- 1). Open Microsoft Excel. You should have a blank spreadsheet, but, if not, select the "New" option from the "File" menu.
- 2). Enter the loan's interest rate as a percentage in cell A1. For example, if the loan carries an 8 percent rate, you would enter "8%" in the cell.
- 3). Enter the monthly payment as a negative number in cell A2. If your monthly payment is $250, you would enter "-250" in A2.
- 4). Type the loan's initial balance into cell A3, again, as a negative number. Regardless of what you owe now, if you originally borrowed $10,000, enter "-10000" into cell A3.
- 5). Type a zero into cell A4 if your loan is a mortgage or similar loan where payments are due at the end of the payment period. For loans due at the beginning of the period, enter a 1.
- 6). Type the following formula into cell A5, omitting the quotation marks: "=NPER(A1/12,A2,A3,0,A4)."
- 7). Round the result in cell A5 to the nearest whole number. That will give you the term of your loan in months.
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