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


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