Tip #4 - Keeping track of your loan payments (361 to go)

Long ago, I tried to create some sort of Excel spreadsheet that I could use to keep track of my student loan payments... to show what would happen to my outstanding balance if I paid a little extra each month.  Well, I couldn't get the formulas right and it required too much thinking on my part.

So bam!  I found this today.  It's a Loan Amortization schedule template provided by Microsoft Office online.

I suggest that any one with any sort of loan download it pronto.. this includes mortgages, student loan payments, car payments, etc.  You plug in key information such as Loan amount, annual interest rate, loan period in years, number of payments per year, start date of loan, and optional extra payments.  Based on what you input, the schedule automatically updates.

This is super useful because you can play around with it and put in different "Extra payment" amounts to see how much an extra $100 here and there can effect your overall outstanding balance, or how much extra you need to pay in order to fully pay down your loan by a certain date.

Quick screen shot of what it looks like once populated.

I vote it a must have for all.  ;-)

Happy exceling!