what is a 30 year amortization schedule 
a 30 year amortization schedule breaks down how much of a level payment on a loan goes toward either principal or interest over the course of 360 months for example on a 30 year mortgage early in the life of the loan most of the monthly payment goes toward interest while toward the end it is mostly made up of principal it can be presented either as a table or in graphical form as a chart the bottom lineamortization is a technique of gradually reducing an account balance over time when amortizing loans a gradually escalating portion of the monthly debt payment is applied to the principal when amortizing intangible assets amortization is similar to depreciation where a fixed percentage of an asset s book value is reduced each month this technique is used to reflect how the benefit of an asset is received by a company over time correction july 17 2021 this article previously showed an incorrect formula for the example when the final numbers were derived using the principal payment formula the article has been corrected to show the right formula 