Thanks. 72 months. Borrowed April 2nd, 2007, first payment due May 17th,
2007. Just like you suspected.

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:#KkRWZotIHA.1772[at]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
- quote -

As to what category the adjustments should be made, I would probably just
use the interest expense category either way. That's where any difference,
either way, was accumulated.

Term = length = number of payments.

"drokkon" <drokkon[at]live.com> wrote in message
news:77BCF579-55D3-4A4B-9625-CB75D4F61E18[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Thanks for all your help on this issue, Dick (and Cal, and Steve).

I've decided to take everyone's advice: let Money calculate the interest
rates, change the P/I manually every month, and maybe adjust the account
balance periodically (what would a good category for this adjustment be?).
The bank DID loan me the money about 45 days before my first payment was
due. Good call on that.

I'm not sure what your question means, exactly: what term does the lender
think this loan is?

Thanks again!

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:#V3aCsyoIHA.420[at]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
- quote -

"Steve" <respond[at]online.newsgroup> wrote in message news:Xns9A868A779C48B184365720018436572[at]207.46.248.16...

- quote -

I reconcile only annually and the amount is in the low dollars. I credit or debit the principal balance difference to the interest expense account and it balances.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

"drokkon" <drokkon[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:CFCF4774-C7F1-4611-9EA1-6ABA0CD0D216[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Just curious: how far do you think the balances will diverge? $10 per month?
$100 per month? $1,000 per month? (Even $10 per month over a 60 month loan
is over $600--in the full term of the loan--or more than a full payment. I'm
betting it won't be anywhere NEAR that much.)

- quote -

Because, as noted, there is not Just One Solution to this problem.

As noted, I suspect that there is something in the bank's loan calculation
that you aren't and/or cannot tell Money. My bet is a long first payment
period or some extra something added to the prinicpal balance. (Like you
took the loan out on the 16th of April and they were "kind enough" to let
you go until the 1st of June before owing a payment. But they charge interst
for these extra days at the maximum balance the loan will ever be.) This
happens. If you want to become an expert in finance, worry less about how
Money calculates this and more about what the lender is doing to maximize
their income--out of your pocket--on this loan. BTW, you never have told us
what term the lender thinks this is.

Money does provide tools to deal with this. But they cannot possibly fit all
cases. Many people come here with similar issues from lots of different
kinds of loans. Most of them find ways to get along.

- quote -

As noted. we've supplied the workaround. It's not a perfect solution--to a
problem that isn't Money's, per se. But it's the best you are going to get.

Some calculators:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...or&btnG=Search.

=?Utf-8?B?ZHJva2tvbg==?= <drokkon[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote on
19 Apr 2008 in group microsoft.public.money:

- quote -

Money never calculates the P&I exactly the same way the loan company
does it. I've had several loans with different lenders and tracked them
all. Money gets close, but never exactly matches the lender's
amortization schedule.

Here's what I do:
* Create the loan as Dick Watson suggests, letting Money calculate the
interest rate. That's the only figure that doesn't really matter.
* Each month, reconcile your payment with the statement from the lender.
It will be off by a few cents in the allocation of princple versus
interest. Change money to match the statement -- those are the numbers
that you have to live with.
* Money will offer to recalculate the rest of the payments, because you
changed its estimates. Let it if you want. It doesn't matter. It will
probably get a little more accurate if you do.
* The final loan payment is always odd. Just make Money match what you
see on your statement when it arrives.

Every lender does slightly different calculations for their loans, and
there are lots of different loan terms. Sometimes the interest is
calculated on the first day of the month or the last. Sometimes they do
it by the week, or even the hour. Money only has the one calculator.
--
Steve B.
New Life Home Improvement

In microsoft.public.money, drokkon wrote:

- quote -

Maybe it would convince you that everybody else "obviously
miscalculates" interest rates also?

Thanks for the help, guys... like I said, I'm just a young guy who knows very
little about finances. I'm also a little bit of a perfectionist - I like
knowing things down to the penny. I want Money to track my checking, savings,
IRA, credit card, and car loan. I'm trying to use its budget. I feel as
though I'm a simple user, and I'm not trying to do crazy things. I want it to
just work. I'm wondering if Quicken "just works."

If I leave interest blank and it miscalculates it, I'd be fine with that -
IF it would accurately track my debt. But I've created a new loan several
dozen times now, applying everything I know about math, and I can always
start the debt at where it's at today (or when I took out the loan) and I can
always get the debt to get to $0 on the last day of my payment - but it's
always wrong every single payment in-between.

My interest is compiled annually, I believe, and it's through USAA - a
mainstream bank. I can't imagine it's this crazy loan structure than Money
can't understand.

[at]Dick: First of all, it'd be a much larger percentage than .01 for me, but
why should you have to deal with errors at all? This is a COMPUTER program
specifically for managing your FINANCES. Besides... like I said, I'm a little
bit of a perfectionist.

[at]Cal: What would finding a calculator on the web do for me?
"Cal Learner-- MVP" wrote:

- quote -

In microsoft.public.money, drokkon wrote:

- quote -

There are a lot of loan amortization calculators on the web. Can you
find one that agrees with your belief?

