Saturday, March 13, 2021

Retro Review: Texas Instruments Personal Banker

Retro Review:   Texas Instruments Personal Banker


Quick Facts:


Models:  Personal Banker

Company:  Texas Instruments

Years:  1987 - 1988

Memory Register:  1 independent memory, 5 financial registers

Battery:  Solar


Finance in a Clamshell Calculator


The Texas Instruments Personal Banker is a basic solar financial calculator.   The calculator opens up like a book.  The gray case gives the calculator a professional look.


On the left side, we have the arithmetic functions with the memory functions (M+, M-, MRC).   There are three keys of note:


[ AC ]:  The key clears everything, resets the format to 2 decimal fixed mode, clear the memory register, and the financial register.  


[ CE/C ]:  Clear the last entry but keeps everything in the memory register and financial registers intact.


[ DEC ]:  This sets the fixed decimal format.  The default is 2 places.  [ DEC ] [ . ] (decimal point) sets the Personal Banker to floating mode.  


On the right side are the Time Value of Money keys:


[ 1st Amt ]:   Present Value  (PV)


[ # Pmts ]:  Number of Payments (n)


[ Int Rate ]:  Interest Rate per Period (i%)


[ Pmt Amt ]:  Payment (PMT)


[ Final ]:  Future Value (FV)


The [ Solve ] and [ Recall ] keys work exactly the way you expect.  


The cash flow convention (positive for inflows, negative for outflows) is followed.


It is very simple.  A four function calculator with a full time value of money solver.


To help the user, included with the Personal Banker are four cards:


Blue Car Symbol:  Loans & Mortgages


Red Dollar Symbol:  Savings with Periodic Deposits


Gold Stock Graph Symbol:  Investments


Green House Symbol:  Loans & Mortgage with a Balloon Payment












Keyboard


The feel of the keys are solid.  However, the keys take a small fraction of a second for the key to register, so make sure the key registers before typing the next key.  


Verdict


The Personal Banker is a basic financial calculator.  I really like the folding design on this calculator and how the keys work.  Unfortunately, the high price point of $50 (see source) and it's basic set of functions (arithmetic, percent, time value of money, but no cost-sell-margin solver, amortization, statistics, logarithms, or exponents) did not help sales of the Personal Banker.  


It is a good collector item, since vintage solar-powered Texas Instruments financial calculators yield premium prices.


Source


Woerner, Joerg.  "Texas Instruments TI-2600 Personal Banker"  Datamath.  Updated July 22, 2002.  Retrieved January 23, 2021.  http://www.datamath.org/Sci/Modern/PersonalBanker.htm


On Sunday, we'll take another trip back in time.  

Eddie


All original content copyright, © 2011-2021.  Edward Shore.   Unauthorized use and/or unauthorized distribution for commercial purposes without express and written permission from the author is strictly prohibited.  This blog entry may be distributed for noncommercial purposes, provided that full credit is given to the author. 


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