Bureau of Wealth

Amortization Schedule Calculator

By the Bureau of Wealth team Updated

This calculator is general information, not financial advice. Check your own figures with the provider or a qualified adviser before acting on them.

Enter the amount borrowed, the interest rate, the term and the month of your first payment to see a full schedule of principal, interest and balance, payment by payment.

Check the highlighted fields to see your results.

What this calculator assumes

  • The interest rate is fixed for the whole term and interest is charged monthly at the annual rate divided by 12.
  • Every payment is the same amount and is made on time, one per month, starting in the month you choose.
  • The payment covers principal and interest only. Property taxes, homeowners insurance and mortgage insurance that are often collected with a mortgage payment are not included.
  • There are no extra payments, missed payments, fees or rate changes. An adjustable-rate mortgage will not follow this schedule once its rate resets.
  • Figures are rounded to the cent for display, and the final payment absorbs any rounding so the balance ends at exactly zero.

You might also want to check

  • Loan Repayment Calculator

    Want to pay the loan off early? See how much interest extra monthly payments save and how many months they cut.

  • Auto Loan Calculator

    Financing a car? Work out the amount you will borrow after your down payment, trade-in, sales tax and fees before building its schedule.

  • The True Cost of Financing a Car, Term by Term

    Watching how slowly the balance falls early on? The guide explains why that matters if you want to change cars before the loan ends.

What an amortization schedule shows

An amortizing loan is paid off with regular payments over time, so the amount you owe falls with each one. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains that with a typical fixed-rate loan the combined principal and interest payment stays the same, but the split between the two changes. Early on, most of each payment is interest because the balance is at its highest. As the balance falls, less interest builds up each month and more of the payment goes to principal.

The calculator first finds the level monthly payment that clears the loan by the end of the term, using the standard amortization formula. It then works through the loan one month at a time: interest is the balance multiplied by the monthly rate, principal is the payment minus that interest, and the new balance is the old balance minus the principal. Each row is dated from the first payment month you choose, and the yearly table adds up the rows in each calendar year.

A worked example

Take a $300,000 mortgage at 6.5% over 30 years. The monthly principal and interest payment is $1,896.20. In the first month, $1,625.00 of it is interest and only $271.20 reduces the balance. Payment 233, more than 19 years in, is the first where principal is larger than interest. The final payment is just $10.22 interest and $1,885.99 principal. Over the full 360 payments you repay $682,633.47, of which $382,633.47 is interest.

You can check the payment with =PMT(6.5%/12, 360, -300000), and the principal in any month with =PPMT(6.5%/12, 1, 360, -300000), which returns 271.20 for the first.

How the term changes the schedule

The same $300,000 at 6.5% over 15 years costs $2,613.32 a month, about $717 more. But $988.32 of the first payment goes to principal, principal overtakes interest at payment 53, and total interest falls to $170,397.98, less than half the 30-year figure. A longer term buys a lower payment at the price of far more interest.

Using the schedule

The balance column tells you roughly what you would still owe if you sold or refinanced in a given month, before any prepayment penalty or payoff fees. The yearly columns show how quickly you are building equity, since only the principal part of each payment reduces what you owe. If you are comparing loans, run each one and look at the total interest as well as the payment.

For a car or personal loan, the loan repayment calculator shows the same schedule in yearly steps and how extra payments shorten it.

Frequently asked questions

Why does so little of my early mortgage payment go to principal?

Interest is charged on the balance you still owe, and at the start that balance is at its largest. As you pay it down, the interest part of each payment shrinks and the principal part grows, even though the payment itself stays the same.

Does this include property taxes and insurance?

No. It shows principal and interest only. The CFPB explains that a total monthly mortgage payment usually also includes homeowners insurance, property taxes and possibly mortgage insurance, so yours will be higher.

Can I use this for an adjustable-rate mortgage?

Only for the fixed period at the start. Once the rate adjusts, the payment and the split between principal and interest change, so rerun the calculator with the remaining balance, new rate and remaining term.

What is negative amortization?

It happens when your payment is smaller than the interest charged, so the unpaid interest is added to the balance and you owe more over time. A standard fixed-rate loan like the one in this calculator never does this.

How do extra payments change the schedule?

Extra money paid toward principal lowers the balance, so every later month has less interest and the loan ends sooner. This calculator shows the standard schedule only, so use the loan repayment calculator to see the effect of extra payments.

Sources

Figures come from institutions millions of people rely on. How we keep calculators accurate.