The Business Master (3rd Edition)

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HHHH HHHH OOOOOOOOO MMMM MMMM EEEEEEEEEEEE HHHH HHHH OOOOOOOOOOO MMM MM MM MMM EEEEEEEEEEEE HHHH HHHH OOO OOO MMM MM MM MMM EEE HHHHHHHHHHHH OOO OOO MMM MM MM MMM EEEEEEEEE HHHHHHHHHHHH OOO OOO MMM MMM MMM EEEEEEEEE HHHH HHHH OOO OOO MMM MMM EEE HHHH HHHH OOOOOOOOOOO MMM MMM EEEEEEEEEEEE HHHH HHHH OOOOOOOOO MMM MMM EEEEEEEEEEEE Y O U R F I N A N C I A L A N A L Y S T (THE HOME FINANCIAL CALCULATOR) Created By: Steve Hudgik HomeCraft Computer Products P.O. Box 974 Tualatin, OR 97062 LLL OOOOOOOOO AAAAAAAAA NNNNN NNN LLL OOOOOOOOOOO AAAAAAAAAAA NNN NN NNN LLL OOO OOO AAA AAA NNN NN NNN LLL OOO OOO AAA AAA NNN NN NNN LLL OOO OOO AAAAAAAAAAA NNN NN NNN LLL OOO OOO AAAAAAAAAAA NNN NN NNN LLLLLLLLLLL OOOOOOOOOOO AAA AAA NNN NN NNN LLLLLLLLLLL OOOOOOOOO AAA AAA NNN NNNNN Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990 by Steven C. Hudgik All Rights Reserved INTRODUCTION Are you thinking of buying a car and you'd like to see what your monthly payment would be? Maybe you'd like to find out how much sooner your mortgage will be paid off if you add $10 a month to your payment; or how much money you can save by refinancing your mortgage at a new, lower interest rate. All of these questions can be answered by YOUR FINANCIAL ANALYST (YFA). YFA can show you various aspects of almost any type of loan, based on information you enter. For example, enter the amount of the loan, interest rate and term (number of years the loan is for) and YFA will give you the monthly payment. You can also enter the monthly payment you'd like to have, the interest rate and the term, and YFA will tell you how much you can borrow. Plus, YFA has a finacial planning section that can help you with retirement planning and planning for your children's college education. HELP screens are provided throughout YFA. If you ever reach a point at which you don't know what to do, just enter a question mark (?) to see the HELP screen. While they can't provide all of the detail contained in this manual, we have included important points and answers to common questions. We hope that YFA proves to be a valuable asset to you. If you should have any problems or would like to offer any comments, please feel free to contact us. Hardware/Software Requirements To operate this version of YFA you need an I.B.M. PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or compatible with 192K of memory and PC/MS-DOS version 2.11 or later. If you wish to get a print-out, then a printer with a minimum 80 column width is required. Booting YFA To use YFA put a copy of the YFA disk in the A disk drive, type HL and push ENTER. Using YFA On A Hard Disk To use YFA with a hard disk, use COPY to copy all of the files on the YFA disk. Once the files have been copied, you can boot up YFA by typing the letters "HL" at the system prompt and pushing ENTER. USING YOUR FINANCIAL ANALYST At any point in YFA, if you need to know where you are and what you should do next, you can push F8 or enter a question mark. This will display a HELP SCREEN containing information about YFA and the type of information you are expected to enter at that point. Also, throughout YFA you can generally push F9 to exit from whatever you are doing. This will bring you back to the last function or menu you were using. NOTE: In most cases the amounts calculated by YFA should be taken as estimates only. YFA is designed to help you plan for the future, however, there is no one who can accurately predict future interest rates or inflation. Be prepared to use YFA on a continuing basis to update and change your plans to meet your current circumstances. The menus throughout YFA are set up so that you can make a selection either of two ways. When the menu first appears the top selection will be highlighted by a light bar. The light bar can be moved up and down through the menu by using the up/down cursor keys. To make a selection using the light bar, move the bar to the function you want to use and then push ENTER. The second way to select a function on the menu is to push the number corresponding that that function. Now let's take a look at the functions listed on the Main Menu. <1> Loan Calculator This first item is the Loan Calculator. Push #1 and a menu will appear that provides several ways for you to get information about a loan. <1> Calculate Payment The first item on the Loan Menu is "Calculate Payment." Push the #1 key and you will then be prompted to enter the amount of the loan. Please remember that commas should not be used when entering amounts. A comma will cause YFA to get confused and the wrong value for the loan amount will be entered. You'll next be asked for the interest rate. Interest rates from as low as 1% up to a maximum of 30% may be entered. The final prompt asks for the term of the loan. YFA can handle loans that run anywhere from 1 year up to 40 years. The