The loan amount (or value of the principal) is $285,000 The annual interest rate is 4.25% The interest rate is compounded 12 times a year (or monthly) The mortgage will last 30 years The monthly rate (should be a percentage rate) is equal to the annual interest rate divided by how often the interest rate is compounded. The number of payments is equal to the number of years the mortgage will last multiplied by 12.

I a getting lost on the math portion. When I am putting the information in I am getting a negative number. This is part of the homework for computer literacy. I have to have the correct numbers for the PMT function to work.