A folio of household instruments · Independent publication

Lake Oswego Finance Almanac Mortgage · Growth · Net Worth
A gold seal beneath an arch of lettering that reads: A household almanac A HOUSEHOLD ALMANAC LOFA

Folio of three household instruments

Know the whole sum before you sign.

A quiet, offline reference for households planning a large purchase or a long stretch of saving. Three instruments (a mortgage schedule, a compound growth illustration and a net-worth statement) are set in the manner of an annual report and run entirely in your browser.

This certifies that the bearer is entitled to one honest calculation, to be repeated as often as wished, without charge, without registration, and without a single figure leaving the page.

Instruments
Three
Accounts required
None
Figures sent anywhere
None

The contents of the folio

The three instruments

Each instrument is a single page with a single purpose. Every figure you see is computed from numbers you typed; the starting values are labelled examples that you are expected to overwrite.

A short guide to the folio

How to read an almanac

  1. Enter plain figures

    Use whole dollars and the yearly percentage rate as a lender would state it. Leave out symbols if you like; the instruments forgive commas, dollar signs and stray spaces.

  2. Read the whole schedule

    A single payment figure hides the shape of a loan. The schedule shows how much of each payment is interest at the start and how little remains at the end.

  3. Test the assumptions

    Change one number at a time. A point on the rate, a few years on the term, or a modest extra payment each month can move the totals by more than intuition suggests.

From your own ledger

Your statement at a glance

No statement has been saved in this browser yet. When you prepare one on the net-worth page, a summary will appear here, drawn from this device alone.

Prepare a statement

Questions about method are answered in the notes and questions; corrections and suggestions are welcome by correspondence.