monthly payment will now be calculated and displayed. You'll also see a new prompt line that says; "<M>ain Menu or print a table based on varying <I>nterest Rates or <T>erm." If you push the letter M, you'll be returned to the Main Menu. Table Of Interest Rates Suppose you are thinking of borrowing some money, but you're not sure if you should wait for the interest rates to go down (on the other hand they may be heading upward). Push the letter I and YFA will display a table showing the monthly payment for your loan plus the payments for terms both greater and shorter than you selected. In addition, the payments for four other loan amounts will be displayed ($2000 and $4000 more and less than the amount you entered). You could have also pushed the letter I. This would display a similar screen that shows the effect of various interest rates on your loan. With either table on the screen the prompt at the bottom gives you two choices. Push the letter P to print this table (BE SURE YOUR PRINTER IS TURNED ON), or push any other key to return to the Main Menu. It is important that your printer be turned on if you are trying to get a printed copy of this table. If your printer is off, the program will hang up and nothing will happen until the printer is turned on. <2> Calculate Term The next item on the Main Menu allows you to calculate the term of a loan. Push the #2 key and you'll be prompted to enter the amount of the loan. Next you'll be asked for the interest rate and the last item is the monthly payment you'd like to have. The same range of interest rates and terms as described previously can be used here. <3> Calculate Principle Amount The next item on the Main Menu, Calculate Principle Amount, is very similar to the one we just looked at. You'll be prompted to enter the interest rate, term and the amount of the monthly payment. YFA will then tell you how much money you can borrow. <4> Amortization Item 4 on the Main Menu is used to create an amortization table. This type of table will show you how much of each monthly payment is being used to pay interest and how much goes toward paying off the principle. To get the information it needs YFA will first ask you for the amount of the loan, the interest rate and the term. This information is entered in the same way as we've already discussed for the other functions. The next prompt will ask if you have prepaid any part of the principle. For now push the letter N, for NO, and we'll come back to this function later. YFA will now take a few seconds to calculate a amortization table. When complete, you'll be asked for the first monthly period of a twelve month period or for the year for which you would like to see the amortization table. The up and down cursor keys are used to put the cursor next to either the prompt for a monthly period or for the year. The amortization table displayed by YFA covers a 12 month period. If you use the down cursor key to move the cursor to the line asking for a year, and you enter the number 1, you'll see a table showing the first year of the loan. Entering the number 2 will show the second year and so forth. If you leave the cursor on the payment number line, and enter the number 1, the amortization table will show 12 months starting with the first month. If you enter the number 2, the table will show months 2 through 13. Let's look at an example. Prepayments Now let's find out how loan pre-payments are handled by looking at an example. Push F9 until you return to the Amortization screen that asks for the amount of the loan. Enter the same loan amount, interest rate and term that we've been using ($50,000 - 11.25% - 15 yr). You should now be at the prompt that asks about prepayments. Some loans allow you to pay off portions of the principle early. For example, if your monthly payment is $100, you could send in $110 for one month and the extra $10 would be deducted from the principle. If you add enough extra to your monthly payments, you can pay off a loan early and save, in some cases, a substantial amount of interest. Even adding $10 to one monthly payment will result in some savings. If you have prepaid some of the principle or would just like to see what would happen if you did make a few prepayments, push the "Y" key in response to this prompt. You'll be asked to enter the payment number and the amount you paid in excess of your normal monthly payment. (NOTE: To determine the payment number count the number of months since your first loan payment). When you've finished entering the information for all of the prepayments you've made, then push F9 instyead of a payment number. The amortization table will now be calculated taking into account the prepayments you've made. If you make a mistake and happen to enter the wrong payment number, just enter zero for the amount and there'll be no effect on the amortization table. If you make a mistake in entering the amount, re-enter