Adjustable rate mortgages, or ARMs for short, change the interest rate on the loan periodically to keep up with the current market trends. When interest rates fall, ARM rates go down without the borrowers having to refinance their loans. However, when rates rise, so do the interest rates charged on the ARM. Each time the interest rate changes, the monthly payment must be recalculated based on the new rate, the time left in the term of the mortgage and the amount of money still owed.

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     Check your mortgage documents or contact your lender to determine how much you still owe on your loan and how many monthly payments you have remaining in your mortgage term. For example, you may have paid down your mortgage to $124,000 with 132 monthly payments, or 11 years, left on the loan.

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When you buy a new car, you may opt to take out a loan to finance part of the cost. Bankrate.com recommends not spending more than 20 percent of your budget on your monthly car payments. To know whether the car loan will fit in your budget, you will need to know the monthly payments. The monthly payments depend on how much you borrow, the interest rate and the term of the car loan.

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     Divide the yearly interest rate of the loan by 12 to find the monthly interest rate. For example, if the annual interest rate equals 8.16 percent, you would divide 0.0816 by 12 to get 0.0068 as the monthly interest rate.

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