troymo

1. Taxes is an individual only thing. You get a tax rebate personally - due to having a mortgage - but nothing else. the company that lends money to you does not really care if you get a tax rebate.

2. Sinking fund factor - is nothing but how much you should accumulate today to have 1$ in both principal and interest to pay off against the loan once the loan matures.

3. If you considered your level paying mortgage amount --> Payment * 12 / Total Outstanding Loan Amount = SFF.

also equal to
Debt Rate on Mortgage (annual) + how much you should accumulate to have 1$ at the end of the loan.

As to why they did not get this concept in Level I - they did not want to overwhelm us... though they are managing to do that quite well... (at least in my case).

CP