the same payment number again and then the correct amount. A Prepayment Example Let's suppose you have a four year loan for $1000 at 10% interest. This loan will have 48 payments (4 years X 12 months per year). If you included an extra $10 in payment 8 and $25 in payment 11, you should enter that information as shown in the illustration to the left. Now when the amortization table for the first year is displayed, the amount of the prepayment will be shown in the right hand column and the effect of those prepayments will be calculated into the amortization table. I would also like to mention that this feature of YFA can be used to do "what if" calculations. For example, what if you added $100 to next month's mortgage payment? What if you added $100 to the next five payments? How much sooner would your mortgage be paided off? (The amount shown in the amortization table goes to zero when the loan is paid off). Setup If you own a business in which you'd like to make use of Home Loan to provide information for your clients, then YFA has a feature you might find useful. The SETUP feature allows you to enter your name, address, phone number or any other information you'd like. Up to 6 lines, each fourty characters long, may be entered. This information will then be printed at the bottom of all of the printed reports generated by YFA allowing your customers to see who provided the information for them. When you press #6 for SETUP on the Main Menu, YFA will display six blank lines. Type in the information you'd like to have printed at the end of each YFA report just like you would using a word processor. When you're finshed push the ESCape key and a menu will appear. To save the information you've just entered, push the F1. If you've made any mistakes and would like to start over, push the F4 to return to the editor. If you do not want to have anything printed on the YFA reports, then push F5. This will erase the information stored on the disk. When the the blank entry lines come on the screen push the F10 key to return to the Main Menu. FINANCIAL PLANNING The next item on the Main Menu, number 6, gets us into some additional Financial Planning functions provided by YFA. Of course, the loan calculation and amortization tables we've already discussed are valuable financial planning tools. This next section expands the tools available to you by adding the ability to do various financial calculations and to plan for your retirement and your children's college education. With the Loan Calculator Menu (Main Menu) on the screen, push number "6." The menu that appears will have six choices. Value Of An Annuity You may have heard the term "annuity" mentioned when someone wins a big jackpot in a state lottery. If a million dollar prize is awarded, the winner never gets the $1,000,000. Million dollar lottery winners usually get $50,000 per year for twenty years - for a total of $1,000,000. This is called a twenty year, million dollar annuity. An annuity is nothing more that a specific amount of money paid for a set number of years. Are You Really A Millionaire? Let's assume you've won the lottery and you've become a "millionaire." Let's find out how much that prize is really worth and what it costs the state lottery. Push #1 and we'll determine the value of this annuity. The first prompt asks for the amount of the yearly annuity payment. Since the $1,000,000 prize actually pays $50,000 per year for 20 years, enter 50000. DO NOT USE COMMAS WHEN ENTERING AMOUNTS GREATER THAT 999. Next you'll be asked for the interest rate you could earn if this money was invested or put in the bank. This rate will vary depending on when you're reading this and how you want to invest your money. For this example let's assume you can get 8% interest, so enter the number 8. At the next prompt enter the number 20, as you'll receive payments for twenty years. The last prompt allows you to get a printed copy of the annuity table that will be generated. If you want a printed report push the letter "Y" and BE SURE YOUR PRINTER IS CONNECTED AND TURNED ON. For now we don't need to get a printed copy of this report, so push the letter "N." Here's the answer to our question. To pay you the million dollar prize the state lottery only needs to put $490,907.37 in the bank at 8% interest. That's right, you're not a millionaire. The actual value of the million dollar prize is less than half a million dollars. If we don't figure the effect of taxes, you'd be better off taking half a million dollars now instead of the million dollar, twenty year annuity. The Annuity Table Taking a look at the table that should now be displayed on your screen, first notice that each screen can display 15 years. To see the next 15 years push any typing key. To return to the menu push F9. The left column gives you the amount of money in the annuity account before that year's payment is made. The middle column tells you the amount