculating the amortization period from a given period payment that you enter. This gives AmortView the most flexibility in calculating 'what if' situations.
The first method would be best suited when:
1. you are wondering what a 25 year $100K mortgage would cost.
2. you are checking that an existing mortgage is a true accelerated
weekly mortgage.
This would be done by comparing your mortgage payment to the
results created by AmortView.
3. you can't remember your payment.
The second method is best suited for:
1. you know already what you can afford in terms of a payment.
2. you want to explore various payment amounts with an existing
mortgage.
Both methods are excellent tools for convincing a spouse to restructure an existing mortgage.
Payment Frequency
This is how often you need to cough up to the bank. From an order of highest to least effective:
Frequency of Pmts # of Annual Payments
weekly 52
bi-weekly 26
semi-monthly 24
monthly 12
Payment Plans
There are currently three available plans available in Canada. From an order of highest to least effective:
Accelerated Fast Pay:
This is where the fun begins. True accelerated payments provide for an extra monthly payment per year due to the fact that there are 13 - 4 week periods in a year. Every penny of that extra payment goes towards reducing the outstanding principal. So if a monthly payment in a standard mortgage is $800/month ( $9600 / year ), a weekly accelerated mortgage would cost you $200 a week ( $10400 / year ) of which the extra $800 would be put towards the principal.
You will save a whole ton o' cash and debt time if you head into a weekly accelerated mortgage. A fast pay mortgage is one with a payment frequency greater than a month ( bi-weekly, semi-monthly, weekly ).
Regular Fast Pay:
Many lenders still advertise this as an accelerated mortgage. In this case the annual payment ( $9600 ) is divided by the number of payments per year. In a weekly payment schedule the weekly payment would be $184.61. You will have a lower payment because no extra annual payment is made. And remember that the extra payment from the accelerated fast pay was heading straight for the principal! You save very little in terms of money and time with a regular fast pay mortgage.
Minimum Fast Pay:
The payment is calculated using the full amortization period of the loan. This offers the lowest payment of all and, surprise, is the least effective. There is no reduction in the amortization period, and like the regular fast pay mortgage, there is no extra built-in annual payment. Check this out.
In the case of a $100k weekly mortgage @ 9.65% over 25 years:
Mortgage Type Weekly Pmt Total Interest Amort Period Interest Saved
Acc Fast Pay $217.34 $114,840.80 19.02 years $45,965.77
Reg Fast Pay $200.62 $157,681.06 24.71 years $3,125.06
Min Fast Pay $200.02 $160,021.29 25.00 years $785.28
The 'Interest Saved' compares these fast pay mortgages to a monthly mortgage, which is the benchmark that we use throughout the program. Be aware that many of the mortgage table books that are published actually use the minimum method for calculating fast pay mortgages.
Balloon Payments
Balloon payments or prepayments are wads of cash that the banks let you throw at your outstanding principal usually on the anniversary of the start date. Try throwing $5K at a mortgage early in it's life and watch what ye shall save! There are usually restrictions by the lender on the amount that you can pay.
Payment Increases
Now it's time to dream. Imagine if you will a universe where you could afford to bump up your payment by 5% a year. Okay, how about raising it just once? However, be warned of the effectiveness of these particular options in their ability to kick the stuffing out of your mortgage. You'll be crying in your soup if you don't have the beans. Again, check your lender's amount restrictions.
THE CONTROLS
Calculator Dialog Box
This is the first dialog box ( after the intro screen ) that appears when you boot up AmortView. Note that when the Monthly Payment frequency radio button is selected that only the Minimum payment plan is available.
Calculation Method:
Allows you two choices for entering information. If you set the Calc Method to Find # of Payments, the text box becomes dynamic in that it will display the payment required for a 25 year mortgage for any frequency or payment plan that you choose. This is designed to give you a starting point in choosing a payment amount.
Payment Plan & Payment Frequency:
These two groups of radio buttons should be straight ahead. If you jumped ahead and don't understand these functions, read the overview.
Start Date:
This should be set to the day that you make your first payment to the bank. It usually is the beginning or end of a month, but it doesn't have to be. The Start Date toggle is calenderﾐaware in that you can't enter something like Sept. 31. Once you calculate a mortgage, the Schedule window will calculate exact dates of the payments.
In a case where a start date is the 31st of the month, any subsequent payment month with no 31st day will have it's entry in the schedule shifted to the 1st day of the following month .
There is no keyboard input available for the Start Date function. You gotta mouse it.
Text Fields:
All fields support but do not require floating point numbers. $100 will produce the same results as $100.00. Note that if you are entering an amortization period amount such as 2 1/2 years, it would need to be expressed as a decimal number ( eg. 2.5 years ).
If you enter an invalid number in any of the text fields, an alert box will appear to suggest appropriate values. If you enter a payment amount that will not cover the interest portion of the first payment, the program will calculate the minimum amount needed to cover the interest. You can navigate through the text fields by using the tab key.
Control Buttons:
Clicking on the Calculate button ( or pressing Return or Enter ) closes the dialog box and initiates the calculation of the mortgage. Selecting the Cancel button ( or pressing Command-period or Esc ) closes the dialog box and places the program in a wait-state. All of your current settings in both cases will be saved if you return to the Calculator dialog box.
Payment Utilities Dialog Box
Annual Payment Increase:
Allows you to increase your payments one time or once a year on a date that you specify. The increase is expressed as a percentage. If you enter a 5% increase and uncheck the Apply Once checkbox, the program will increase your payment by 5% each year for the life of the loan. The Start Date control is calendar- aware.
