Excel is an amazing tool for any caculation. You can use excel for almost any quantitative analysis. In fact I used to use excel for backtesting data to determine equities patterns, back when I was a professional equities trader. Its funny how lots of my collegues back then were spending thousands on speciallized software that did very little more, if any, than the software that came with my computer. Excel is especially powerful when it comes to figuring loan formulas, however. And you can find lots and lots of free templates with a simple google search for doing so.

For example, a great site for using excel to figure a term loan can be found here:

http://www.exceluser.com/tools/termloans.htm

That main site has lots of excel tips and tricks that should be explored if you use excel quite a bit.

Another great resource is at www.excelforum.com. These are user oriented forums where excel users go and discuss current formulas they are working on, tips, short cuts, and syntax. It is an invaluale tool for any excel user. Collaberation these days is paramount to acheving success with any technology oriented project. It has been extimated that technology now doubles every 6 months. That is that a completely new generation of technology now occurs every 24 weeks. That blows my mind. Just to think that a few decades ago technology didnt double for hundreds of years. It just goes to show how the old adage stands that “the better it gets.. the better it gets.”

If you are looking to figure out how much you can take out on a loan, do not forget to use the old trusty excel. Its readily available, easy to use (and easy to find answers for), and most of the time it is, best of all, free.