A boring book you gotta have!   February 26, 2007

This Book is a Load of Laughs!   March 13, 2000

When we want to take a break, we just pull out the book on the calculation of Pi to 150,000 places and see who can recite the farthest. Then we have a group hug!


All you need to know about loans and payments is here   January 30, 2000
  33 out of 34 found this review helpful

You may not use it often, but this book will come in very handy when planning to borrow money. I've been an investment professional since 1988, and this is the most borrowed book on my shelf. I also owned the previous edition, and this version has been improved with the inclusion of rates down to 2% and the expansion of loan amounts to $300,000 in the primary table.

The book is conveniently organized in four tables, ordered from most-commonly to least-commonly used (as it happens, largest to smallest). Table 1 (monthly amortization) is where everyone spends the most time. Just turn to the interest rate page, then read across for "loan amount" and down for "years in term," and you've got your monthly payment to the penny. For non-round numbered loan amounts, you can avoid having to interpolate by grabbing a calculator and turning to Table 2 (required payments for monthly, quarterly, etc.), where you can look up the multiplier (per $1000) corresponding to the rate and term of a given loan (yep, that's how your mortgage lender does the math). Less frequently used are loan progress charts and proration data, Tables 3 and 4, respectively.

This book is straightforward, convenient, and travels well. My favorite of its kind.