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Maintenance Update 06 30 2001

Calculator update notes for 6-30-2001.

Financial Calculator Update 6/30/2001

To view our 9/30/2001 update: Click Here!

The quarterly update for 6/30/2001 contains a few nice changes but has no required HTML changes. This update can be accomplished by simply replacing your "class" files and "dinkytown.jar" file. You may wish to print this page as a reference as you begin your update. To view our 3/31/2001 update: Click Here!

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 versions
  7. Make required changes to any HTML documents as describe later in this document (this update has no required HTML changes, however there are a couple of nice optional changes to the Tax calculators and Life Insurance you should consider).

If you have NOT made any changes to the HTML Files used in your deployment you may wish to replace all HTML files with the new versions in your download. If you have made changes to your HTML files, please review the changes below. This update has no required HTML changes, however there are a couple of nice optional changes to the Tax calculators and Life Insurance you should consider.

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:

Chose "Internet Options" under the "Tools" menu and on the "General" tab click on the "Delete Files…" button.

Netscape:

Chose "Prefrences…" 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 (all calculators)

  • Floating text for bar graph values: Point the mouse at any graph bar or column and it will popup its plotted value!
  • Reduced size of dinkytown.jar file: Used by all of the calculators, this common file has been reduced 6% in size, even with the new graphing functionality.
  • Improved scrolling: Scrolling on slower computers has been improved by faster, more efficient graph redraws.

    • Updates that require modifications to HTML documents

    None

    Other Updates

    1. 1040 Tax Calculator, Tax Margins, 1040EZ Tax Calculators have been updated to include the recent tax code changes for 2001. A new definition "2001 Changes" has been added to include a description of these new changes. The new definition, added to each of the calculator documents, is included below for your reference:

      Changes for 2001 The tax changes put into effect this year are some of the most complex tax code changes in U.S. history. However, the overall impact for 2001 is rather limited. In fact, in 2001, most tax payers will be impacted by only three changes.
      1. $600 Child Tax Credit: For each dependent under the age of 17 that you can claim on your return you will receive a tax credit of $600. This is a $100 increase from 2000.
      2. The creation of a 10% tax bracket: This tax bracket is for the first $6,000 of taxable income for singles, $12,000 for married couples and qualified widow(er)s and $10,000 for head of household. The new 10% tax bracket is retroactive to January 1st, 2001. Any tax rebate you receive in 2001 is actually an early refund of the tax savings produced by this new tax bracket. Our tax calculator determines your total tax bill for 2001 not including any tax rebate check.
      3. 0.5% Lower tax rates: The final change is a rate reduction by 1% for the 28%, 31%, 36% and 39.6% tax brackets. Unfortunately this 1% reduction is effective as of July 1st, 2001, which produces a blended rate reduction of 0.5% for each bracket for the entire year.

      Many of the other promised changes, including more significant rate reductions, retirement plan contribution limit increases, and the elimination of the marriage penalty don't start until 2002 or later.

    2. Life Insurance Calculator has been updated to better handle situations where there is an immediate shortfall but no long term shortfall exists. This can happen if there is little or no income in the early years, but income increases to more than meet expenses later in the scenario. If this situation occurs, your required amount of life insurance is increased to make sure your savings balance never dips below zero, even if this produces a large surplus later. A new message appears in the report when this situation occurs. The message is:

      3. "Your required life insurance was increased by $XXX,XXX to cover a shortfall projected X year(s)

      after your death. Without this immediate need, your required life insurance would be $XXX,XXX. While this increase may leave your family with what seems to be a large surplus in later years, it is

      needed to cover your families more immediate financial needs."

