Suppose you take out a mortgage for
A
dollars at a monthly interest rate
I
and a monthly payment
P
(To calculate
I
: if the annual interest rate is
12%
, divide by 12 to get a monthly rate of
1%
, then replace the percentage with the decimal fraction 0.01.) Let
A_(n)
denote the amount you have left to pay off after
n
months. So,
A_(0)=A
by definition. At the end of each month, you are first charged interest on all the money you owed during the month, and then your payment is subtracted. So,
A_(n+1)=A_(n)(1+I)-P
Prove by induction that
A_(n)=(A-(P)/(I))(1+I)^(n)+(P)/(I)