Originally published at: Free Debt Payoff Calculator To Plan Your Financial Freedom
Use this free Debt Payoff Calculator to see how much you can pay down your debt each month, and to forecast your debt freedom date according to different payoff methods.
Or even better, use it with your Tiller-powered Foundation Template to automatically and accurately track your payoff progress over time.
How to get the free Debt Payoff Calculator
Open the Debt Payoff Calculator for Google Sheets in a new browser tab:
Click here to get the template
If you use Tiller, simply copy the Debt Planner sheet to your existing Foundation Template for Google Sheets:
If you don’t use Tiller already:
- open this free version of our Foundation Template for Google Sheets.
- Click “Use Template.” Import your bank data to see how this spreadsheet works.
- After reviewing the demo template, clear out the sample data in the Balance History sheet to add your own data manually or start a free Tiller trial to automate your balance data into the spreadsheet.
How the Debt Payoff Calculator works
Start by determining how much you can afford for monthly debt payments
Your debt payoff budget is the amount you can spend toward paying off your debt every month.
To find this number, enter your expected monthly income and expected month expense into the cells in the sheet. Whatever is left can be used toward paying off debt.
If you need help figuring out your expected income and expenses check out these resources for budgeting features with this template.
Once your expense category budgets are configured and your expected monthly income entered into the Categories sheet use the Monthly Budget to review your Spending Budget and Income Budget amounts for the debt planner setup.
Choose your Start Month
I recommend setting this to the current month. However, if you’re using Tiller to automate your balance data into this spreadsheet and are already working toward debt payoff, you can set this to the earliest month available in your Balance History for your debt accounts.
Choose a Payoff Method
Evaluate the best debt payoff method for your situation. The Debt Payoff Calculator template offers the three most popular methods: Snowball, Avalanche, and Ranked.
Read more about different methods on our blog here.
See your Monthly Debt Budget
This will automatically updates using the amount from the left side area based on expected income/expenses for each month.
You can also overwrite the amount as preferred. Use this to see how different payment amounts affect your Projected Debt Freedom Date and Estimated Total Interest.
Fill in the Debt Accounts you want to pay off
If you’re already using Tiller to budget and manage your money, you can select your Debt Accounts from the Account dropdown menu.
If you’re not using Tiller you can manually add Balance History records to the Balance History sheet to track your balances over time through your payoff journey.
You must enter Balance History entries that include the Date, Account, Account #, Account ID, Institution, Balance, and Class (Asset or Liability) to make accounts available in the dropdown on the Debt Planner sheet.
You’ll then need to enter your Interest Rate and Minimum Monthly Payment, which you can find on the most recent statement for the account. If you chose to use the Ranked Method you’ll want to rank each of your accounts by the order in which you want them paid off. Start by entering 1 into the Rank cell for the first account you want to pay off and so on.
Once you’ve got those details in you’ll get your Debt Freedom Date at the top and more details about your debt payoff journey.
Questions about this debt payoff template?
Ask your questions or share your feedback below.