Calculating future value and Present Value I have been stuck on this one for hours ... not too great at math can someone help. Thanks.
Isaac borrowed $\$4000$ at $11.5\%$ compounded quarterly $5.5$ years ago. 
One year ago he made a payment of $\$1500$. What amount will extinguish the loan today?
I've tried a bunch of different approaches, none were right.
From what I understand we should calculate the FV for $4.5$ years when $PV=\$4000$ 
then subtract $\$1500$ from answer and calculate FV for one more year.
But still no luck..
 A: It sounds like your idea is correct. The current value of loan should be given by: $4000(1+ \frac{.115}{4})^{4 \times 5.5} - 1500(1+ \frac{.115}{4})^{4 \times 1}$
If you aren't getting the right answer, it could be a problem with using the calculator. Some can be difficult to use, for example, if they don't let you see what you are typing.
You also don't need to turn it into a multi step problem by calculating the value at 4.5 years, subtracting 1500, and then calculating the interest for the final year after everything else. If you calculate the current value of everything at once, you can save yourself some work. It is fairly easy to see that both must be equivalent if you draw a time diagram of the payments.
A: First: The "value" of the loan after $4.5$ years would be
$$
FV(4.5) = 4,000\left(1 + \frac{0.115}{4}\right)^{4\cdot 4.5}.
$$
Now then after the $4.5$ years you would subtract $1,500$ from the debt and the add one years extra interest to what is left over. This will give you the future value after the $5.5$ years:
$$
(FV(4.5) - 1500)*(1 + \frac{0.115}{4})^{4\cdot 1}
$$
So this is equivalent to making a new loan of $FV(4.5)$ and then calculate what that load is "worth" after $1$ year with $11.5\%$ compounded quarterly.
A: Various methods will all work, and are all based on the same two principles:
1)  You move money earlier and later in time using the compound interest formula
2)  You can only add or subtract money amounts if they are at the same point in time.
So in this case you have many options, some of which have been given above.  Another may be:
Move the partial payment to the date of the original loan, subtract from the original balance, and move what's left to today.
A: $$ $4,000*1.115^{18} = $28,379.68.$$ Paid off $$ $1,500 $$ Left to repay: $$ $26,879.69 $$
waited a year: $$ $26,879.69*1.115^4 = $41,545.47.$$
Unless, you mean, 11.5% per annum, compounded quarterly, then the interest would be: $$1 + (0.115/4) $$ Rather than simply $1.115$.
