Debt Calculator: Forum

[Gatriel]

Hey All:

So I know money can be a huge deciding factor when choosing a law school. I put this TVM calculator together, to help you guys get a better idea as to how much you would actually owe upon graduating from law school, as well as how much your monthly payment would be.

From my experience on the forum a good chunk of people don't know how to calculate compound interest. So when they calculate law school debt they take $120,000 * .05 and ah-ha that is what I must owe.

There are a ton of calculators online, however I didn't find one that broke the calculation down into individual years with differing loan amounts and the possibility of differing interest rates. That way people who go to an expensive school with scholarship which requires one to stay top 1/3rd or top 4% or top 50% can calculate how much it would cost if they lost their scholarship after the first year. As well as how much it would cost to do all 3 years at sticker.

If you have any suggestions on how I could better this, please shoot it my way.

Office 07:

Download here.

Office 03:

Download here.

[JTX]

i always download from strange links on message boards. anyone want to be first to make sure gatriel is not an evil ID theft from China?

[Gatriel]

Almost . . . .

[csgrant5]

Could you post a .xls version?

Thx

[darknightbegins]

Almost . . . .

Haha shit I want to make that pic my Tar

[thetheme]

Just curious, why take the time to put together something that is both freely available and ubiquitous online? Does it do something special like file my 1040 at the end of the year?

[Gatriel]

Could you post a .xls version?

Thx

Done.

Just curious, why take the time to put together something that is both freely available and ubiquitous online? Does it do something special like file my 1040 at the end of the year?

From my experience on the forum a good chunk of people don't know how to calculate compound interest. So when they go to calculated law school debt they take $120,000 * .05 and ah-ha that is what I must owe.

There are a ton of calculators online, however I didn't find one that broke the calculation down into individual years with differing loan amounts and the possibility of differing interest rates. That way people who go to an expense school with scholarship which requires one to stay top 1/3rd can calculate how much it would cost if they lost their scholarship after the first year.

[Dtackpat75]

Pretty solid. And online with what my estimates had been.

[thetheme]

That looks nice, and very well laid out. Do you think you could work in differing debt and interest rates especially for differing loans that are capped at certain amounts? It seems unrealistic that you would take out a single loan at a single interest rate each year, but instead would be more likely to have subsidized, unsubsidized and possibly private loans all compounding at different interest rates.

[Dtackpat75]

Just come up with your own aggregate interest rate for the year.

[Gatriel]

That looks nice, and very well laid out. Do you think you could work in differing debt and interest rates especially for differing loans that are capped at certain amounts? It seems unrealistic that you would take out a single loan at a single interest rate each year, but instead would be more likely to have subsidized, unsubsidized and possibly private loans all compounding at different interest rates.

Yeah, I'll put up to 3 separate loans per year. If you look at the formulas I have each year chopping the borrowed amount in half, and distributing it per semester.

Good idea tho. Shouldn't be too challenging.

[stintez]

What are interest and term lengths on average anyone?

[Gatriel]

What are interest and term lengths on average anyone?

Many people shoot for complete repayment in a decade after graduation. Loan consolidations . . . . if your credit is good can get down to 3% right now.

[Gatriel]

I just ran across this again from last year. I plugged in all my info, and still want to

--ImageRemoved--

[FiveSermon]

Tag for future reference.

[sundance95]

Word, this rules, should be stickied. Online calculators have really sucked in my experience. Thanks to OP.

[Gatriel]

Agreed. Admin. . . . sticky this?

[salvage]

I'm an excel idiot. I'm confused, I plugged in the cost and scholly info, but how do I get it to run the cost for each year? When I try to click on "Amount Owed..." it just says "The Guts..."

[Gatriel]

Did you download the correct version?

Delete it and try again. I tested this pretty hard before releasing it out on here. Hopefully it is just an easy fix. If you keep having problems, PM me and we'll get it figured out.

[Peg]

Thanks this looks neatly put together. Pretty much lines up with what I estimated for myself.

[Gatriel]

I'm glad it worked out well for you man.

[northwood]

thanks OP!

[Gatriel]

You are welcome.

[fatduck]

nice spreadsheet

you might want to calculate the present value of the loans, though? that way people could numerically quantify their "debt aversion" via discount rate.

[Gatriel]

nice spreadsheet

you might want to calculate the present value of the loans, though? that way people could numerically quantify their "debt aversion" via discount rate.

That is a good idea. When I built the spreadsheet I thought about that, decided not to do it, but not I forgot why. I'll add that in later today.