How it works
- Add each debt. Tap Add a debt, give it a name (Visa, Car loan, Student loan, Medical bill), enter the current balance, the APR (interest rate), and the minimum monthly payment your lender requires. Pick an icon and color so it stands out on the dashboard. Add as many as you have — the projected payoff updates instantly.
- Pick a strategy. The Avalanche button targets the debt with the highest APR first — that's mathematically optimal and saves the most interest. The Snowball button targets the smallest balance first — slower on interest but you slay debts faster, which keeps motivation high. The page shows a side-by-side comparison so you can pick with your eyes open.
- Set an extra monthly amount. This is the lever that matters most. Whatever you can spare above your minimums goes straight to the priority debt every month. The +25 / +50 / +100 / +200 chips below the input nudge by common amounts. As each debt is slain, its minimum rolls into the extra — that's the "snowball" effect both strategies share.
- Watch each debt fall. The Debts panel shows a per-debt progress bar, current balance, APR, minimum, and a green 🗡 Slain tag with the projected month and date once it hits zero. The Slain timeline panel below lays out the kill order so you can see exactly which debt falls next and how long until the final one.
- Hit your freedom day. The hero card surfaces three numbers that matter: time to freedom (months until every debt is at zero), freedom day (the projected calendar date), and total interest across the whole plan. Bump the extra amount and watch all three improve in real time.
- Edit anything, anytime. Tap the pencil on a debt card to update its balance after a payment, change the APR if your card adjusts, or delete it once your bank confirms it's closed. Everything recomputes instantly — no save button, no signup, nothing leaves the browser.
What this trains — and why a debt-payoff plan matters
Paying off debt is a long-horizon habit with weak intrinsic rewards. A statement balance ticks down by a few percent a month — there's no haptic feedback, no animation, no high score, and the interest line keeps showing up. Most people who genuinely want out of debt are not lacking willpower; they are lacking a visible feedback loop and a clear order to attack debts in. That's what this visualizer is for.
The two methods both pay the minimum on every debt every month, and both throw any extra at one priority debt at a time. The only difference is which debt counts as "priority":
- Snowball method — priority = the debt with the smallest balance. You'll slay your first debt fast (sometimes within a couple of months), which is a real psychological win. Most people stick with the plan longer when they can see a debt fall off the list early.
- Avalanche method — priority = the debt with the highest APR. You pay less in total interest, because the most expensive debt shrinks fastest. The trade-off: if your highest-APR debt is also your largest, it can take many months before you see the first kill — and motivation dips in the middle.
The "right" answer depends on you. If the dollar gap between the two strategies is small (a few hundred dollars over a multi-year plan), snowball is usually the better behavioural choice — the early win keeps you on the wagon. If the gap is large (thousands), avalanche is worth the extra discipline. The compare row inside the Strategy panel shows the exact dollar and month delta for your specific debts, so you don't have to guess — that's the gamification half of the loop: a level meter, a rank ladder, and a slain timeline attached to the action you actually want to repeat (paying down a balance every month).
Features
- Two strategies — toggle between snowball (smallest balance first) and avalanche (highest APR first). The plan recalculates instantly.
- Strategy compare row — see at a glance how much interest and how many months you'd save (or cost) by switching, then tap the inline action to switch with one click.
- Per-debt cards — name, icon, color, current balance, APR, minimum, percent paid, and a green 🗡 Slain tag with the projected month and calendar date once a debt hits zero.
- Underwater warning — a red underwater tag appears when a debt's minimum payment can't even cover its monthly interest, meaning the balance would grow without extra contributions.
- Slain timeline — a chronological list of debts in payoff order with month numbers and dates, ending with a highlighted 🎉 Debt-free! row on the freedom day.
- Quick-add extra chips — +25 / +50 / +100 / +200 buttons next to the extra-payment input for fast scenario tweaking.
