for questions that relate to interest. Interest is a fee paid by a borrower of assets to the owner as a form of compensation for the use of the assets.
1
vote
3answers
42 views
Why does the principal/interest applied to my balance fluctuate in spite of making payments on-time?
In my first payment on 6/03/2011, the principal applied to my balance was $261.11 and the interest was $221.64. As I kept making the payment on-time, the principal applied to my balance kept ...
3
votes
1answer
28 views
U.S. Bonds Taxed Interest and Current Value
Series EE Bond just matured and I cashed it in.
The current value that I received in cash was only a little more than the original face value.
However, the interest I am paying taxes on is half the ...
5
votes
2answers
64 views
Interest on security deposits paid to landlords, in Michigan?
Does the state of Michigan require landlords to put security deposits in interest bearing financial institutions?
2
votes
1answer
49 views
How do I calculate the interest on my deposits to my landlord?
I was renting from this company called harbor house builders. I started renting from them in 2009 and at that time I was renting an apartment at 650 a month so I put 650 for rent and 650 for deposit. ...
2
votes
2answers
61 views
Can the interest on a cash out refinance for a rental property be claimed as an expense?
I currently have my home all paid off. I am thinking about purchasing another property as my primary home, and renting out my paid off current home. My question is should I:
Get a regular loan for ...
2
votes
1answer
41 views
How to figure out interest received from 'cash and cash equivalents' in a balance sheet?
Looking at APPL's balance sheet, I can see that they have a few million as cash and cash equivalents.
I want to know more about cash and cash equivalents. I understand that cash and cash ...
0
votes
2answers
58 views
Please explain short interest; specifically, why is it called “interest”?
I understand that short interest is the number of shares that is currently short sold. A high short interest indicates that the share price is expected to fall. All good, but what is the word ...
2
votes
2answers
115 views
What is the effective interest rate on a credit card that offers 0% interest with a 4% balance transfer fee?
I'm about to do a balance transfer that has a fee of 4%. It gives me 0% interest for 14 months. Is it just a straight calculation of 4% for the year or is there another calculation that I need to ...
1
vote
1answer
56 views
How can Mastercard's interest rate be more in Norway than in Finland?
I select Mastercard because it is easy to compare credits cards between the following countries.
I am looking the prices of Mastercard in Finland, Estonia and Norway.
All banks have the same amount ...
1
vote
2answers
65 views
Interest rate question
I'm having a little trouble figuring this out. Suppose I took out a loan with the following terms:
Loan Amount: 1,000
Interest Rate (APR): 10%
Compound Frequency: Monthly (12 compounding periods)
...
2
votes
1answer
128 views
Why doesn't the government pay interest on tax withholding returned via a refund?
When the US government pays you your tax refund, it doesn't include any sort of interest payment for what is essentially a loan to the government. Why doesn't the government pay interest?
0
votes
1answer
65 views
Which state do saving interests come from?
Suppose you have a banking account opened in state X and you live in state Y. If you earn interests with the account opened in state X, can that be considered income from state X, or should it be ...
3
votes
1answer
96 views
How do interest rates work?
My question is very simple. I am considering a CD for my money, but I don't know a whole lot of the financial math that goes into that kind of stuff. My question is about interests rates. Do CD's ...
2
votes
3answers
158 views
Quick formula for calculating total interest in my head
Is there a rough, quick and dirty, formula that I can do in my head for calculating the total interest on a loan? Something like:
TotalInterest = Principal * (Yearly Interest% * Term In Years / 2);
...
1
vote
2answers
174 views
Retirement formula for annual compound interest with changing principal
I'm trying to calculate how much money I'd have to put away each month for the next 20 years, to be able to withdraw 50,000 a year for 20 years after that (a retirement calculation).
The issue that's ...
3
votes
2answers
296 views
Can I negotiate to have a credit card interest fee waived?
I recently missed a credit card payment by one day (my first one ever in my history of credit starting from over 10 years ago), and I called the credit card company to have the late fee waived. I ...
5
votes
2answers
150 views
Continuous compounding in practice
A common explanation for the mathematical constant e (2.71828...) is that it is the factor by which an investment would grow at 100% interest rate over a period if it is continuously compounded.
