How Loan Amortization Works (Why Early Payments Are Mostly Interest)
Your loan payment stays the same every month, but what it pays off doesn't. Here's a real amortization table showing why early payments are mostly interest.
15 articles
Your loan payment stays the same every month, but what it pays off doesn't. Here's a real amortization table showing why early payments are mostly interest.
A person who invests for just 10 years starting at 25 can end up with more money than someone who invests for 30 years starting at 35 — here's the math.
A mortgage payment isn't just principal and interest — here's what PITI actually includes, and why a fixed-rate payment can still go up over time.
Divide 72 by your interest rate and you'll know roughly how many years it takes your money to double — no calculator needed.
Averaging a +50% year and a -50% year gives 0% on paper — but you actually lost 25%. Here's why simple averages of returns are misleading.
Turn any savings goal — a down payment, a wedding, an emergency fund — into one concrete monthly number, accounting for interest along the way.
The 4% rule offers a rough answer to 'how much do I need to retire': multiply your desired annual income by 25. Here's where that number comes from.
Avalanche saves more money mathematically. Snowball often works better in practice. Here's why both methods exist and how to pick.
Moving into a higher tax bracket doesn't mean your whole income gets taxed at that rate — here's how progressive tax brackets actually work.
VAT is collected at every stage of production, not just at final sale — here's how that changes the math compared to sales tax.
The same purchase can be taxed differently just a few miles apart — because sales tax is usually a stack of several independent rates, not one number.
Standard tipping percentages for the situations that actually come up — restaurants, delivery, salons, and travel — in one reference.
Same principal, same rate, same time period — simple and compound interest produce different totals, and the gap gets bigger every year.
Lenders use a simple ratio — the 28/36 rule — to size up how much mortgage you can actually afford. Here's how to apply it yourself.
Whether tax applies before or after a discount, how stacked discounts interact with tax, and how to back into a discount rate from before/after prices.