Wednesday May 16th, 2012

Mortgage Debt Consolidation Calculator

This calculator is designed to help determine whether using a mortgage to consolidate your debt is right for you. Enter your credit cards, installment loans and the mortgages you wish to consolidate by clicking on the "Enter Data" button for each category. Then change the consolidated mortgage loan amount, term or rate to create a loan that will work within your budget. Click the "View Report" button for detailed results.

Mortgage Debt Consolidation

Your consolidated mortgage payment is NEW_LOAN_PAYMENT, which is MONTHLY_PAYMENT_SAVINGS per month.

**GRAPH**

Your new consolidated mortgage would be for NEW_LOAN_BALANCE and have a monthly payment of NEW_LOAN_PAYMENT. This is MONTHLY_PAYMENT_SAVINGS than your currently monthly payment of MONTHLY_PAYMENT. Assuming a combined state and federal income tax rate of INCOME_TAX_RATE, you may also save TAX_SAVINGS* in income taxes during the first year.

New Consolidated Mortgage Loan
Mortgage amount	NEW_LOAN_BALANCE
Monthly payment	NEW_LOAN_PAYMENT
Interest rate	NEW_LOAN_RATE
Term	NEW_PAYOFF
Total interest	INTEREST_NEW (MSG_NEW_INTEREST_SAVINGS than your current debt situation)
First year tax savings*	TAX_SAVINGS with a combined State and Federal income tax rate of INCOME_TAX_RATE.

*Taxpayers can deduct the interest paid on first and second mortgages up to $1,000,000 in mortgage debt (the limit is $500,000 if married and filing separately). Any interest paid on first or second mortgages over this amount is not tax deductible. Home equity loans are limited to $100,000 or the amount of equity you have in your home. Our calculator limits your interest deduction to the interest payment that would be paid on a $1,000,000 mortgage. Please note that in addition to the $1,000,000 mortgage debt limit; this calculator assumes that your itemized deductions will exceed the standard deduction for your income tax filing status. If your itemized deductions don't exceed your standard deduction, the benefit of deducting the interest on your home will be reduced or eliminated. For 2008, the standard deductions are $10,900 for married couples filing jointly, $5,450 for married couples filing separately and singles, and $8,000 for heads of household. You should also be aware that the total tax savings may be less for higher incomes that have their allowable itemized deductions phased out. We also do not consider any tax savings you might have previously had if you are consolidating an existing mortgage.

Current Loans and Credit Cards

The total of all current loan payments is MONTHLY_PAYMENT. This is based on the loans and payment information shown below.

Current Loans to be Consolidated
&NBSP;	Amount Owed	Monthly Payment	Interest Rate
Credit cards	CC_OUTSTANDING_BALANCE	CC_MONTHLY_PAYMENT	CC_AVERAGE_RATE
Installment Loans	AUTO_OUTSTANDING_BALANCE	AUTO_MONTHLY_PAYMENT	AUTO_AVERAGE_RATE
Existing Mortgage Loans	OTHER_OUTSTANDING_BALANCE	OTHER_MONTHLY_PAYMENT	OTHER_AVERAGE_RATE
Totals	OUTSTANDING_BALANCE	MONTHLY_PAYMENT	AVERAGE_RATE

New Mortgage Payment Schedule

**REPEATING GROUP**

This Financial Calculator requires SUN's Java™ Plug-in. If you see this message you will need to download SUN's Java™ Plug-in. This can be done automatically by clicking the yellow bar at the top of your browser and choosing “Install ActiveX Control”.

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Definitions

Mortgage amount

Original or expected balance for your mortgage. Taxpayers can deduct the interest paid on first and second mortgages up to $1,000,000 in mortgage debt (the limit is $500,000 if married and filing separately). Any interest paid on first or second mortgages over this amount is not tax deductible. Home equity loans are limited to $100,000 or the amount of equity you have in your home. Our calculator limits your interest deduction to the interest payment that would be paid on a $1,000,000 mortgage. Please note that in addition to the $1,000,000 mortgage debt limit; this calculator assumes that your itemized deductions will exceed the standard deduction for your income tax filing status. If your itemized deductions don't exceed your standard deduction, the benefit of deducting the interest on your home will be reduced or eliminated. For 2009, the standard deductions are $11,400 for married couples filing jointly, $5,700 for married couples filing separately and singles, and $8,350 for heads of household. You should also be aware that the total tax savings may be less for higher incomes that have their allowable itemized deductions phased out. We also do not consider any tax savings you might have previously had if you are consolidating an existing mortgage.

Interest rate

Annual interest rate for this mortgage.

Term

The number of years over which you will repay this loan. The most common mortgage terms are 15 years and 30 years.

Payment

Monthly principal and interest payment (PI) for this mortgage.

Combined State and Federal income tax rate:

The marginal combined state and Federal tax rate you expect to pay. Use the table below to help you determine your Federal tax rate.

Filing Status and Income Tax Rates 2009 Caution: Do not use these tax rate schedules to figure 2008 taxes. Use only to figure 2009 estimates.
Tax rate	Married filing jointly or Qualified Widow(er)	Single	Head of household	Married filing separately
10%	$0 - 16,700	$0 - 8,350	$0 - $11,950	$0 - 8,350
15%	$16,701- 67,900	$8,351- 33,950	$11,951- 45,500	$8,351- 33,950
25%	$67,901- 137,050	$33,951- 82,250	$45,501- 117,450	$33,951- 68,525
28%	$137,051- 208,850	$82,251- 171,550	$117,451- 190,200	$68,526- 104,425
33%	$208,851- 372,950	$171,551- 372,950	$190,200- 372,950	$104,425- 186,475
35%	over $372,950	over $372,950	over $372,950	over $186,475

Source: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-08-66.pdf

Credit cards

Enter your total credit card debt and its average interest rate, or press the "Enter Data" button to enter up to 10 credit card accounts, one on each line.

Auto loans

Click on the "Enter Data" button to input any auto loans you may have into the details page. This details page is designed to let you input your current monthly payment, the term (in months), the starting balance and the number of months you have left. It then calculates your outstanding balance and interest rate. You can enter up to three installment loans.

Other loans

Click on the "Enter Data" button to input any additional installment loans you may have into the details page. This details page is designed to let you input your current monthly payment, the term (in months), the starting balance and the number of months you have left. It then calculates your outstanding balance and interest rate. You can enter up to six installment loans.

Balances

Your total current balances for your credit cards, auto loans and other loans.

Interest rates

The average annual percentage rate you pay. This interest rate is calculated for each of the categories of debt you have including credit cards, auto loans and other installment loans. For credit cards the rate you enter is used to calculate the interest on all future credit card payments. The length of time to pay off this credit card may be much greater than calculated if you enter a low promotional interest rate that is only good for a short period of time.

Payment

This is your initial monthly payment. For credit cards, if you checked the "use credit card minimum payments" box, your monthly payment is calculated as 4% of your current outstanding balance. With the "use credit card minimum payments" box checked, your monthly payment will decrease as your balance is paid down. This can greatly increase the length of time it takes to pay off your credit cards. Uncheck this box to enter your own monthly payment that will remain the same until your balance is paid in full.

(We calculate your minimum monthly payment as 4% of your current outstanding balance. While your actual minimum monthly payment may be slightly different, this is one of the most common methods used by credit card companies to calculate minimum payments.)