of interest earned by the amount show in the left column. The right hand column gives the amount of the annuity payment, which is made at the end of the year. Getting Back To The Menu After the last page of the annuity table has been displayed you'll be returned to the prompt that asks for the amount of the yearly annuity payment. To exit back to the menu push F9. As is true anywhere in YFA, you can also push F10 to return directly to the Main Menu. Net Present Value Item two on the menu will calculate the amount you need to invest now in order to have a specified amount at some time in the future. In other words, it will tell you how much an amount of money at some time in the future is worth to you today. Let's look at an example. We'll assume that you used to be a member of a retirement plan that will pay you $1000 when you retire in twenty years. This benefit is guaranteed, even though you are no longer a member of the plan. In today's mail you received a letter from the retirement plan that says they would like to reduce the number of inactive members. They'll pay you $250 now instead of the $1000 when you retire. What should you do? A thousand dollars is a lot more that $250, but you have to wait twenty years to get it. Push #2 and we'll get the answer to this question. The first prompt asks for the future amount. For this example that would be 1000. Next you'll be asked for the interest rate. We'll use the same assumption as for the previous example. Enter 8. The third prompt asks for the "number of years." You should enter the number of years it will be until you receive the future amount, in this case 20 years. Once again the last prompt asks if you want a printed report. Push the letter "Y" this time, just to see how the printer reports look. (If you don't have a printer connected to your computer, then push "N"). BE SURE YOUR PRINTER IS TURNED ON. Is It A Good Offer? It looks like the retirement plan's offer of $250 is a good deal. The present value of the $1000 you'll receive in twenty years is $214.55. Thus you are being offered more than what you'll have if you wait. Of course, this calculation is very much dependent on the interest rate you assume. If you go back and have YFA do the calculation again based on a 7% interest rate, it turns out that you should not accept the offer of $250. For this reason you may want to do a calculation several times, with different interest rates, before you make your final decision. A table should now be on the screen. This table shows how $214.55 grows to $1000 in twenty years. The table can display 15 years per screen and pushing any key will advance you to the next screen. I'd Like To Have $10,000 Ten Years From Now Another use for the Net Present Value calculation is to determine the amount of money you'd need to invest today in order to have a specified amount at some time in the future. For example, how much would I need to put in the bank today, at 5- 1/4% interest, in order to have $10,000 in ten years? Entering 10000 as the future amount, 5.25 as the interest rate, and 10 for the number of years, we see that $5994.87 would need to be invested now. Push F9 until you get back to the Finacial Calculator Menu. Future Value Item three on this menu will tell you how much an amount invested today will be worth at some time in the future. Let's assume that you have $1000 you want to invest today. If you put it in the bank at 5-1/4% interest, how much money will you have in five years? At the first prompt of the Future Value calculation screen enter 1000 as the amount to be invested. The next prompt asks for the interest rate. You should enter 5.25 for this example. The third prompt asks for the number of compounding periods per year. If you've put your money in an account that pays daily interest, then you should enter 365 here (360 in Canada). If interest is paid once as year, then enter 1 here. For this example we'll assume that interest is paid quarterly, so you'll need to enter 4 as the number of compounding periods per year. The last prompt asks for the number of years until you expect to withdraw your investment. For this example that would be five years, so enter the number 5. Push the letter "N" in response to the prompt that asks about printed reports. If you do say yes (push the letter "Y"), then be sure your printer is connected and turned on. The table that appears next tells you that you'll have $1297.96 (lower right corner of the table) at the end of five years. This table also displays the amount of interest earned each year and the amount of money you have in the account at the end of each year. The line just below the table gives the total amount of interest earned over the five years as $297.96. This means that your original $1000 has grown by 29.80% due to the interest you've earned. Push F9 until you return to the Finacial Calculator Menu. RETIREMENT PLANNING We're ready to move on and