CTFA Exam: Loan Amortization Calculation

Loan Amortization Calculation

Prev Question Next Question

Question

You are considering borrowing $10,000 for 3 years at an annual interest rate of 6%. The loan agreement calls for 3 equal payments, to be paid at the end of each of the next 3 years. (Payments include both principal and interest.) The annual payment that will fully pay off (amortize) the loan is closest to:

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

C

To solve this problem, we need to use the formula for the present value of an annuity:

PV = PMT x (1 - (1 + r)^-n) / r

Where: PV = present value (in this case, the amount of the loan) PMT = payment per period r = interest rate per period n = number of periods

In this case, we know the loan amount is $10,000, the interest rate is 6% per year, and the loan is to be repaid in 3 annual payments.

To find the payment per period (PMT), we can rearrange the formula:

PMT = PV x r / (1 - (1 + r)^-n)

Substituting the known values:

PMT = $10,000 x 0.06 / (1 - (1 + 0.06)^-3) PMT = $10,000 x 0.06 / (1 - 0.8396) PMT = $10,000 x 0.06 / 0.1604 PMT = $600 / 0.1604 PMT = $3,742.65 (rounded to nearest cent)

So the annual payment that will fully pay off the loan is closest to option C: $3,741.

Note that this assumes the payments are made at the end of each year. If the payments were made at the beginning of each year, we would need to use a slightly different formula, but the answer would still be closest to option C.