Balloon Payment:
The Anniversary Date refers to the year that the balloon payment is to be made. The program uses the original day- month values entered in the Calculator dialog box.
Control Buttons:
Selecting the Calculate button ( or pressing Return or Enter ) closes the dialog box and initiates a re-calculation of the mortgage using the values that you entered. If either of the Increase Payment or Pmt Amount text fields has a value greater than 0, the payment date specified will be printed in bold in the Schedule window once the re-calculation is made.
Selecting the Cancel button ( or pressing Command-period or Esc ) closes the dialog box. The values entered in the Increase Payment or Pmt Amount text fields will only be used if you select the Calculate button.
Schedule Window
Display:
The Schedule window is displayed upon selecting either the Calculate button in the Calculator or Payment Utilities dialog box. The program automatically scrolls to the 'bottom line'. Use the scrollbars or navigation keys ( Page U & D, arrow, Home and End ) to scroll the spreadsheet. To save space, the program displays the following payment instances:
Monthly Semi- Monthly Bi-Weekly Weekly
every pmt every 2nd pmt every 2nd pmt every 4th pmt
Using the Benchmark:
If you have selected a payment frequency other than monthly, a benchmark is calculated and displayed at the bottom of the Schedule window. It will use the textﾐentered information from the Calculator dialog box to calculate a separate minimum monthly mortgage.
It is also possible to lock the benchmark once one has been generated. If locked, the current values in the benchmark are saved so that any subsequent calculations will be compared to these original amounts. This is useful if you are interested in comparative experimenting.
Let's say that you have already entered in your existing 25 year mortgage, calculated it and now have a benchmark showing ( Keep in mind that this is assuming that your mortgage is not a monthly minimum ). After locking the benchmark, you can now return to the Calculator dialog box and enter in a higher payment or lower interest rate and have the results of your changes compared to the original 25 year benchmark. You could then try a Balloon Payment or an Increase Payment 3 years into the loan to compare all of this to your 'locked' mortgage. It starts to get exciting when your changes reflect a $60K savings as compared with your existing mortgage's original benchmark savings of $3000.
Keep in mind that if you had gone ahead and raised your payments without locking the benchmark, the Schedule window would then show a benchmark with an amortized period of less than 25 years, as the new 'increased' payment would have been used for the benchmark calculation.
Schedule Summary Layout:
This summary is printed at the bottom of the schedule.
Calculation Method:
Payment Plan:
Payment Frequency:
These will reflect the settings from the Calculator dialog box.
The remaining summary results will only be shown if the Payment Frequency is greater than one month.
Status:
Informs you if the benchmark is 'locked' or 'unlocked'.
Benchmark Loan Period:
Benchmark Interest Rate:
Benchmark Monthly Payment:
The above results show the numbers used to calculate the benchmark mortgage. If you haved calculated a mortgage period by entering a payment amount, AmortView will convert your payment amount into a monthly payment. The benchmark loan period will then be calculated using this amount. Conversely if you have entered a loan period, the benchmark will use that loan period to calculate a benchmark monthly payment. If the benchmark is locked, this portion of the summary remains unchanged.
Number of years saved /added to mortgage:
Interest amount saved / added to mortgage:
Compares the calculated mortgage to the benchmark. If the benchmark is locked, these two numbers will be updated to compare the locked benchmark to any subsequent mortgage calculation. If unlocked, they reflect the comparison between the last calculated mortgage and the benchmark generated from that mortgage.
MENU ITEMS
File Menu
New Calculation ( Command - N ):
Close the Schedule window (if open) and open the Calculator dialog box.
Show Window ( Command - W ):
Open the Schedule window
Hide Window ( Command - W ):
Close the Schedule window
Page Setup:
Open the user's printer page setup dialog box.
Print ( Command - P ):
Begin printing. To cancel printing press Command, then type a period "(.)". For printing, AmortView uses the Monaco font, which is a mono-spaced font. This ensures that the printed columns will line up correctly. For best results have either a TrueType or Type 1 outline version of Monaco installed in your system.
Quit ( Command - Q ):
Quit the application.
Tools Menu
Payment Utilities ( Command - U ):
Opens the Payment Utilities dialog box. It's worth noting again that the amounts entered in both the Increase Pmt and Pmt Amount text fields will only be used if the user exits this dialog box by way of the Calculate button.
Lock Benchmark ( Command - L ):
Locks an existing benchmark calculation. Will be inactive if one does not exist. See "Using the Benchmark".
Help ( Command - H ):
Opens the Help dialog box. Use the bookmarks to navigate the various topics.
DISCLAIMER
Legal Stuff
AmortView is released as is. No guarantee is made about the safety or competence of the software to perform as claimed. No responsibility or liability is taken for any damage, destruction or loss of data caused by using this software. Distribution of AmortView on CD-ROM and all other high capacity media is strictly prohibited. While there was great care taken to prepare accurate calculations, there is no warranty for total accuracy. Actual numbers may vary due to rounding. This program is intended for the calculation of Canadian mortgages only.
Copyrightｩ 1996 The Gravity Twins Software Company & Wayne Kelso. All rights reserved.
Portions of this code Copyrightｩ 1994 by James G. Stout.
USER SUPPORT
If you have any suggestions, bug reports or just plain ol' questions, please contact me at the following internet E-mail addresses:
