Ohfersure, in general. I wasn't saying: "I don't know why you are asking for my reasons". I was saying: "I understand enough about the problem to know that knowledge of the circumstances will not help to answer my questions". Quite honestly, based on these very informative responses, I am coming to the conclusion that my uncle simply screwed up. Either he is misusing the terminology (I suspect, as others have said, that the figure labeled "cure default" is really just the unpaid principal), or his arithmetic makes no sense. Wouldn't be the first time; for example, in the same set of records, he variously shows a balance of $93,815 and $49,420 for this loan as of 10/31/2001, with no indication of any payments. Indeed, the figures that I provide assume (or assert) that there were no payments. I cannot vet and correct the arithmetic because I do not know of the original terms of the loan. The records are 350 miles away, and the recordkeeper wouldn't know up from down. I realize I am missing some (large?) pieces of the jigsaw puzzle. But I was hoping that someone could fill them in. Sigh, probably not. But I appreciate the effort. Thanks to all.