look at the retirement planning section. Push number 4 to bring up the retirement planning screen. The cursor can be moved up and down on this screen by using the UP/DOWN cursor keys. When the cursor is on the bottom line it can also be moved left and right by the LEFT/RIGHT cursor keys. As you are moving the cursor around on the screen it will only move to those lines on which you can enter information. For example, as you move the cursor down it will skip over the "total monthly income" line. The amount shown on this line is calculated by the retirement planner and thus you can not enter anything on this line. Let's go to the top of the screen and discuss each line. Desired Monthly Retirement Income The top line is used to enter the amount of retirement income you'd like to have, in current dollars. In other words, you should enter the monthly income you'd like to have if you retired today. However, keep in mind that when you retire your kids will not be living with you (hopefully) and you may have paid off your mortgage, so don't figure those expenses into your money income. We've set up the retirement planner so that you enter your desired retirement income in current dollars so that you will not need to calculate the effect of inflation. After you've entered the number of years you have before you retire, your desired monthly income will be adjusted for inflation and that amount will be shown on the line in the lower right of the screen called "Desired Monthly Income At Retirement." To see how this works enter $1000 as your desired monthly income in current dollars. Notice that nothing has changed on the screen yet. The retirement planner does not know how many years to use in calculating your desired income at retirement. Use the down cursor key to move the cursor to the bottom line and enter 20 as the number of years until retirement. Your desired monthly income at retirement is $3207.14. Notice that the lines that tell you the amount you'll need to invest now and the amount you'd need to invest each month still show a zero amount. These amounts are calculated by the retirement planner. The top one tells you the lump sum amount you'd need to have in the bank now in order to have the desired income at retirement. The lower one tells you the amount of money you need to invest each month in order to have enough invested at retirement to produce the income you desire. Both of these amounts are zero because the retirement planner needs to know how many years of retirement you are planning on. The cursor should be on the "years of retirement" line, so let's assume you'll be retiring at 65 and you plan to live to be 100. That means you'll have 35 years of retirement. Enter 35. You can now see that you need to have $223,975.57 in the bank today, to produce a retirement income of $3207.14 per month starting 20 years from now and lasting for 35 years. If you don't have any retirement money in the bank, saving $3207.14 per month, for the next 20 years, will give you enough money at retirement to have the desired retirement income. Before we go on let's find out what assumptions are used in calculating these numbers. Assumptions The retirement planner makes two very important assumptions: inflation will average 4% per year and you'll be able to get a 6% return per year on your investments. As I'm writing this in 1986 we've just finished a period of double digit inflation and very high interests rates, so you may be wondering why 4 and 6 percent are used. These two numbers are based on long term historical averages. There have been times when these numbers have been greatly exceeded and other times when inflation and interest rates have been less. As long term averages these numbers should be fairly accurate. Pension Income The way the numbers appear now it looks like you need a lot of money in the bank to achieve a very modest retirement income. However, there's more information we need to enter to make the calculation complete. Move the cursor to the line monthly income that says "FROM PENSION." If you are a member of an employer sponsored pension plan, or have a vested interest in a pension plan with a former employer, then you should receive statements that give your projected income from the pension plan(s) at retirement. Enter the total of those numbers here. If you have no vested interest in a company sponsored pension plan, then do not enter anything here. For this example enter $200. Notice that both the amount you would need to invest now and the amount to invest each month have both decreased to reflect the effect of your pension income. Social Security Income The next line is used to enter your anticipated retirement income from Social Security. The amount entered on this line will vary depending on your past income and circumstances. You may have also received a projection of your Social Security benefits from your employer as a part of your employer's report on your benefits. For the example we're working on we'll assume a Social Security benefit of $2,378. As you can see, when the monthly income from Social Security was entered, both the amount need to invest now and the monthly amount to invest decreased substantially. This happened because the actual Total Monthly Income increased to $2578, which is getting close to your desired monthly income of $3207.14. Investment Income This line can be used to enter the income (or interest) from any investments you expect to have at retirement, in addition to your retirement savings. DO NOT INCLUDE THE INCOME FROM RETIREMENT SAVINGS. THAT INCOME IS ALREADY INCLUDED IN THE CALCULATIONS. This could be income from stocks, a limited partnership, or from a savings account. These should be investments that you do not plan on cashing in. For example, let's assume that you have $5000 set aside for emergencies and you do not plan on ever spending this money (hopefully). If you receive $300 in interest on this money each year, you can include $25 per month (300 divided by 12) as a part of your actual retirement income. Enter 25 on the Investmen Income line. Insurance And Annuity Income The final monthly income line is used to enter income you'll be receiving from insurance policies or annuities. We'll assume that you have a whole life insurance policy that pays a $1200 ($100 per month) annuity upon your retirement. Enter 100 on this line. Retirement Savings The cursor has advanced to the final line that we need to enter information on, "Amount Of Money In Retirement Savings Now." You should enter the amount of money you currently have set aside for retirement. It could be in an IRA or KEOGH plan, or it might just be a regular savings account. If both you and your wife have been putting $2000 into an IRA, you might have about $14,000 now, so enter 14000 on this line. Your Retirement Plan Based on the figures you've entered you need to have an additional $21,207.35 in the bank, or you need to save $115.46 per month in order to reach your retirement goal. Since you are already saving $333.33 per month with your IRA contributions of $4000 per year ($2000 each for you and your spouse), the retirement income goal you've set is very modest. If you don't change the amount of money you're putting into your IRA, what amount of retirement income can you expect? Move the cursor up to the top line and try increasing your desired income. First try $1200 per month. Notice that this increases the monthly amount you'd need to invest to $359.34, a little more than you are putting into your IRAs now. Try $1180 as a desired monthly income. This will require you to save $334.96 per month, just about what you're saving now. You can also see that you should have an income of $3784.42 per month when you retire, that's what an average of 4% inflation for 20 years has done to $1180. Printed Reports You can get a one page printed report containing the information on the screen at any time. Just push the letter "P." BE SURE YOUR PRINTER IS CONNECTED, TURNED ON, AND HAS PAPER IN IT. To return to the Financial Calculator menu push the F9. To return to the main YFA Menu, push F10. COLLEGE PLANNING With the Financial Calculator Menu on the screen push the #5 key to select "College Planning." This screen allows you to calculate the amount of money you'll need to save, if you are planning on sending your kids to college. The calculations are based on a historical average increase in college costs of 5% per year and the assumption that you should be able to get at least 6% on money you've invested. The cursor can be moved around on the screen by using the UP/DOWN cursor keys. The cursor will only move among the top four items, the bottom two items are calculated by the college planner. Public or Private College? When you start the cursor should be on the word "PUBLIC" in the top line. This line allows you to toggle the setting between public colleges and private colleges. Changing this setting changes the default value for the current cost of college. Push any typing key to toggle the setting between public and private. For the example we'll be looking at here, set this line to "PUBLIC." Your Child's Age Enter the age of your child on this line. The college planner assumes that your child will be entering college at age 18 and uses the age you enter here to determine the number of years until your child is eighteen. If you are planning on sending someone to college after they turn 18, then you'll need to determine the number of years until they'll be going to college, subtract that number from 18 and enter the result as the age of the child. (If you'll be putting your 56 year old mother through college starting in 5 years, enter 13 as the age). For this example enter 3 as the age. Current Yearly Cost There will be a default value of $6175 on this line. This is the average cost of a public college for