In ...
2
votes
2answers
88 views
Mortgage and/or unit trust
I will be purchasing a property soon, so my question is the following:
Do I pay off my mortgage off as soon as possible (by paying more every month) or do I put the same amount extra into some unit ...
8
votes
2answers
190 views
Why is mortgage interest deductible in the USA for a house you live in?
In Australia, if you have a mortgage on the house you live in the interest and other expenses are not tax deductible, unless you rent out one or some of the rooms or run a business from your home, in ...
3
votes
1answer
211 views
How to determine the interest rate?
I'm really not good at math. So please forgive me for this noob question that I have.. Just trying to learn basic percentage calculation with money lending..
Here's an example of how the APR ...
0
votes
1answer
146 views
How can I determine the interest rate, given increasing monthly deposits and a final amount?
I need help to determine the interest rate of this investment.
The initial value is nothing
The monthly investment is R500.
It stays R500 a month until the year is over and increases by R50. Thus, ...
0
votes
1answer
651 views
How to calculate the interest on my security deposit to my landlord?
Quoted from http://www.oag.state.md.us/Consumer/landlords.htm#deposits, here is the way to calculate the interest on security deposit a landlord in Maryland pays to his tenant:
The landlord must ...
6
votes
3answers
334 views
How to pay more principal on home loan?
This is how I pay off my current loan for my condo.
Principal and interest - $1,867.27
Escrow payment - $776.63
Total monthly payment - $2,643.90
When I go and look at the transaction detail. This ...
-1
votes
1answer
127 views
How to read interest/principal payoff table
I have this data (modified dates) in my transaction history: (APR=.99%)
I have made 4 payments till date.
4th Paid on: 06/25/2001 $1000.00
Principal $1000.00 //Paid ...
2
votes
2answers
485 views
How much interest will I pay on my credit card?
I'm about to move to the US and I'm wondering: say I always keep an active balance and never overdraw/accumulate debt, will I still pay interest on my monthly expenses paid via credit card?
For ...
0
votes
2answers
96 views
How can I calculate interest portion of income when selling a stock?
For religious reasons, I want to account the income from interest separately from any other income. I know that most companies today have some liquid assets, which accrue interest. But when I sell a ...
2
votes
1answer
101 views
How to calculate outstanding Graduate Plus Loan balance currently in deferment?
Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong here?
If I have a $56,500 loan and the interest rate is 7.9% how much will I
owe after 8 months?
I thought this would be fairly simple. I would ...
7
votes
3answers
363 views
Is interest of credit cards caculated based on the amount unpaid within the grace period?
From Wikipedia
if a user had a $1,000 transaction and repaid it in full within this
grace period, there would be no interest charged. If, however, even
$1.00 of the total amount remained ...
5
votes
4answers
926 views
Difference between dividend and interest
A representative at my federal credit union used dividend and interest exchangeably in our communication, claiming the two were the same concept in their financial institution, which doesn't sell ...
2
votes
3answers
531 views
How is interest in my bank account calculated?
I am a software professional. I have one question. How do banks calculate interest on money deposited, if I get, say, 10 % per annum?
Say I deposit say RS.1000 on the 1st day of the month; then I ...
-1
votes
1answer
86 views
Credit Card: Charge from the bank
Let's say I have a debt of $50.
Let's say I don't pay for my credit card debts. Next month they will charge me interest upon the money I should have paid ($50 + interest).
Now let's say I pay more ...
8
votes
2answers
194 views
How does Paying credit card in full VS paying with interest will affect your credit score?
What is the effect of paying credit card in full or with interest on your credit score?
8
votes
3answers
1k views
First time home hunters. Pay debt or save for down payment
tl;dr
We want to buy a house.
We've done all the pro's and con's of home ownership.
We have 1/2 a down payment and some highish loan payments
Would it be wiser to pay down the loans and go ...
2
votes
1answer
66 views
Withdrawing qualified HSA expenses many years later, to earn interest?
Say I have $2000 in my HSA account and have a $1000 medical bill in 2012. If I were to pay the $1000 bill out of pocket and let that $1k left earn interest in my HSA for a significant amount of time ...
