- Calculate
- To calculate the number of months to pay off your debt with an accelerator amount you enter select: "Calculate: Months to debt freedom". To calculate the accelerator amount required to meet a debt free goal that you enter select: "Calculate: Additional amount"
- Start payoff with
- Select the order you would like to pay off your debt.
- Current payment
- This is the total of your minimum monthly payments for all of your current loans and credit cards. This is your current total only. As your debt is paid off, the minimum monthly payment for credit cards can decrease.
- Months until you are debt free
- Number of months it will take to pay off all of your debt using the Snowball Debt Elimination method. The maximum repayment time your can enter is one that has no accelerator amount amount. In this scenario you pay your initial minimum payment amount until all of your debt is repaid. Even without any additional amount, this can be less than your current pay off using minimum payments that decrease over time (and don't snowball to the next loan when a loan is paid off).
- Accelerator amount
- This dollar amount is in addition to your monthly minimum payments that you will use to pay down your debt. The higher this amount, the faster your debt will be paid off. It is important that your accelerator amount is one that you can afford. For the snowball method to be effective you must be consistent in your payments. Should you choose an amount that is too high, you may become discouraged if you are unable to meet your payment goal.
- Balance
- Your total current balance for this loan or credit card.
- rate
- The annual percentage rate you pay for this loan or credit card. The rate you enter is used to calculate the interest on all future loan or credit card payments. The length of time to pay off this debt may be much greater than calculated if you enter a low promotional interest rate that is only good for a short period of time.
- Payment
- This is your monthly payment.
