# Debt Payoff Calculator — Avalanche vs Snowball > Compare the avalanche and snowball methods on the same debts. Months to debt-free, total interest for both, and the exact attack order. Canonical: https://thebrinklabs.com/tools/debt-payoff/ Source: The Brink Labs · support@thebrinklabs.com · Last reviewed 2026-09-07 --- Instrument 04 · Clear the debt ## Two Roads Out. One Is Cheaper. Avalanche kills the highest interest rate first and costs the least. Snowball kills the smallest balance first and feels the best. Both work. Enter your debts and see them played out side by side — months to clear, total interest, and precisely what the more comfortable road costs you. Every unit above the minimums goes to one debt at a time. When that debt clears, its minimum joins the attack on the next — that rolling payment is the engine, and both methods use it. Only the order differs. Avalanche Cheapest Snowball Fastest wins Add a debt to compare the two methods. Attack order — avalanche 03 — Which One To Pick ## Cheapest And Easiest Are Not The Same Answer. ### Highest rate first Mathematically optimal. Always pays the least total interest, and never finishes later. If the two are close, take this one. ### Smallest balance first Clears individual debts sooner, which is the only method that gives you a visible win in the first few months. Costs more. ### The one you finish A plan abandoned in month four costs more than either. If the gap above is small, pick the one you will actually keep doing. Where It Goes Next ## The Plan Is The Easy Part. Twenty-Nine Months Is Not. A payoff plan is a decision you make once and then have to keep for two and a half years. MyneWallet models each debt as a real liability with its own balance and rate, so the plan stays attached to the numbers instead of a spreadsheet you stop opening in March. Android. One-time unlock for the full engine. No subscription, ever. Straight Answers ## Debt Payoff, Answered Plainly. ### What is the debt avalanche method? The avalanche method pays the minimum on every debt and directs every spare unit at the debt with the highest interest rate, regardless of its balance. When that debt clears, its payment rolls onto the next-highest rate. It is mathematically optimal: for a given monthly budget it always produces the lowest total interest, and it never finishes later than the snowball. ### What is the debt snowball method? The snowball method pays the minimum on every debt and directs every spare unit at the smallest balance, regardless of interest rate. When that debt clears, its payment rolls onto the next-smallest. It costs more in interest than the avalanche, but it removes whole debts from the list sooner, which is the only thing that makes month three feel different from month one. ### Which is better, avalanche or snowball? Avalanche is always cheaper on paper. Whether it is better depends on whether you finish. Run both above: if the avalanche saves a large amount, take the cheaper road. If the two are within a small margin — which is common when balances are similar — take the one whose first win arrives soonest, because a method you abandon in month four costs more than either. ### Should I pay off debt or save first? The common sequence is a small starter emergency fund first, then aggressive debt payoff, then a full fund. The reasoning is mechanical rather than moral: with no buffer at all, the next unexpected expense goes back onto the card you are paying down, which undoes the progress and the motivation together. Once a small buffer exists, every spare unit is worth more against a high interest rate than in a low-yield account. ### Does making extra payments actually help? Substantially, and non-linearly. Interest accrues on the balance, so every extra unit paid early reduces every future interest charge on that balance. Move the extra-payment dial above and watch both the months and the interest fall — the effect of an extra amount is far larger than the amount itself, and it is largest on the highest-rate debt. ### Is this debt calculator private? Yes, by architecture rather than by promise. Every calculation runs inside your own browser. The page sets no cookies, writes nothing to local storage, loads no analytics or advertising script, and makes no network request carrying your figures. Closing the tab destroys the data because there is nowhere else for it to be. Check the network and storage panels in your browser's developer tools — that is the only kind of privacy claim worth making. Educational and illustrative. Real accounts vary in how interest is compounded, when it is posted, and how minimum payments are recalculated, so treat these figures as a comparison between methods rather than a statement about your specific accounts. Nothing here is financial advice. Next Instrument ## True Hourly Wage Calculator What an hour of your life actually pays, after the job takes its cut. All 6 instruments --- This is the markdown representation of https://thebrinklabs.com/tools/debt-payoff/, published so that AI agents and answer engines can read the page without parsing HTML. The full index of machine-readable resources is at https://thebrinklabs.com/llms.txt