Hand putting coin in model house bankComstock
Are you looking to buy a home and wondering how much you can afford to spend? Or are you a home owner curious about how much overall interest you could save if you increased your mortgage payments?
Well, look no further. We've launched a number of handy new calculators that can spare you from the headache of doing the tedious arithmetic yourself.
In the housing arena, our mortgage accelerator calculator will show you how increasing your mortgage payment or changing the frequency of your payments can reduce the life of your mortgage and cut the amount of interest you pay.
If you are shopping for a mortgage, use this calculator to find out how much your mortgage payment will be, based on the amount borrowed, interest rate, payment frequency and amortization period. You can create and compare two mortgage payment scenarios.
Our mortgage qualifier calculator is for people wondering how much to spend on a home. It will estimate the maximum value of a house you may qualify to buy, based on your current household income and other debts.
Our Rule of 72 calculator will show you how long will it take you to double your money, while our driving-related tools will help you figure out your car payments, what kind of wheels you can afford, the cost of gas and when it's worth it to drive for cheaper gas.
Given how indebted Canadians are, we thought it worthwhile to build a few calculators geared at helping you manage your household finances. Our new credit-card calculator estimates the payment you need to pay off your credit card debt in a specified number of months. The pay-yourself-first calculator shows why this is a vital - and often overlooked - part of financial planning while this calculator tackles the thorny issue of whether you should pay down debt first or invest.
Not to be forgotten, this calculator - appropriately named Ottawa's final tax bite - looks at how your RRSPs and RRIFs will be taxed in the year of death, if you don't have a surviving spouse.
If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions about these new calculators, shoot me an email.
Roma Luciw, Personal Finance web editor