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Maintenance Update 03 31 2006

Calculator update notes for 3-31-2006.

Financial Calculator Update 3/31/2006

The quarterly update for 3/31/2006 is a rather targeted update. Most of the significant changes are centered around the tax calculators, which have been updated to the preliminary 2006 tax rules and rates. There have been a few other significant updates, including new maximum amortization periods for Canadian mortgages.

If you have not updated your calculators in a while you should definitely refresh your existing HTML calculator pages. All updates are cumulative, so if you start fresh with this update you will have all previous calculator updates as well. If you would like, you can review our 12/31/2005 update: 12/31/2005 Update. (The 3/31/2006 update includes all changes included in previous updates, you do not need to download any other updates to have the most current versions of all of the calculator components.)

Update instructions*:

  1. Download the latest version of your calculators from your download site, found on your update e-mail notice.
  2. Execute the Calc.exe file from your download. This is a self-extracting zip file. (Or unzip the Calc.zip file if you are using a non-windows platform.)
  3. When prompted for a directory, you may use the default of "java" or enter your own. It is recommended that you extract the update to a new directory and then move the required files to your production environment. One directory will be created. It will have three subdirectories.
  4. Replace the contents of your current KJEgui, KJEgraph and KJEcalculation directories with the new version.
  5. Replace your current dinkytown.jar file with the new version.
  6. Replace all files with the extension "class" with the new version.
  7. Make required changes to any HTML documents as described in this document or replace all of your existing HTML documents and re-apply your web-site custom changes.

*Please note, if you have a Servlet or other custom deployment (other than the custom formatted delivery described below), installation instructions for your package will found on your download page.

Update for custom formatted delivery**:

**Custom formatted delivery is a special option that you can add to your maintenance update service. With this option we can apply an HTML, JSP, CFM or ASP template to your calculator pages and their reports before the update is sent to you. You will then receive your calculator pages with all of your site formatting in place, without any rework to include changes that have been made to the pages deployed on your server. If you are interested in using custom formatted delivery, please contact us at (612) 331-2291, or for more information.

  1. Download the latest version of your calculators from your download site, found on your update e-mail notice.
  2. Execute the Calc.exe file from your download. This is a self-extracting zip file. (Or unzip the Calc.zip file if you are using a non-windows platform.)
  3. When prompted for a directory, you may use the default of "c:\java" or enter your own. It is recommended that you extract the update to a new directory and then move the required files to your production environment. One directory will be created. It will have three subdirectories.
  4. Replace the contents of your current "java" directory (including the KJEgui, KJEgraph and KJEcalculation directories) with the new version.

All pages will be custom formatted to your site, no further integration or modification of the calculators is required. Please note, if your custom delivery uses Active Server Pages (ASP), Java™ Server Pages (JSP) or Cold Fusion (CFM) the respective ASP, JSP or CFM pages will be in place of your HTML documents for all calculator main pages. Report templates will remain in HTML documents (these documents are not called by your server, but instead used by the applet in the main calculator page).

To clear your Browser's cache:

When you test the new version of the calculators, make sure that the browser you are using uses the new files instead of any it may have in its cache. You may need to clear the browser's cache manually to ensure the new versions are loaded.

Internet Explorer:

Choose "Internet Options" under the "Tools" menu and on the "General" tab click on the "Delete Files…" button. Click "Ok" when prompted if you wish to delete all temporary files. Close this dialog box, and all open Internet Explorer windows. Your Cache should then be cleared.

Netscape:

Choose "Preferences" under the "Edit" menu. Click on the "Advanced" category and then "Cache" option which appears under it. Click the "Clear Memory Cache" button, then click the "Clear Disk Cache" button.)

Master Changes (HTML Modification required, affects all calculators)

    None

Master Changes (no HTML changes required, affects all calculators)

    None

    Please note that Microsoft has a planned change to Internet Explorer 6 and 7 that will affect the way these browsers load Java Applets and all ActiveX controls. The change requires users to click on the Java Calculator before they are allowed to enter or change information. A small message will appear when you hoover over the calculator, instructing you to click on it to Activate it. The calculator will appear on the page correctly when the page loads and the view report and calculate buttons remain active. The only change is a single mouse click anywhere on the calculator applet is required before the user can enter or change information on the calculator.

Updates that require modifications to HTML documents

  1. 72T Calculator, 72T Distribution Impact: (Retire72T.html, Retire72Alt.html): The default “Reasonable interest rate” has been changed to 5.68% to reflect 120% of the current Federal Mid-Term rate as of April 2006.

  2. Mortgage Tax Saving Calculator: (MortgageTaxes.html) The definition of "interest rate after taxes" has been updated to include the 2006 standard deductions. The new text reads:

    For 2006 the standard deductions are $10,300 for married couples filing jointly, $5,150 for married couples filing separately and singles, and $7,550 for heads of household. You should also be aware that the total tax savings may be less for higher incomes that have their allowable itemized deductions phased out.

  3. 1040 Tax Estimator: (Tax1040.html) has been updated for new rates and schedules for 2006. This includes changes to the definitions, and the java calculation modules. Please note that no new entry or output fields were required, but the tax tables and many of the tax computations were affected.

  4. 1040EZ Tax Estimator: (Tax1040EZ.html) has been updated for new rates and schedules for 2006. This includes changes to the definitions, and the java calculation modules. Please note that no new entry or output fields were required, but the tax tables and many of the tax computations were affected.

  5. Marginal Tax Estimator: (TaxMargin.html) has been updated for new rates and schedules for 2006. This includes changes to the definitions, and the java calculation modules. Please note that no new entry or output fields were required, but the tax tables and many of the tax computations were affected.

  6. Self Employment Tax Estimator: (TaxSelfEmployment.html) has been updated for the new rates and schedules for 2006. This includes changes to the definitions, and the java calculation modules. Please note that no new entry or output fields were required, but the tax tables and many of the tax computations were affected.

  7. Mortgage Refinance Breakeven: (MortgageRefinance.html): The following as been added to the generated report:
    1. Total interest remaining on existing loan
    2. Total interest you would pay on new loan
    3. Additional interest or interest savings with the new loan

  8. Accelerated Debt Payoff, How much do you owe?, Personal Debt Consolidation, Roll-Down Your Credit Card Debt: (DebtAccel.html, DebtAmount.html, DebtConsolidate.html, DebtRolldown.html):
    Minimum payments for credit cards has been changed to 4% of the outstanding balance for these calculators. Previously it was 2% of the outstanding balance. This change reflects the policy change of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) which has begun requiring credit card issuers to increase their minimum monthly payments.

Updates do not require changes to HTML documents

  1. Canadian Mortgage Calculators: All Canadian Mortgage Calculators now have 30 and 35 year amortizations available. For calculators that calculate CMHC fees, the fees are increased by 0.2% for 30 year amortizations and 0.4% for 35 year amortizations.

    The following calculators have been updated with these changes:

    1. Bi-weekly Payment Calculator (CDN) CABiweekly.html
    2. Mortgage Compare (CDN) (CACompareMortgage.html)
    3. Mortgage Calculator (CDN) (CAMortgageLoan.html)
    4. Mortgage Payoff (CDN) (CAMortgagePayoff.html)
    5. Mortgage Qualifier (CDN) (CAMortgageQualifier.html)
    6. Rent vs. Buy (CDN) (CAMortgageRentvsBuy.html)
    7. Mortgage Refinance Interest Savings (CDN) (CAShouldIRefi.html)

  2. Asset Allocator: (AssetAllocator.html) has been updated to allow for a minimum starting balance of $0.