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Finance

Debt Snowball Payoff Plan Calculator

The Debt Snowball is the classic multi-debt payoff strategy popularised by Dave Ramsey: each month you make every required minimum payment, then funnel any extra cash entirely into the smallest-balance debt until it is gone. When that debt is paid off its old minimum payment "rolls over" into the next-smallest debt, joining your monthly extra and creating an ever-growing snowball. This widget runs that simulation month by month, showing total months to debt-free, total interest paid, the per-debt payoff month and how extra contributions reshape the timeline.

Debts

    The snowball method funnels this extra cash (plus the freed-up minimum payment of any debt already paid off) into the smallest-balance debt first until it is gone.

    Months to debt-free

    Total interest paid

    Total paid

    Monthly outlay

    Snowball order & payoff schedule

    # Debt Starting balance Payoff month Interest paid

    Formula

    For each debt: monthly interest = balance × (APR / 12) Each month: balance += interest; pay min(balance, minPayment) Then pool = monthly_extra + Σ(min payments of debts already paid off) + Σ(unused min-payment overflow) Apply pool to debts in ascending balance order until pool = 0 Stop when all balances ≤ 0; if any debt has minPayment < monthly interest the balance grows and never resolves.

    Frequently asked

    Debt Snowball vs Debt Avalanche — which one should I use?

    Pure math: the Avalanche method (highest APR first) always pays equal-or-less total interest than the Snowball, because high-APR balances accrue faster, so killing them first saves the most. But behavioural-finance research (Gal & McShane, 2012; Kellogg School of Management) finds that most people who finish a debt-payoff plan are using Snowball — the early win of fully clearing the first card creates momentum. Practical rule: if your APRs are clustered (e.g. all cards 18–25 %), Snowball costs only a little extra interest and is easier to stick with; if you have one outlier high-rate balance (e.g. 35 % cash advance), Avalanche saves real money. This widget runs Snowball ordering — to approximate a hybrid, manually raise the minimum payment on a high-APR debt.

    My minimum payment just barely covers interest — why does the tool say "Never"?

    The amortising-loan formula requires each monthly payment P to be strictly greater than the monthly interest B·i, so the principal shrinks at least a little. If P ≤ B·i, the principal never shrinks (or even grows) — payoff is mathematically infinite. Example: $10,000 at 30 % APR → monthly interest = $250. Paying exactly $250/mo means the balance stays at $10,000 forever. Paying $260/mo reduces principal by only $10/mo — 100 months later the balance is still $9,000. The whole point of the snowball is that "extra monthly budget" plus rolled-in minimum payments amplify over time, so even adding $50–$100 of extra often flips a "Never" debt into one that clears in just a few years.

    My answer differs from another calculator — what method are you using?

    Each simulated month runs in this order: (1) accrue interest on each active debt = balance × APR/12/100; (2) make every minimum payment — if the balance is smaller than the minimum, pay only the balance and the leftover goes into the "snowball pool"; (3) starting with the smallest-balance debt still active, drain the pool (= monthly extra + freed minimums of paid-off debts + the per-row overflow above) into remaining debts in order; (4) flag any debt whose balance just hit zero as "paid off this month." This is why the final month for any debt is usually less than its regular payment — the pool stops at zero and the remainder rolls into the next debt. Other calculators that ignore the overflow / cascading roll-over can over-estimate months by 1–2 and slightly inflate the interest figure.

    I can spare $100/month extra — is that really worth it?

    The impact is usually much larger than people guess, because that $100 is not just $100 of principal — the interest it avoids compounds across every future month (lower balance → less interest → more goes to principal next month). Try: $10,000 at 22 % APR, $300/mo, $0 extra → about 47 months and $4,036 interest. Same setup but $100 extra ($400/mo) → about 31 months and $2,420 interest — you saved 16 months and $1,616 of interest for putting in roughly $3,100 of extra payments. The most useful thing this tool does is let you A/B compare extra-budget scenarios. Run it at $0, $50, $100, $200 and you will see diminishing returns kick in — but that first $50–$100 typically delivers the biggest leap.

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