What calculation do I use for Excel 2003 to calculate the maximum I can
borrow when I know the rate and the maximum amount I can afford?

You're missing a few pieces of information. The function you want to
use if PV (present value). It takes as parameters

Rate/Period
Number Of Periods To Repay
Payment Per Period
Future Value

The rate per period is the annual rate / 12. So if your rate is 8%,
the rate per period is 0.0066. Put this value in A1.

Over how many periods will you repay the loan? Assume 120, so put that
value in A2.

How much do you want to pay back each period? Assume this is $200.
Since this is money paid out, it needs to be negative, so enter -200
in cell A3.

The future value will be 0, since you'll pay off the entire loan, so
enter 0 in A4.

The Type indicates whether the payment is made at the beginning or end
of the period. Use 1, and put that value in A5.

Then, to calculate the present, which is the amount you can borrow
based on the values in A1:A5, use

=PV(A1,A2,A3,A4,A5)

For the example values used above, the amount you can borrow is
$16,594.

Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
Excel Product Group, 1998 - 2009
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)



On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:59:03 -0700, CHARI
wrote:

What calculation do I use for Excel 2003 to calculate the maximum I can
borrow when I know the rate and the maximum amount I can afford?

You also need to know the term (length of the loan), but you want present
value, as in:

=PV(IntRate/12,Years*12,-Payment)

Regards,
Fred.

"CHARI" wrote in message
...
What calculation do I use for Excel 2003 to calculate the maximum I can
borrow when I know the rate and the maximum amount I can afford?