jQuery Forum

I had this code, which added inputted vals and put them in a "totals" box:

1. 'change .payments': function(event) {
         var paymentTot = $('#paymenttotal').val();
         paymentTot = parseInt(paymentTot) || 0;
         var targetVal = $(event.target).val();
         targetVal = parseInt(targetVal);
         paymentTot = paymentTot + targetVal;
         $('#paymenttotal').val(paymentTot);
       },
2. 
   

...but then I realized I wanted "dollar amounts" and interspersed what I hoped would convert the vals to floats (I naively though that if one entered "2" it would get converted to "2.00", etc.)

1. 'change .payments': function(event) {
         var paymentTot = $('#paymenttotal').val();
         paymentTot = parseInt(paymentTot) || 0;
         var paymentTotFloat = parseFloat(paymentTot);
         var targetVal = $(event.target).val();
         targetVal = parseInt(targetVal);
         var targetValFloat = parseFloat(targetVal);
         paymentTot = paymentTot + targetVal;
         paymentTotFloat = paymentTotFloat + targetValFloat;
         $('#paymenttotal').val(paymentTotFloat);
       },

(The old int code is still there, as you can see, but once the float code works, I'll remove it).

Why does it not work, and what is needed to get the vals to convert from raw ints to "dollar amounts"?