0
votes
3answers
115 views
“Interest Earned” means my money or my bank's money?
Hi all I'm almost graduating into the working world and even if I hate it I'd have to start learning credit cards and stuff.
There is a transaction in my iBanking that shows "Interest Earned ...
1
vote
3answers
279 views
Clear example of credit card balance 55 days interest-free “trick”?
I read on this website the following:
Maximize Your Statement Cycle
The smartest way to use your credit
card is to be sure to pay your balances in full and on time. However,
you can ...
2
votes
1answer
91 views
Calculate how much interest I will pay given a creditcard balance and a monthly payment?
Assuming I have a $1000 balance on a credit card with a 12% APR how can I calculate my total interest payments if I pay $300 a month? All the online calculators I've found are geared toward showing ...
5
votes
1answer
107 views
IRS overpayment interest - Is it interest on what I pay in taxes?
I have seen that the IRS pays overpayment interest rates that seem to range from 3-8%. When I see these rates are they related to what I pay in taxes? I.e. if I vastly overpay my taxes does this mean ...
8
votes
1answer
610 views
Why are my auto loan payments calculated differently than my mortgage payments?
Last year I got a home loan that follows the standard Rule of 78s amortization schedule. I can easily predict how much of my mortgage payment will go to interest and how much to principal.
A few ...
4
votes
3answers
176 views
Are there any catches with interest from banks? Is this interest “too good to be true”?
Here's the long put short:
I'll have £100,000 in my possession soon (inherited). I'm 17 so I have a NatWest Adapt account (teenager bank account) with an interest of 1.09%.
Now, if I was to put the ...
17
votes
9answers
1k views
Paying Off Principal of Home vs. Investing In Mutual Fund
I close on my first home October 21. I've locked in a 4.330% APR on a 30-year fixed conventional mortgage and my payment will be ~$800/month. I've put the required 20% down to avoid paying PMI.
...
9
votes
2answers
3k views
Daily interest calculation combined with monthly compounding: Why do banks do this, and how-to in Excel?
I often see banks advertise (for accounts with fixed yearly interest, let's say 1.5%) – "interested is calculated daily, and compounded monthly".
I have 2 questions:
Why are they calculating ...
5
votes
3answers
768 views
Scottrade cash interest?
I'm looking into opening a Scottrade account in the future, and was wondering if they pay interest on cash in your brokerage account? Are the rates published anywhere?
4
votes
1answer
88 views
Taxation difference between income from credit union (CU) shares versus bank deposits (e.g. CDs)?
This question is a follow-up to Difference between a (credit union) "share certificate" and a (bank) CD?
What is the difference in taxation on "interest" payments versus "dividend" ...
6
votes
1answer
171 views
How does compounding of annual interest work?
I have tried reading up on it, but I just find it confusing.
Apparently, if you started investing $150/month at a 15% annual return and kept reinvesting the profits, here is what you would have ...
5
votes
3answers
315 views
How do I set up the formulas to properly split monthly loan payments to principal and interest?
This has been a small annoyance for months now: the formulas GNUCash produced via loan repayment wizard don't match up with my lender's amortization tables. The formulas use pmt() functions, like this ...
2
votes
2answers
97 views
Do I still get interest if I take money out of a savings account that pays annual interest?
This is probably a silly question, so apologies. I have a savings account started a few months ago. If I take the money out now will I still get the interest on it from the past few months at the ...
12
votes
4answers
889 views
Pros/cons for buying gold vs. saving money in an interest-based account?
Over the years, I have noticed a certain pattern when it comes to money and gold.
For example, my father bought a house 30 years ago for $20,000, and today that house is worth $200,000. If my father ...
3
votes
2answers
275 views
Should I pay the interest or the principal on my second mortgage?
We have a second mortgage on our home from 10/08. It was designed to be deferred for five years, so we're right in the middle. After the deferral, our monthly payment will be $413.74 for 25 years. ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
How to calculate total interest paid on a declining balance?
I am trying to come up with the equation which will give me the total interest to be paid on something given a fixed interest rate with a fixed payment for a given period of time. The interest is ...
