If a friend who’d never heard of amortization before asked you to explain how loan payments work, what would you say?

Spreading a loan into a series of fixed payments.

Explanation:

When you ask how loan payments work, there's no better way to explain it that knowing that you will have to pay down a balance over a period of time. When you ask for a loan, you will have to spread it into a series of fixed payments (the total payment remains equal all the time) in which you will have to cover for the principal loan (the amount of money you requested) and the loan's interest (which is what the lender gets paid for the loan). This monthly payment even though it remains the same, covers for the following: the interest costs (which are at their highest at the beginning) and reducing the loan balance. As time goes on, a bigger portion of what you are paying goes toward the principal loan, and the interest you pay is proportionally less each month.

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