Enter the loan name or purpose, loan amount, interest rate, and years to repay. The program calculates the monthly payment required to repay the loan. In this example the family borrowed $200,000 for a mortgage on their home, with a 30 year term, and an interest rate of 5.65%. The required monthly payment is $1154.47.

That payment is affordable but at the end of the 30 years, when the loan is paid off, they will have paid a total of $415,609.77 out-of-pocket. This is more than double the amount borrowed. Why? Because of interest expense totaling $215,609.77 over the life of the loan.

But they're getting off easy. What if the interest rate were 12.65%? Over 30 years this scenario would result in a total out-of-pocket cost of $776,815.45 ($576,815.45 in interest)!

To avoid such situations you will want to try out this program's loan payment acceleration features.