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Amortization Schedule

The full payment-by-payment breakdown of a loan: where every payment goes, and how the split between interest and principal shifts over time.

Works for any level-payment loan: mortgage, auto, student, personal.

Inputs

Loan

Loan Amount: the principal.

Interest: the yearly rate.

Term

Years and Months: fill in either or both. A 30-year loan is 30 years. A 5½-year loan is 5 years and 6 months.

Schedule

Monthly or Yearly: whether the schedule lists every payment or summarizes by year. Yearly is far more readable on a thirty-year mortgage.

First payment: the date payments start, today by default. It doesn't change the numbers. It dates the schedule, so each period shows a real month or year rather than just a number.

What you get

Estimated payment per month, with Loan, Term, and Total interest beneath it.

Then the Schedule. Each period shows its date and how much was paid, and opens to show:

  • ›Interest: how much of that period's payment went to interest
  • ›Principal: how much reduced the balance
  • ›Ending balance: what's left afterwards

The first few periods show, and Show all reveals the rest.

The thing worth seeing

Your payment stays the same. What it does changes completely.

Early in a loan, most of each payment is interest. On a long mortgage, the first few years barely touch the principal. You can make twelve payments and watch the balance move a few thousand dollars. Late in the loan the reverse is true, and nearly the whole payment goes to principal.

This is the single most useful thing an amortization schedule teaches, and it explains two things at once:

Why early extra payments matter so much. An extra payment in year two goes almost entirely against principal, removing every future interest charge that principal would have generated. The same payment in year twenty-five removes far less.

Why the first years feel like nothing is happening. Because, in balance terms, very little is. That's the structure of the loan, not a sign you're doing something wrong.

How to use it

Before borrowing: look at Total interest. On a long loan it can approach or exceed the principal, which is a number worth confronting before you sign rather than after.

When comparing terms: run 15 and 30 years on the same loan. The monthly payments differ by a manageable amount, but the totals differ enormously.

When deciding about extra payments: set First payment to when your loan actually started, and find today in the schedule. If you're early, extra payments are working hard. If you're near the end, the case is weaker and the money may do more elsewhere.

Yearly first. Monthly is exhaustive to the point of being hard to read. Start yearly to see the shape, then switch to monthly if you need a specific period.

Sharing and exporting

The share button on the answer card sends the result and your inputs as a message.

The share button in the top bar exports the whole schedule as a PDF. The PDF export requires a subscription.

Add To Budget

Add To Budget adds the loan to your Budget Builder as a debt named Loan, with the loan amount, rate, and estimated payment. You'll see Loan added to budget. with a Go To Budget shortcut. Rename it in the Builder so you can tell it apart from your other debts. See Debts.

Related calculators

This one shows you the schedule. Others answer specific questions: