Educational calculators
Plot the payment before you borrow.
Fixed-rate loan math you can check. Enter a principal, a rate, and a term. The page applies the standard amortizing-payment formula and writes the schedule. No account, no offer, no advice tailored to you.
What the number is
A fully amortizing fixed-rate payment is the monthly amount that, if paid every month at an unchanged rate, brings the balance to zero at the end of the term. The formula is the one behind a spreadsheet's PMT function: payment equals principal times the monthly rate, divided by one minus (1 + monthly rate) to the power of minus the number of months.
On a mortgage, that figure is principal and interest only. Property taxes, homeowners insurance, and mortgage insurance are separate. On an auto loan, the principal itself depends on price, cash down, trade-in, tax, and fees. The payoff page starts from a payment and counts months. The refinance page divides closing costs by the payment difference. Compound interest and the retirement projection grow a balance at a rate you type, and the retirement page caps deferrals with the 2026 IRS limits. The paycheck page uses the 2026 federal rate tables, the basic standard deduction, and employee FICA, and it leaves most state income tax out. Each calculator page says which of those pieces it includes.
The method, the rounding rules, and the correction address are on the editorial policy. The limit of what these pages can tell you is on the disclaimer.
Questions
Is this financial advice?
No. Pennyplotter explains a standard fixed-rate loan formula and shows the arithmetic for numbers you type. It does not know your credit, your budget, or which loan to take.
Do you store the numbers I enter?
The calculator runs in your browser. This site has no account and no form that sends the loan inputs to a Pennyplotter server.
Why might a lender's quote differ?
A quote can include taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance, fees, or a different rounding method. On a mortgage, the APR on a Loan Estimate is a broader cost measure than the note rate this formula uses.