The Debt Snowball method is a popular debt reduction strategy that focuses on psychological wins to keep you motivated. It prioritizes paying off your smallest debts first, regardless of their interest rates. Once a small debt is paid off, you roll that payment amount into the next smallest debt, creating a larger "snowball" that grows as you progress.
How the Debt Snowball Method Works:
List Your Debts: Gather all your debts (credit cards, personal loans, etc.) and list them in order from smallest balance to largest balance. Note the minimum payment for each.
Determine Your Extra Payment: Calculate the total amount you can afford to pay towards your debts each month. This is your "total monthly payment." It should include the sum of all minimum payments plus any extra amount you can contribute.
Attack the Smallest Debt: Pay the minimum amount on all your debts except the one with the smallest balance. Put all your extra payment money towards that smallest debt.
Roll the Snowball: Once the smallest debt is completely paid off, take the money you were paying on it (its minimum payment + any extra payment) and add it to the minimum payment of the next smallest debt.
Repeat: Continue this process, "snowballing" your payments onto progressively larger debts until all your debts are paid off.
The Math Behind the Calculator
Our Debt Snowball Calculator simplifies this process. You input:
Total Monthly Payment: The total fixed amount you are committed to paying towards all your debts each month.
For each debt:
Debt Name: A label for easy identification.
Balance: The total amount owed on that debt.
Minimum Payment: The required monthly payment set by the lender.
The calculator then simulates the payoff process. It first calculates the total minimum payments across all entered debts. The difference between your 'Total Monthly Payment' and the 'Total Minimum Payments' is your 'Extra Payment'. This extra payment is applied to the smallest debt first. Once that debt is paid, the extra payment, plus the minimum payment of the just-paid debt, is added to the minimum payment of the next smallest debt, and so on. The calculator estimates the total time to become debt-free based on this snowballing effect.
Why Choose the Snowball Method?
While the Debt Avalanche method (prioritizing high-interest debts) can save you more money on interest over time, the Debt Snowball method is often more effective for people who struggle with motivation. The quick wins of paying off small debts early provide a sense of accomplishment and encourage continued commitment to the plan.
function calculateDebtSnowball() {
var totalMonthlyPayment = parseFloat(document.getElementById("totalMonthlyPayment").value) || 0;
var debts = [];
for (var i = 1; i 0) {
debts.push({ name: name, balance: balance, minPayment: minPayment, originalMinPayment: minPayment });
}
}
if (debts.length === 0) {
document.getElementById("result").innerHTML = "Please enter at least one debt.";
return;
}
// Sort debts by balance (smallest first)
debts.sort(function(a, b) {
return a.balance – b.balance;
});
var totalMinPayments = 0;
for (var j = 0; j < debts.length; j++) {
totalMinPayments += debts[j].minPayment;
}
var extraPayment = totalMonthlyPayment – totalMinPayments;
if (extraPayment debt.balance > 0)) {
months++;
var paymentAppliedThisMonth = 0;
var snowballAmount = extraPayment;
// Add back minimum payments from debts that are now paid off
for (var k = 0; k 0 && !remainingDebts.some(rd => rd.name === debts[k].name && rd.balance rd.name === debts[k].name);
if(currentDebt) {
snowballAmount += currentDebt.originalMinPayment;
}
} else if (debts[k].balance > 0 && remainingDebts.some(rd => rd.name === debts[k].name && rd.balance debt.balance > 0);
if (!smallestDebt) {
// All debts are paid
break;
}
// Calculate how much payment to apply to the smallest debt
var paymentToSmallestDebt = Math.min(smallestDebt.balance, snowballAmount);
smallestDebt.balance -= paymentToSmallestDebt;
paymentAppliedThisMonth += paymentToSmallestDebt;
// Distribute any remaining payment from the snowball to other minimums if the smallest debt was paid off
var remainingSnowball = snowballAmount – paymentToSmallestDebt;
if (remainingSnowball > 0) {
// Distribute remaining snowball to other debts' minimums
for (var l = 0; l 0 && remainingDebts[l].name !== smallestDebt.name) {
// Ensure we don't overpay minimums beyond what's needed for snowball
var additionalPayment = Math.min(remainingSnowball, remainingDebts[l].minPayment); // Only pay up to the minimum if distributing
if (additionalPayment > 0) {
remainingDebts[l].balance -= additionalPayment;
remainingSnowball -= additionalPayment;
paymentAppliedThisMonth += additionalPayment;
if (remainingSnowball <= 0) break;
}
}
}
}
// Re-check if smallest debt was fully paid and apply any leftover snowball to next debt's minimum
if (smallestDebt.balance 0) {
var nextDebtIndex = remainingDebts.findIndex(debt => debt.name === smallestDebt.name) + 1;
if (nextDebtIndex 0) {
var paymentToNext = Math.min(remainingSnowball, nextSmallestDebt.minPayment);
nextSmallestDebt.balance -= paymentToNext;
remainingSnowball -= paymentToNext;
paymentAppliedThisMonth += paymentToNext;
}
}
}
// Clean up debts that are now paid off
remainingDebts = remainingDebts.filter(debt => debt.balance > 0);
if (paymentAppliedThisMonth === 0 && remainingDebts.some(debt => debt.balance > 0)) {
// Avoid infinite loop if no payment can be made
document.getElementById("result").innerHTML = "Calculation stalled. Check inputs.";
return;
}
}
var resultText = "You can become debt-free in " + months + " months!";
document.getElementById("result").innerHTML = resultText;
}