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Dear David,I was at my doctor’s office last week for a routine check-up. Between the clinical tests, Dr Low, a young man of 35, said he wanted some advice on housing loans. He had seen a brand-new condominium that’d just been put up for sale and was thinking of buying a unit. But he felt a little queasy about being stuck with a $500,000 liability. “I won’t lose sleep if the monthly loan repayment is less than $3,000. But I want to know how long the loan will drag on,” he said. I whipped out my financial calculator, keyed in the numbers, turned to Dr Low with a straight face and said: “You’re not going to like this. For a principal sum of $500,000, monthly repayment of $3,000 and, say, an interest rate of 6% per annum, you can only kiss your loan goodbye when you hit 65.” At that instant, I could almost see Dr Low’s face change colour. “OK, so I’ll have to shelve my early retirement plan. But tell me, what’s the interest that I will be paying over the next 30 years? $200,000?” At this juncture, Dr Low’s phone rang, which got him distracted. Just as well, I thought. His jaw would drop if he knew what the total interest would be (you’ll get to know the figure shortly)…