But by how much (as a function of the total loan) and how much does that
matter over all? Say your net worth is $100,000 and this loan balance is off
by $100. That's going to misstate your net worth by 0.1%. Does it really
matter?

You can also hand edit every payment's interest and principal components to
match statement values.

You can also periodically--once a year?--adjust the loan account balance.

The bottom line is that for whatever reason your lender and Money calculate
this differently. There may be some fine print fee/charge in the loan. The
loan also was probably setup with a long first payment term to goose the
interest charged to the lender's favor. This is quite common on car loans
and Money doesn't model it. Who knows?

Or you could try Quicken. My bet is that it will have the exact same issue.

"drokkon" <drokkon[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:52EF2946-06E5-4CB5-ABD1-2ECC14AF2D0F[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

If I leave the interest rate off, it obviously miscalculates it. I've also
tried making the interest 0% and then adding all the interest to the
principle. The bottom line is that I can easily make it so that I'm paying
$373 per month, and I can make it get to $0 after six years... but every
single balance it shows between now and then is going to be wrong.

"Dick Watson" wrote:

- quote -

I suspect this has already been suggested, but leave out the interest rate.
Let Money compute it from the term, principal, and payment you specify. It
may be off a little from what your loan says. For your purposes in Money, it
doesn't matter much of anything. There are different ways to compute these
things.

"Teddy" <Teddy[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:65327258-32CA-4473-8772-38E55D18F43E[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

Well, I'm back. I gave up initially, but now I've upgraded to the newest
Money version and the thing still doesn't work. It should be easier! Does
anyone have any experience with Quicken? Is it easier? I might switch...

I'm NOT complicated- a checking account, credit card account, and a car
loan. And money is making one of the three complicated. I'm also having
trouble with budgeting, but that's a post for another day.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone - but why can't it just track my loan? It's
not some weird loan - it's a regular loan from a regular bank.

"Chris Cowles" wrote:

- quote -

In microsoft.public.money, drokkon wrote:

- quote -


Most people leave one item, such as interest rate, blank for Money
to compute, so don't have that problem.

"drokkon" <drokkon[at]live.com> wrote in message
news:BA49B049-18B3-4028-84EE-C78F6928844F[at]microsoft.com...

- quote -

Based on payment due date
Principal 21549.70
Interest 6.49
Loan length <calculateP&I 373.23
Balloon (0 or 367.23, doesn't affect conclusion)

Money calculates length = 68 months and balloon = 894.37. Obviously
the latter is bogus and the former may be, too -- you didn't say what
the loan length was. That doesn't matter much for the next 5 years.
What matters is if the P/I split in Money's amortization schedule
approximates that from the bank. If within a couple of bucks on the
P/I, I recommend taking it as it is. You can reconcile the loan
balance annually, attributing the adjustment to interest.

When (if) you get to payment 66, recalculate the whole thing. I
recently did that for my mortgage and let Money calculate the balloon.
The final payment is off by a few bucks but the P&I is exact. Maybe
I'm just lucky?
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

For what it's worth, I decided that according to my loan agreement, my
interest rate was 6.49% PER YEAR. Unfortunately, like I said, Money only
asks if my interest is calculated "based on payment due date," "based on
actual payment date," or "twice yearly." Aggravating.

So I multiplied my monthly payment by 12 and told it that I only paid on the
loan once per year. Now it works (it doesn't give me a calculation error),
but it will only automatically enter my payments once per year now, when I
am actually making monthly payments.

I can't be the only one with this problem, can I?





"drokkon" <drokkon[at]live.com> wrote in message
news:BA49B049-18B3-4028-84EE-C78F6928844F[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

You know, I'm having this exact same problem - I live in the US.

I'm looking directly at my auto loan paperwork from USAA. It gives me the
principle sum (21549.70), interest rate (6.49 per year), and monthly payment
(373.23). It also tells me that interest accrues on an "actual/365" basis
and tells me that my final payment will only be 367.23.

I can't figure out HOW to input this as a new loan. No matter what I try, it
says "Your loan terms and amounts do not work together."

Is the interest accruement the problem? Money only offers "based on payment
due date," "based on actual payment date," or "twice yearly," but I can't
tell how mine should be calculated.

I thought maybe the balloon amount was a problem too, as my final payment is
apparently different.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

"Cal Learner-- MVP" <via_newsgroup[at]please.tnx> wrote in message
news:6077q3l66e44pdrfsgefbf4e5r9dncbqc4[at]4ax.com...
- quote -

In microsoft.public.money, Hoolahawk wrote:

- quote -

If you know the payment schedule, it is usually best to leave the
interest rate blank for money to calculate.

- quote -

I would not be surprised if method of computing interest vary.

Hi,

I have setup a home loan account to track our home loan with most of the
details for the loan but the amounts don't add up. This maybe because have
not configured the loan exactally right or it could be that the loan works
differently to how Money wants (or my bank is not charging me right am
checking with them).

In this case what do people do to track their loans?

Do you setup a liability account and manually track the payments and
expenses or do most people find the that Money's setup works for them.

Ps I am in Australia.

Cheers

--
Kind Regards