You never enter a loan amount here — this works out how much you could actually borrow, starting from your income and expenses, not the other way around.
Most loan calculators start from a loan amount and tell you the monthly payment. This one works the other way around: you enter what you actually earn and spend, and it works out the biggest monthly payment you could comfortably afford — then converts that into how much you could borrow at your chosen interest rate.
Your maximum affordable payment is your monthly net income, minus living expenses, minus any existing debt payments, minus other monthly commitments, minus a cash buffer you set aside on purpose. If you also set a maximum percentage of income for the loan payment, the tool uses whichever of the two figures is lower — so a generous income alone can never push the estimate higher than what your actual monthly cash flow can support.
Once your maximum affordable payment is set, the same payment is tested against 10, 20, and 30 year terms automatically, since a longer term borrows more but costs more in total interest. What makes this tool different is the optional "Also compare this term" field — enter any term from 1 to 50 years and it's added to the comparison table alongside the three standard ones, marked "(your choice)". This matters because real loan offers rarely land on a neat 10, 20, or 30 year term — a 15-year refinance or a 7-year auto-style term is common, and this tool lets you see exactly where your own term sits against the standard options rather than guessing by interpolating between them.
Emma's monthly net income is 6,000, living expenses 2,200, existing debt payments 300, other commitments 100, and she sets aside a 200 cash buffer. She also caps the loan payment at 28% of her income, and wants to see a 15-year term compared against the standard options, at a 6.5% interest rate.
| Figure | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cash-flow based limit (income − expenses − debt − commitments − buffer) | 3,200 |
| Income % based limit (28% of 6,000) | 1,680 |
| Maximum affordable monthly payment (the lower of the two) | 1,680 |
Even though Emma's cash flow could stretch to 3,200 a month, the 28% income cap is more conservative at 1,680 — so that's the figure used for every term below.
| Term | Max loan | Monthly payment | Total payments | Total interest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 years | 147,955 | 1,680 | 201,600 | 53,645 |
| 15 years (your choice) | 192,858 | 1,680 | 302,400 | 109,542 |
| 20 years | 225,330 | 1,680 | 403,200 | 177,870 |
| 30 years | 265,794 | 1,680 | 604,800 | 339,006 |
The monthly payment stays the same across every term — only the loan amount and total interest change. Emma's 15-year choice borrows 44,903 more than a 10-year term but 72,936 less than a 20-year term, at a proportionate cost in total interest — exactly the kind of side-by-side trade-off this tool is built to show.
Below the comparison table, a full year-by-year amortization schedule is shown for the maximum loan at any term you select — opening balance, interest paid, principal paid, and closing balance for every year of that term, so you can see exactly how the loan pays down over time, not just the totals.
Once you have a result, five icons appear above it. Download saves a full HTML report, and the grid icon saves the same figures as a CSV file. Each report sets out your inputs, how your affordable payment was worked out, the borrowing capacity for every term, and a year-by-year amortization schedule for each term, one after another. Copy places the same report as plain text on your clipboard, Share hands it to an app you choose, and Print opens your browser’s print dialog, where you can also save it as a PDF. Everything is created in your browser. Nothing you enter is saved between visits — refreshing the page resets the calculator completely, and no data is ever transmitted to us.
Disclaimer: This tool estimates borrowing capacity based on the numbers you provide. Actual loan eligibility also depends on credit history and a lender's own policies. Not financial advice — confirm with a lender before deciding. This tool is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Results are hypothetical estimates based on your inputs and do not guarantee future performance. Consult a qualified professional before making financial decisions; we accept no liability for losses arising from use of this calculator.