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In order to successfully pay off your debt, there are a few things that you need to do. Paying off debt is not an easy task, especially if you have made a habit of avoiding it. It is an extremely challenging and eye-opening task and has the potential to change your life, when done the right way.
There are a few steps that you need to take in order to get rid of your debt as quickly as possible. One step is making use of a debt snowball calculator that will help you determine how much time will it take to completely pay off your debt.
In order to calculate the time that you will need to pay off your debt, you need to have all the necessary information regarding your debts, like payment amount, balance as well as the interest rate. After gathering all this information, you can feed it in the calculator and then play with numbers.
Most of these calculators can calculate a debt snowball or debt avalanche. The debt snowball is the most common iteration. It is most commonly affiliated with financial guru Dave Ramsey as it is the method of debt repayment that he highly recommends.
There are five simple steps for the debt snowball method of paying of debt.
- Making a list of all your debts, from smallest to the largest
- Begin making the minimum payments on all debts except the one with the smallest balance
- Putting all the surplus money towards paying off the smallest debt
- As soon as the smallest amount gets paid off, that payment is rolled up and the entire amount is added to the minimum payment for the next smallest amount.
- When you reach the last debt, the previous payments and the extra are used for paying off this last debt
Here are the 7 best debt snowball calculators that will help you reach your goal as early as possible:
1. Vertex42
I have used Vertex’s spreadsheets for over 10 years now. I absolutely love them. When I had my house, I lived by their amortization calculator to see the effect my extra principal payments would have on interest.
For calculating your debt snowball or debt avalanche, Vertex 42’s debt reduction calculator is my favorite. Their spreadsheets are available in three different formats so you can choose the one that best suits you.
With the Vertex42 spreadsheets, you can add in balloon payments on any date and it will calculate the difference that makes. So if, for example, you know you can make a $1,000 payment every April when you get your tax refund, you can add that in and see how it affects your debt payoff date.
They even have a video that walks you through how to use the spreadsheet which is awesome!
2. Unbury.Me
Unbury.Me is a simple and straightforward calculator that will help you in finding your financial anchor. It will give you all the information regarding your debt payment when you select snowball and debt avalanche method so that you can make an informed decision.
What is neat is the many different ways it presents information in a graphical dashboard. You can see at a glance your principal balance, pay-off date, how much interest you will pay and your average interest rate. Using a slider, you can see the impact on your pay-off date and interest paid over time if you are able to make a higher payment each month.
There is no login required for Unbury.Me however, if you do log in, it will save your data.
3. Undebt.it
This is one of the most loved debt snowball calculators as it allows you to run numbers making use of different payoff methods like snowball, debt avalanche or those based on payment amounts.
This calculator provides with a tentative debt payoff date along with an amortization table and the amount of money you will save in interest. The only drawback is that while entering the total amount of debt, you need to enter minimum payment as well.
Undebt.it is listed number 2 because of the awesome interface it has. If you are a visual person, this is probably the tool you want to choose.
4. Financial Mentor
This is an extremely easy to use calculator and provides excellent visual stimulation. The amortization table provided by them is very user friendly.
It will also help you calculate the amount of money you will save in interest and the number of payments left. However, it only allows you to do 10 debts. If you have more than that, you would need to choose another tool.
The benefit to this one is that it is all on-screen. There is no login required, nothing to download. You can even email yourself the results!
5. Nerd Wallet
This debt snowball calculator will provide you with a comparison between debt snowball and debt avalanche when you enter the numbers. There is also the ability to enter more than 10 debts at a time.
Nerd Wallet also gives you a tentative date when you will be debt free. You can even change this date if you play with the numbers a bit. Also, this calculator will make a summary of each debt and let you know about your saving and debt free date for that particular debt.
This tool is also all on one screen and doesn’t require login.
Which Debt Snowball Calculator Should You Use?
Each of these debt snowball calculators has a different way of portraying similiar information. Choose whichever one suits you the best to get started on your debt-free journey. We hope that by using these calculators, you will be able to see a debt-less dawn soon. Make use of these calculators, today!
If you are looking for some great budgeting printables, sign up for our resource library below. You may also want to check out these posts:
- Free Printable Expense Calendar for your Home Budget
- Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball Concept
- 7 Best Books on Budgeting and Saving Money