- Rank progression — the hero pill upgrades from Apprentice → Climber → Slayer → Halfway Hero → Boss Hunter → Almost Free → Debt-Free Champion as the percentage of total starting debt paid off grows.
- Starter debt chips — when the list is empty, four common debt templates (credit card, car loan, student loan, medical bill) open the modal pre-filled so you can get to a useful projection without hunting for typical APRs.
- Currency switcher — display-only currency symbol (USD, EUR, GBP, CNY / RMB, JPY, CAD, AUD, INR, SEK / NOK / DKK, BRL) so the plan reads right wherever you live.
- Local-only storage — every debt, the strategy choice, the extra amount, and the currency live in this browser only; nothing is uploaded anywhere.
- One-page design — a single static HTML page, no install, no app store, no signup, no email field.
Tips for actually getting out of debt
Pick a strategy and stick with it for at least three months before considering a switch. Both snowball and avalanche win over the long run; the worst plan is the one you abandon halfway. Re-run the comparison row monthly so you stay grounded in the real numbers — but don't flip back and forth chasing the optimum from week to week.
Make the minimums automatic, then treat the extra-monthly amount as the only number you actively touch. Most people lose ground because they miss a payment, get hit with a late fee, and the snowball runs in reverse. Setting up auto-pay for every minimum removes that risk; your job becomes "throw whatever I can on the priority debt this month."
Update balances after every statement. Real interest charges, missed payments, and one-time bumps will all drift the plan away from the projection. Tap the pencil on a debt, enter the new statement balance, and the plan re-projects — that's the loop that makes the calculator stay useful over months rather than a one-time toy.
If a debt's minimum doesn't cover its monthly interest, an underwater warning appears on its card. That debt is growing every month under minimum-only payments. Make sure your strategy is targeting it (or that the extra payment is large enough to outweigh the growth) — otherwise the projection capping at 50 years is the calculator telling you the plan as stated never finishes.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to create an account?
No. There is no sign-in, no email field, and no profile. Everything you enter is saved only in this browser's local storage on your own device. Nothing is sent to any server.
Does this connect to my bank or credit card?
No. The calculator has no banking integration and no read access to any account. You enter balances, APRs, and minimums manually — the upside is that no credentials, account numbers, or transaction data ever leave the device.
Is snowball or avalanche better?
Avalanche always wins on math — it minimizes total interest paid. Snowball usually wins on behaviour — you slay your first debt sooner, which keeps you motivated. Use the compare row inside the Strategy panel for your specific debts: if avalanche only saves a few hundred dollars over a multi-year plan, snowball is usually worth the trade. If avalanche saves thousands, the extra discipline pays off.
How does the simulation handle interest?
Each month, every unpaid debt accrues interest equal to its balance times its APR divided by 12. Minimum payments are then applied to every debt (capped at the remaining balance), and any leftover (your extra payment plus any minimums freed up by debts already slain) is thrown entirely at the priority debt. When a debt hits zero, its minimum becomes part of the leftover — that's the snowball/avalanche "rolling" effect, and it's why a small extra payment compounds dramatically over the life of the plan.
Can you walk me through the math on a real example?
Two debts, both common in real plans: a $25,000 student loan at 5.5% APR with a $200 minimum, and a $5,000 credit card at 22% APR with a $100 minimum. Pick avalanche, extra = $0.
Monthly commitment = $200 (SL min) + $100 (CC min) + $0 extra = $300/month total. This number stays constant for the whole plan; that's the rule that powers the snowball/avalanche speedup.
Months 1 to ~137 — both alive. Each month the $300 pool covers the two minimums exactly: $200 → student loan, $100 → credit card. Avalanche priority is the credit card (22% beats 5.5%), but with extra = $0 there's no leftover to redirect, so each debt just gets its own minimum during this phase:
- Credit card: $100/mo minus ~$92 monthly interest at the start = only ~$8 of principal each month. Slow grind. The principal slice grows as the balance shrinks (less interest each month), so it eventually wins. Slain around month 137.
