The definitive payoff comparison — see exactly which method wins for your debts.
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Your Debtsup to 8
Avalanche Wins
$0 saved
Avalanche beats Snowball — here's your analysis.
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Avalanche
—Payoff Date
—Total Interest
—Duration
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Snowball
—Payoff Date
—Total Interest
—Duration
Avalanche Payoff
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Snowball Payoff
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Months Saved
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Interest Saved
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Total Debt
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Monthly Minimums
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Avalanche = Max Rate First|Snowball = Min Balance First|Freed Cash = Mins + Extra
Balance Over Time
Scenario Analysis
Stress-test your payoff plan under different conditions.
Market ScenariosHow your payoff changes if you pay more or less
Extra Payment Sensitivity MatrixCurrent extra payment row highlighted in gold
Goal SeekerFind the extra payment needed to hit a target payoff date
Set a target date and click Calculate.
Lump Sum Impact AnalysisHow a one-time payment today accelerates your payoff (Avalanche method)
Debt-by-Debt ComparisonPayoff order, date, and interest for every debt under each strategy
Debt Freedom Projector
Your complete path to debt freedom — and the wealth you'll build after.
Payoff MilestonesEach debt's payoff date in Avalanche order
Total Balance ProjectionAvalanche (gold) vs Snowball (indigo) — combined balance over time
Post-Debt Wealth ProjectorAfter payoff, invest your freed monthly cash and watch it grow
Freed Cash
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Projected Wealth
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Contributions
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Investment Gains
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Investing Starts
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Full Payoff Schedule
How to Use This Calculator
1
Enter Your Debts
List each debt with its current balance, interest rate (APR), and minimum monthly payment. Use a preset to get started quickly.
2
Set Your Extra Payment
Enter any additional money you can throw at debt each month. Even $50 extra can save thousands over the payoff period.
3
Compare Both Methods
The calculator instantly runs both Avalanche (highest rate first) and Snowball (smallest balance first) and shows the winner.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does avalanche always save money vs snowball?
Yes — mathematically, avalanche always saves the same or more total interest compared to snowball, for identical debt inputs and extra payments. The savings range from near-zero (when debts have similar rates or balances) to several thousand dollars on a typical household debt load.
What if I can only pay the minimums?
Without extra payments, there's no avalanche or snowball effect — you're just paying minimums on every debt simultaneously. The simulation shows your payoff even at $0 extra. Adding even $25/month extra unlocks the roll-up effect and dramatically shortens your timeline.
Should I include my mortgage?
You can include a mortgage, but most people track it separately since it's an asset-backed loan with tax-deductible interest. The strategy is most valuable for high-interest consumer debt like credit cards, personal loans, and medical bills. Mortgage-inclusive results are still accurate but may skew the payoff timeline to 20+ years.
What is a 0% promotional rate debt?
Some credit cards offer 0% APR for 12–21 months. Enter these at 0% — the calculator will flag them. In a pure avalanche, 0% debt is last priority (correctly). But watch the promo expiration: if the rate jumps to 24% on the remaining balance, it should be prioritized before that date.
What does the Wealth Projector assume?
After your last debt is paid off, the projector assumes you invest 100% of your freed cash (all minimums + extra payment) at the selected annual return rate, compounded monthly. This is a straightforward future-value-of-annuity calculation. It does not account for taxes on investment gains, inflation, or changing contributions over time.
How does the Goal Seeker work?
The goal seeker uses a binary search algorithm: it repeatedly tries different extra payment amounts between $0 and $20,000 until it finds the minimum amount that gets all debts paid off by your target month. This converges in under 80 iterations and is accurate to within $1 of the true minimum required payment.
How Each Method Works
Avalanche Method
Extra Payment → Highest APR Debt
Mathematically optimal. Minimizes total interest paid.
Credit card targeted first (22% rate), eliminated in ~14 months. The freed $80 min then accelerates student loan payoff.
The Debt Avalanche Explained
Why Highest Rate First Wins Mathematically
Interest compounds monthly on every debt. A 24% credit card costs twice as much per dollar as a 12% car loan. By eliminating the most expensive debt first, avalanche stops your money from being consumed by interest as fast as possible. The math is unambiguous: for the same total payment, avalanche always produces the same or lower total interest than any other strategy.
When Snowball Might Be the Right Choice
The snowball method's advantage is psychological. If paying off a small debt quickly gives you the motivation to keep going — and that motivation is the difference between sticking with the plan or abandoning it — then snowball is actually the better strategy for you. A plan you follow beats a perfect plan you quit. The calculator shows you the exact cost of choosing snowball so you can make an informed decision.
The Power of Extra Payments
Both methods share the same mechanic: pay all minimums, then throw every extra dollar at a target debt. When that debt is paid off, its minimum payment gets added to your extra for the next debt — this is called the "debt roll-up" effect. A $200 extra payment on $38,000 in debt at average 12% APR can cut payoff time by over 2 years and save $4,000+ in interest compared to minimums only.