the 1988-89 school year. If you had toggled the setting for a private college, then the amount shown on this line would be $12,511. You do not have to use the default settings. If you have an idea of the cost for the college you want this child to go to, enter that on this line. Do not enter the cost someone is projecting for when your child gets to the school. Enter the average yearly amount it costs to go to that school today. Of course, as this software becomes less current you will need to enter a number different from the default setting to reflect the overall increase in college costs. You can plan on a 5-6% increase in college costs per year. In this example we'll leave the current yearly cost at the default setting of $6,175. Amount Of Money Saved The fourth line is used to enter the total amount of money you already have set aside for this child's college education. For example, you might have set up a separate saving account for the child. If that account has $400 in it, then you should enter 400 on the "Amount Currently Available" line. Enter 400. The Results If you were watching the screen as you entered the various numbers, you would have seen the amounts on the bottom two lines changing. They should now be giving you the total cost of four years of college and the amount you need to save each month to have that much money when your child starts college. A printed copy of this report can be obtained by pushing the letter "P." Push the F9 to return to the financial calculator menu or F10 to return to the main YFA menu. IRA PLANNING The IRA Planner will calculate the amount you will have in your IRA at retirement based on a regular yearly savings plan. Three prompts will appear one at a time. The first prompt asks for the amount you will be investing in your IRA each year. Amounts up to $1,000,000 can be entered. Next you'll be asked for the average annual interest rate. Since none of us has a 100% accurate crystal ball this number is your guess at what the average interest rate will be between now and your retirement. Don't base your judgment on where interest rates are today (expect for "what if" calculations), as today's interest rates may not be realistic for the long term. Historically interest rates on long term, highly secure investments, has been in the 6 to 7% range. (The maximum rate YFA can handle is 33%). The final prompt asks for the number of years you have until you expect to retire. If you plan to retire before you stop making deposits in your IRA, then this number would be the number of years until you stop making deposits. The maximum number of years that can be entered is 70. YFA will now calculate the value of your IRA when you retire. The maximum amount that can be displayed is $10,000,000. THE END This concludes our look at YFA. This software provides you with a great WHAT IF... tool that allows you to explore the many possibilities for loan configurations and payments and for planning your financial future. Try experimenting with the various functions and discover the many possibilities available. Also, I would like to remind you once again that the calculations performed by YFA should only be taken as estimates. No one can predict what future interest rates or inflation will be. YFA has been designed to help you plan for the future, but the only thing sure about the future is that there will be change. So, plan for change and be prepared to change your plans as circumstances change. YOUR FINANCIAL ANALYST was created by: Steve Hudgik HomeCraft Computer Products P.O. Box 974 Tualatin, OR 97062 This manual and software are copyrighted (copyright 1988 - Steven C. Hudgik). We grant permission for this manual and associated software to be copied for non-commercial purposes only. This software has been placed in circulation under the user supported concept. Non-profit groups and individuals are encouraged to make copies of this disk and distribute it to their members and friends as long as the software is provided at no cost. A distibution charge, not to exceed $10, may be charged only with the express written permission of the author and copyright holder. Under the user-supported concept, you are given a complete, working software free. If you find you are using this software, a contribution of $35 is suggested. The money will cover the cost of bug fixes, improvements, postage, telephone bills, etc. The contribution will make you a registered user. As a registered user you are entitled to updates, support, and a current copy of the user's manual and software. A registration form can be displayed and printed from a prompt on the Main YFA Menu. Or send $35 with your name, address, computer type and the name of this software to the address given above. Please add $3.00 for shipping, $5.00 for shipment by airmail outside the U.S. his software to the address given above. Please add $3.00 for shipping, $5.00 for shipment by airmail