What is Interest?
Interest is a fee paid on borrowed assets. It is the price paid for the use of borrowed money,[1] or, money earned by deposited funds.[2] Assets that are sometimes lent with interest include money, shares, consumer goods through hire purchase, major assets such as aircraft, and even entire factories in finance lease arrangements. The interest is calculated upon the value of the assets in the same manner as upon money. Interest can be thought of as “rent of money”. For example, if you want to borrow money from the bank, there is a certain rate you have to pay according to how much you want loaned to you.
Interest is compensation to the lender for forgoing other useful investments that could have been made with the loaned asset. These forgone investments are known as the opportunity cost. Instead of the lender using the assets directly, they are advanced to the borrower. The borrower then enjoys the benefit of using the assets ahead of the effort required to obtain them, while the lender enjoys the benefit of the fee paid by the borrower for the privilege. The amount lent, or the value of the assets lent, is called the principal. This principal value is held by the borrower on credit. Interest is therefore the price of credit, not the price of money as it is commonly believed to be.[citation needed] The percentage of the principal that is paid as a fee (the interest), over a certain period of time, is called the interest rate.
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