Saturday, January 29, 2011

New spreadsheet, should you keep renting or buy a home?

I put another spreadsheet that I had made a while back online as a Google Docs template. This one is "Should I keep renting or buy a home?". Simply enter some numbers and estimates in, and it will tell you whether it makes the most financial sense to keep renting or buy a new home. When you open the spreadsheet, click File then Make a copy to create a private copy for yourself that you can edit. See it at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al_XAoAHsV3edHJWYXdSN1ZhY015UjU5aFF4eDJpeVE

Monday, January 17, 2011

Online spreadsheet with calculators for mortgages and finances

A while ago I put together a Google Docs spreadsheet for my own personal use to figure out how my finances would look and what mortgage options I would have if I were to sell my current house and buy another house. I've now made this a template, so anyone can use this. The URL is
Basically, just plug in some numbers, like how much you think you can sell your house for, how much you owe on your mortgage, how much money you make, how much you think you'll buy a new house for, and some others. The spreadsheet will tell you how much you'll need to save up for down payments for different types of mortgages (standard 20% down, 10% down, and FHA), how long it will take to save up, what percent of your income each of the mortgage types will take up, how much you'll pay over time, etc. Writing this spreadsheet got pretty complex but you can now benefit from my work. I've found it very useful for estimating how much I can afford, how long I have to wait before I can afford a down payment, etc.