README for Business::US_Amort Time-stamp: "2000-05-14 01:14:45 MDT" NAME Business::US_Amort - class encapsulating US-style amortization SYNOPSIS use Business::US_Amort; my $loan = Business::US_Amort->new; $loan->principal(123654); $loan->interest_rate(9.25); $loan->term(20); my $add_before_50_amt = 700; sub add_before_50 { my $this = $_[0]; if($this->{'_month_count'} == 50) { $this->{'_monthly_payment'} += $add_before_50_amt; } } $loan->callback_before_monthly_calc(\&add_before_50); $loan->start_date_be_now; $loan->run; $loan->dump_table; print "Total paid toward interest: ", $loan->total_paid_interest, "\n"; DESCRIPTION This class encapsulates amortization calculations figured according to what I've been led to believe is the usual algorithm for loans in the USA. I used to think amortization was simple, just the output of an algorithm that'd take just principle, term, and interest rate, and return the monthly payment and maybe something like total paid toward interest. However, I discovered that there's a need for loan calculations where, say, between the 49th and 50th month, your interest rate drops, or where you decide to add $100 to your monthly payment in the 32nd month. So I wrote this class, so that I could amortize simply in simple cases while still allowing any kind of strangeness in complex cases. DISCLAIMER This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. But let me know if it gives you any problems, OK? COPYRIGHT Copyright 1999, 2000, Sean M. Burke sburke@cpan.org, all rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. AUTHOR Sean M. Burke sburke@cpan.org PREREQUISITES This suite requires Perl 5; I've only used it under Perl 5.004, so for anything lower, you're on your own. Business::US_Amort doesn't use any nonstandard modules. INSTALLATION You install Business::US_Amort, as you would install any perl module library, by running these commands: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install If you want to install a private copy of Business::US_Amort in your home directory, then you should try to produce the initial Makefile with something like this command: perl Makefile.PL LIB=~/perl DOCUMENTATION POD-format documentation is included in Business::US_Amort. POD is readable with the 'perldoc' utility. See ChangeLog for recent changes. MACPERL INSTALLATION NOTES Don't bother with the makefiles. Just make a Business folder under your MacPerl site_lib or lib directory and move US_Amort.pm into there. SUPPORT Questions, bug reports, useful code bits, and suggestions for Business::US_Amort should just be sent to me at sburke@cpan.org AVAILABILITY The latest version of Business::US_Amort is available from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). Visit to find a CPAN site near you.