- Student loan: $200/mo minus ~$115 monthly interest at the start = ~$85 of principal. After 137 months the balance is still ~$8,750 (interest dragged it down slower than the minimum suggests).
Month ~138 — the rollover. Credit card is gone, so its $100 minimum has nowhere to land. The plan keeps the $300/month commitment, which means the student loan now receives the full $300 — its own $200 minimum plus the rolled-over $100. The Strategy panel's note ("↓ When a debt is paid off, its minimum rolls into the next priority debt") is describing this exact moment, and the Slain timeline marks it with a ↓ +$100/mo rolls into Student Loan row between the two slain entries.
Months 138 to ~171 — student loan alone, accelerated. $8,750 balance, now $300/mo. Net principal at first: $300 − $40 interest = $260. Finishes in ~34 more months. Total plan: 137 + 34 ≈ 171 months (~mid-2040 if you start today).
What if you only had the student loan? At $200/mo with no other debt to roll from, $25,000 at 5.5% takes about 186 months (~late 2041). Adding the credit card actually makes the student loan finish ~15 months sooner, because the rolled-over $100 accelerates the last leg of the plan. That seems counter-intuitive ("more debt → faster?") until you notice that your monthly commitment also went up by $100. You're not getting freedom for free — you're committing $100 more per month for ~137 months, then redirecting it onto the bigger loan. The snowball/avalanche method is just disciplined redirection.
Snowball vs. avalanche on this scenario. The credit card is both smaller ($5k vs $25k) and higher-APR (22% vs 5.5%), so both methods kill it first. Different debt mixes (e.g. a small 0% medical bill vs. a big high-APR card) would diverge. The compare row in the Strategy panel surfaces the exact dollar and month delta whenever the strategies differ.
What does the "Lv 1 · Apprentice" pill on the hero card mean?
It's a gamified rank label, like the level meter in the savings tracker. The level number and rank name advance as you pay down a percentage of your original starting debt total (the sum of every balance the first time you added it). The seven tiers and their thresholds:
- Lv 1 · Apprentice — 0% paid (you just started)
- Lv 2 · Climber — 10% paid
- Lv 3 · Slayer — 25% paid
- Lv 4 · Halfway Hero — 50% paid
- Lv 5 · Boss Hunter — 75% paid
- Lv 6 · Almost Free — 90% paid
- Lv 7 · Debt-Free Champion — 100% paid
The small text below the pill always tells you what you need to do next to level up. Editing a debt's balance via the pencil counts (it adjusts the "current" side of the ratio); so does logging a payment via the 💸 button. The pill is purely cosmetic — the underlying plan and projection don't change based on rank.
What does the "underwater" tag mean?
A debt is underwater when its minimum monthly payment is less than its monthly interest charge. Under minimum payments alone, the balance would grow rather than shrink. The simulation still handles these debts correctly — your extra payment fills the gap — but it's worth flagging visually because if the strategy isn't targeting an underwater debt, that debt's balance ticks up every month until it does.
What's the cap on the projection?
The simulation caps at 600 months (50 years). If your extra payment plus the rolling minimum total can't even cover the combined monthly interest of all debts, the projection will hit the cap and surface a warning. The fix is to bump the extra amount — the lower of "interest you're paying every month" and "extra you'd need to make progress" is the number to target.
Can I export my data?
The data lives in browser localStorage under a single key (dpv-data-v1). Power users can copy the JSON value directly from the browser's storage inspector. A dedicated import/export UI may land in a future revision.
What happens if I clear my browser data?
The calculator resets, because progress is stored locally rather than in an account. Switching browsers, switching devices, or using private browsing has the same effect.
Does it work offline?
Once the page has finished loading, all the calculations work without an internet connection. Reconnecting is only needed to load the page initially or to visit other pages on OmniAppHub.