Debt Payoff Planner
List your debts and your monthly budget. Get a concrete plan: what to pay, to which debt, starting when. Uses the avalanche method, the mathematically cheapest way out.
Each month, every debt accrues interest at APR ÷ 12, minimum payments are made on all active debts, and your budget surplus (take-home income minus essentials, minus the flexible spending you keep, minus all minimums) goes to the highest-APR debt, plus the minimums freed up by debts already cleared. Attacking the highest rate first is always the cheapest path out of debt. A debt whose minimum does not cover its monthly interest will never amortize; the plan flags it.
About this tool
Build a debt payoff plan from your real budget: list your debts, income and expenses, mark what you could cut, and the planner produces a month-by-month schedule using the avalanche method, highest interest rate first, with the payoff date and total interest for every debt.
The avalanche order is mathematically optimal: every extra dollar goes where it kills the most interest. The chart of balances melting month by month exists because motivation, not math, is what usually breaks a payoff plan, and seeing the end date makes it real.
Avalanche or snowball, which is better?
Avalanche (highest rate first) minimizes total interest and is what this planner uses. Snowball (smallest balance first) costs somewhat more but delivers faster early wins; the best method is honestly whichever one you will stick with.
Should I invest or pay off debt first?
Compare the debt's interest rate to a realistic after-tax investment return. Credit-card debt at 20%+ is a guaranteed loss no market return reliably beats, so it almost always comes first; low-rate mortgages are the classic case for investing alongside.
Do minimum payments ever pay off a credit card?
Eventually, but often after decades and multiples of the original balance in interest. Minimums are calculated to keep the debt alive, which is exactly why a fixed aggressive payment beats them so dramatically.