      No HTML changes are required, however you will need to update the calculator's report, or use the new LifeInsurance.html document and copy any modification you have made to it, to have the new message appear. To update the report to include the new message, place the following text immediately after the first paragraph in the report (in the "TEXT_FOR_REPORT" applet parameter):

      <P>IMMEDIATE_NEED_MSG

    3. Mortgage Loan calculator was updated to allow you to hide the prepayment section. You can also change the loan term entry from a drop downlist to a data field. This allows you to enter any year number from 1 to 30, instead of being restricted to 5 year increments.

      4. Example: Allow entry of 1 to 30 years.

      <PARAM name="SHOW_ALLTERMS" value="TRUE">

      Example: Turn off prepayments

      <PARAM name="SHOW_PREPAY" value="FALSE">

    4. Line of Credit calculator updated to allow a new parameter: LOAN_TO_VALUE_RATIO_DECIMALS This parameter is optional and can be set between 0 and 10 to define the number of decimals to be used on the LTV ratio. The default is zero, which is the current number of decimals for the LTV ratio.

      5. Example:

      <PARAM name="LOAN_TO_VALUE_RATIO_DECIMALS" value="3">

    5. Asset Allocator has two new optional parameters. These parameters allow you to set the maximum foreign stock allocation and let you set the allocator to a "tax deferred" portfolio.

      6. Simply add an additional parameter "MAX_FOREIGN" to the applet and set it to a value between 0 and 33. The allocator will use this as the maximum foreign investment percent.

      Example of setting the maximum foreign stock allocation:

      <PARAM name="MAX_FOREIGN" value="10">

      A tax deferred portfolio does not use the current tax rate in its calculations. In addition, there will be no municipal bond allocation. You will need to remove both of these references on the AssetAllocatorCalculation.html report to use this parameter.

      Example of setting the allocator to a tax deferred portfolio:

      <PARAM name="TAX_DEFFER" value="TRUE">

    6. Roth Transfer calculator renamed to Roth IRA Conversion. None of the functionality of this calculator has changed, however the name has been changed to better match the IRS naming conventions. The calculator text has also been updated to reflect this change. No HTML changes are required, however you may wish to update the calculator name, or use the new HTML document and copy any modification you have made to it.

    7. Loan Comparison Calculator. We have added three new parameters to allow you to customize the names of the loans that appear within the applet and on the report. The following parameters: MSG_LOAN0, MSG_LOAN1, MSG_LOAN2 can be used to change the names loans that appear within the applet. They also are used on the report to show the name of loan. If you do not wish to customize the loan names,

      8. For example, to have loans titled "loan x", "loan y" and "loan z" you would include the following parameters:

      <PARAM name="MSG_LOAN1" value="loan x">

      <PARAM name="MSG_LOAN2" value="loan y">

      <PARAM name="MSG_LOAN3" value="loan z">

      This change also affects the following calculators:

      • Canadian Loan Comparison
      • Canadian Mortgage Comparison

    8. Compound Savings Calculator. We have added a new parameter to let you choose whether deposits are assumed to be made at the beginning of a period or the end. The default, and current functionality, assumes that deposits are made at the beginning of a period. Please note, if deposits are made at the end of a period, interest for that deposit will not begin to accrue until the start of the next period.

      9. Example to make deposits at the end of a period:

      <PARAM name="PAYMENTS_AT_START" value="FALSE">

      Example to make deposits at the start of a period:

      <PARAM name="PAYMENTS_AT_START" value="TRUE">

      OR

      Leave this parameter out of the applet, it will default to TRUE

    9. Cool Million Calculator. We have added a new parameter to let you choose whether deposits are assumed to be made at the beginning of a period or the end. The default now assumes that deposits are made at the beginning of a period. Please note, if deposits are made at the end of a period, interest for that deposit will not begin to accrue until the start of the next period.

      10. Example to make deposits at the end of a period:

      <PARAM name="PAYMENTS_AT_START" value="FALSE">

      Example to make deposits at the start of a period:

      <PARAM name="PAYMENTS_AT_START" value="TRUE">

      OR

      Leave this parameter out of the applet, it will default to TRUE