While the update may seem small, it has a huge impact on user friendliness. The update in question is a new “right-click” feature that does some simple math for you. That way you don’t have to fuss with the copy/paste function if you don’t want to.
In a mortgage comparison, like we demonstrate here, it’s important to show the potential savings of a 15-year mortgage vs. a 30-year mortgage. Previously, to do so, you would have to calculate the difference between payments within the Future Value calculator. This meant a formula that looked like this: “=pmt 2 – pmt 1.” However, the copy can paste function (necessary to capture all decimals) could be a bit finnicky.
Now, all you need to do is right-click one of the payments, and it will give you the option to copy the difference automatically. Below is what you’ll see when you right-click.
From there, you can use the Future Value calculator to show the difference between:
- Option 1: a 15-year mortgage, then saving the value of the payments for the following 15 years.
- Option 2: a 30-year mortgage, saving the difference between payments for the full 30 years.
As you can see, the value of savings is the same. However, the 30-year mortgage strategy has the advantage of saving throughout the whole timeframe, meaning there’s greater flexibility throughout.
Next time you’re using Loan Analysis, we hope you get good use out of this new feature, and that it makes your calculations even more efficient. To get the update on your software, click here and follow the download instructions.