Disclaimer

WealthWise is an educational site. Its calculators help you understand how a mortgage or a debt payoff plan behaves, and its articles explain the terms involved. Nothing here is advice about what you personally should do.

Not advice

WealthWise does not provide financial, tax, legal or investment advice, and it is not a lender, broker or adviser. The site does not know your income, credit history, goals or the rest of your circumstances, and it does not recommend any product, lender or course of action. Treat everything on the site as general information, not as guidance tailored to you. This page is written in plain language and is not itself legal advice.

Estimates depend on what you enter

Every figure a calculator shows is an estimate based on the assumptions entered. Change an input and the estimate changes. For example, a $300,000 loan at 6.5 percent over 30 years is estimated at about $1,896 per month in principal and interest (P&I), but that number only holds for exactly those inputs and for the simplifying assumptions the calculator makes, such as a fixed rate and every payment made on time.

The calculators cannot check whether the numbers you enter match what a lender would actually offer you. A rate typed into the calculator is not a quote, and a payoff date is not a promise.

Rates, taxes, insurance, PMI and fees vary

Actual costs differ from the estimates for many ordinary reasons:

• Interest rates and APRs depend on the lender, your credit profile, the product and the day. They can also change over time on variable-rate products, which the calculators do not model.
• Property taxes and homeowner's insurance are entered as fixed annual amounts, but in practice they usually rise over the life of a loan.
• Private mortgage insurance (PMI) is estimated with a simple rule. Real PMI pricing and cancellation depend on credit score, loan type and lender policy.
• Closing costs, points, origination fees, late fees, annual fees and similar charges are not included.
• Credit card interest is estimated monthly, while real card issuers use daily balances, grace periods and minimum-payment formulas that shift as the balance changes. New charges, missed payments and promotional rates ending are not modeled.

The assumptions behind each calculator are listed under it and on the methodology page.

No guarantees

WealthWise does not guarantee that any estimate is accurate, complete or achievable, and it is not responsible for decisions made on the basis of an estimate. The site tests its math carefully, but errors are possible and inputs are often incomplete.

Consult a qualified professional

Before you take out a loan, refinance, consolidate debt, make a large extra payment or change your tax position, confirm the figures with the lender or provider involved and consider talking with a qualified professional, such as a licensed financial adviser, a tax professional or an attorney. Government consumer-protection publishers are a good source of independent information; the learning library links to them where an article relies on one.

If you find a number on this site that looks wrong, the site would like to know; the about page lists the contact channel.