The new Truth Concepts app has launched, providing an opportunity for anyone to make financial calculations at their fingertips. The beauty of the app is that you can use it on the go, which means you’ll have easy access to it when you’re buying a car, looking at loan options, or making other big financial decisions. This is an app that empowers anyone making financial decisions and is available to everyone.
The new app carries our five basic financial calculators: Present Value, Future Value, Periods, Payments, and Interest Rates. We’re going to break down some of these calculators for you, and give you a taste of what’s possible.
Basic Functions
The beauty of the calculators is that they work and function as a unit. If you open up any of the calculators, say Present Value, you’ll notice at the bottom that there are four tabs for Calc 1-Calc 4. These tabs will allow you to make side-by-side comparisons of your data. And not only does the information stay saved within that calculator (until cleared), but when you open another calculator, the information from each tab carries over. That means you can input some data into Present Value, hop over to Payments, and your variables will still be filled out. Unlike a simple handheld calculator, the variables never disappear. The logic is easy to follow, whether you’re a financial professional or not. This offers a new way to educate clients and can add a new layer of depth to your advisor-client relationship.
Rate Calculator
Let’s take a closer look at just one way you could use the calculators. We’ll start with the Rate calculator, which is a great tool for determining what rate you would have to achieve in order to reach a desired financial outcome. Say your client had an account with $100,000 and they were adding $10,000 in a lump sum every year. You can input 100,000 into “Present Value” (what your client already has), and 10,000 into “Periodic Deposit” (what your client will deposit). Then, tap “Beginning” and scroll to “Annual” in the menu at the bottom of the screen. This indicates that the client will be making deposits at the beginning of each year, once a year. In ten years, your client wants to have $1,000,000. Input that value into “Future Value,” and put 10 into “Num of Periods.” (Note: pay close attention to this, as the number of periods will vary depending on the frequency of payments: i.e. 10 periods for annual payments, 120 periods for monthly payments, etc.) You get this result:
Your client would have to earn 20.96% on their account in order to have $1 million in ten years. You’ll notice that there are two numbers provided for the answer. The top figure is rounded up, while the bottom figure is the full answer. Hit “copy” to grab the longer (and more accurate) decimal.
Copy Function
If you navigate back to the Present Value calculator, you’ll notice that the data is stored in the “Calc 1” file, so you don’t need to start from scratch. The interest rate, however, will not be filled out. Since you copied the rate beforehand, simply paste the interest rate in, and everything will check out. If you merely input the rounded interest rate, your answer will be about $32 off the mark. Maintain accuracy by using the copy function.
When the interest rate is copied & pasted, the results are correct.
If you just type in the rounded answer, you risk a number that’s a little “off.”
Payment Calculator
Because the calculators can hold four different sets of data, it’s an ideal vehicle for comparing interest rates, repayment schedules, and more. For this, we’ll start with the Payment calculator. This is because the variables needed are usually the ones readily available to you and/or your client. For instance, you can input “0” as the future value, because the goal is to end with a loan balance of zero. Additionally, you can identify a loan amount, an interest rate, and often a time frame. For this example, we’ll look at a $200,000 loan over 15 years, with an interest rate of 5%. The client will make their payments at the end of each month. NOTE: When you’re working with a loan balance you must make the balance a negative number. Otherwise, the answer will not accurately reflect the truth. So remember, debt is reflected in the calculators as a negative number. Below, you’ll see that the monthly payment $1,581.59. From here, your client can compare other interest rates in the other tabs.
Moreover, you can use these calculators to compare a 15-year mortgage to a 30-year mortgage, which is done by comparing them over equal time frames. If you’ve been to Truth Training, you’ll remember our 15-year vs. 30-year mortgage demonstration. If you haven’t, see our earlier blog post on the topic. This is a great way to use the app.
There are many opportunities to use this app in everyday life. We’re faced with big financial decisions all the time, so why not carry your own secret tool in your back pocket? Use it to inform your large purchases, teach your clients how to apply the Principles for Prosperity, and calculate on the go.
To download the app for your android, see here. To get it in the App Store, see here. Anyone can download the app for free. And if you’re interested in more, you can try a free 10-day trial of the full Truth Concepts software today.
