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->{'monthlypayment'} += $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 <http://www.perl.com/CPAN/> to find a CPAN site near you.