How Simple Interest Works: An Example Suppose you take out a $5,000 loan at 6% interest for two years. To calculate the amount of interest you will pay, use the simple interest formula above.

Changing the loan amount in the calculator back to $200,000, and trying out a few interest rates, shows that an interest rate of 4.11% would produce that same $968 monthly payment.

The Fed is hesitant to change interest rates largely due to one factor uncertainty over President Donald Trump's tariffs. The ...

Those tariffs, and rising inflation, could prompt the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. The "core" inflation rate, which excludes food and energy prices, was 2.9% in the 12 months through June.

The core index that omits energy and food costs also rose by 0.3% in June, but the annual rate ticked up to 2.8% from 2.7% ...