What is the total interest cost of my loan?

Original inbound: How much interest is earned on a five year personal note for $120,000 amortized over a 20 year period at 6 percent?

A: You can quickly learn the answer to this using HSH.com's mortgage calculator or by downloading HSH's Homebuyer's Calculator Suite. Simply add in your loan amount, select a 20-year term and view a complete amortization schedule. Then, just look up (or add up) the interest due for each year's period and you'll have the answer you need.

You don't mention if the loan is structured as interest only or whether payments will also include principal. If it's interest only, simply look at the amount of interest paid in the very first payment, then multiply that number by 60 (months) to arrive at your total interest costs.

If the loan includes principal repayments (amortizing), the answer would be $33,462.50, and the loan would still have a balance of $101,879.30 after 60 payments have been made. If the loan is interest-only (non-amortizing), the total would be a full $36,000, and of course the balance would still be the full $120,000.