Earlier this week I wrote a post about Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball method for paying off debt. Perhaps you’re motivated to give this debt payoff method a try and you’re wondering how to get started. Well, perhaps now that you understand the basic principles after reading the Dave Ramsey article, you’re ready to find a good debt snowball calculator to create your debt plan. There is no shortage of debt calculators on the internet so I recommend doing some research to find one you like best, but in this post, I’ll recommend a debt snowball calculator I think works just as good as any of them.
Information You’ll Need to Use a Debt Snowball Calculator
Before you create your debt payoff plan using a debt snowball calculator, you’ll need to collect some information. It shouldn’t take you very long to do this. Here is a list of the things you’ll need for most calculators you’ll find on the internet:
- Outstanding balance of your debts
- Interest rates for each debt
- Minimum monthly payment of each debt
- Extra amount you want to pay towards your debts each month
- To whom you owe your debts
This information will let you set up your plan, but you might also want to keep phone numbers, websites and online username/passwords handy so you so can access your information any time.
Recommended Debt Snowball Calculator
As I mentioned in the opening post here at PayDown, I’m a volunteer financial coach. I use a lot of resources from Crown Financial Ministries and they have a debt snowball calculator that works great for my coaching participants. It’s called the Accelerated Debt Payoff Calculator.
The instructions are straightforward. Simply enter the data I mentioned earlier in this post and you’re all set. But remember, enter the smallest loan balance first. Ignore ordering by highest interest rate first since we’re using the debt snowball method. Once you have your data entered you can simply calculate your results. I like this calculator because you can alter the extra amount you want to contribute towards your debts and see the results. Additionally, you can create a payment schedule to see all your payments and when your debt will be paid off. The calculator will tell you how many payments it will take to become debt free and how long it would take you if you didn’t use the snowball method and just made minimum payments on all debts until the balances are paid off.
Probably the only drawback to this calculator is that you can’t save your results. You can print them or save them to a file. When working with clients I screen print the page and paste it into an MS Excel or MS Word file. You can find some programs online that have more features, but this is a free debt snowball calculator that can work easily for anyone who needs to create a debt payoff plan.
Have you used any debt snowball calculators that you’ve found useful? If so, share your tips with other readers in the comments.
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