Make a debt payoff plan

Debt Payoff Planner is its own page in the sidebar, under Planning tools, that shows when you could be debt-free and how much interest you'll pay. You pick a payoff method, optionally add an extra monthly payment, and it does the math from your current balances and linked payments — including how much time and interest that extra saves you, a chart of your balance shrinking to zero, and an Avalanche-vs-Snowball comparison side by side.

Before you start

• The planner is free — no Pro plan needed.
• Add your debts first. The planner reads your existing balances and rates.
• Link a payment bill to each loan (on the Bills page). The planner uses that payment to project a payoff date; debts with no linked bill are left out until you link one.
• For each credit card, set How do you pay this card? on the card. A card that carries a balance is planned from its Extra toward the balance each month.

Steps

1. Open Debt Payoff Planner (opens in a new tab) from the sidebar, under Planning tools.
2. Choose a method — Avalanche or Snowball. Both are shown side by side with their own debt-free date and interest, and the cheaper one is flagged, so you can compare before you commit.
3. Optionally add an amount in Extra toward debt each month — type it or tap a preset ($50 / $100 / $250 / $500). These are what-if amounts, and the plan updates instantly. An amount above your recorded monthly surplus is labeled so you can check whether it fits your budget.
4. Read your results: Debt-free by (your projected payoff date), Total interest, and Total you'll pay. If you added an extra payment, a green banner tells you how many months and how much interest it saves.

What the planner shows you

• Avalanche — pays your highest-interest debt first, which minimizes the total interest you pay.
• Snowball — pays your smallest balance first, which clears individual debts faster for quicker wins.
• Side-by-side comparison of both methods, each with its own debt-free date and total interest, and the cheaper one flagged.
• Headline stats for the method you picked: your debt-free date (with a countdown), total interest, and total cost (principal + interest).
• What your extra buys — add an extra payment and the planner shows how many months sooner you'll be debt-free and how much interest it saves versus paying only your minimums.
• Suggested extra — when you haven't entered an extra payment, the planner can preview up to $100/month, limited to the surplus from your recorded take-home income minus bills and rounded down to whole dollars. It skips this suggestion when there is no surplus or the data is missing, incomplete, or out of date. Allow for costs you haven't entered.
• A balance-over-time chart of your debt shrinking to zero, with the no-extra path overlaid as a dashed line when you add an extra payment.
• Payoff order — each debt with its projected payoff date, and the first debt you'll clear highlighted.
• Not in this plan lists each debt left out, with the reason: no linked payment bill yet (with a link to add one), Paid in full each month, a card you haven't said how you pay yet, or a card whose balance isn't going down. For a card, Edit card opens that card so you can fix it. Nothing is guessed at.

Good to know

• Anyone who can see the Debts page can open the planner — it uses the same access, on every plan.
• The projection covers up to 50 years. If a balance remains then, the planner explains that limit instead of showing a payoff date or a complete interest total. This can happen even when payments cover interest.
• The planner is educational. It's an estimate from your current balances and payments; it doesn't move money or change your bills for you.
• Beth (Pro) can do this in chat too. Beth builds the same kind of plan on request and adds your debt-to-income ratio (DTI) — your total monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income.
• For a single debt, the free Loan Payoff Calculator estimates a payoff date, total interest, and what an extra payment saves, no sign-in needed.