Originally published at: Introducing The Tiller Debt Payoff Planner Spreadsheet - Tiller
Debt can provide leverage for achieving your goals. Loans and credit cards can help you buy a car, house, or education that might otherwise be out of reach.
But debt can quickly become a burden on your financial and emotional health. A recent Forbes Advisor survey found 54% of U.S. adults always or often feel stressed because of debt.
Debt is stressful partly because it’s expensive. Your wealth grows slower when you have to make monthly interest payments. (No wonder 36% of Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings.)
Over 100,000 people have trusted Tiller on their financial journey. Thousands actively participate in the Tiller Community. We listened when they asked for a tool to help manage debt. And we incorporated their feedback while we built the new Debt Payoff Planner spreadsheet.
Introducing the new Debt Payoff Planner for Google Sheets and Excel
The new Debt Payoff Planner makes tracking debt simple.
It shows all your loans and credit cards in one place. See your balances, interest rates, minimum payments and more in one dashboard. Create a custom debt payoff plan based on your goals. Track progress towards becoming debt-free.
The new Debt Payoff Planner shows:
- Current balances on all your credit cards and loans
- Interest rates for each liability based on your input
- Minimum monthly payments based on your input
- Progress toward your debt payoff goals
- Estimated monthly interest totals
- Projected debt payoff date (based on your inputs)
- Total interest paid over the lifetime of the debt
- Recommended monthly payment to reach your desired payoff date
The Debt Payoff Planner can model debt snowball, avalanche, or a custom ranking payoff strategy for up to 25 accounts for up to 30 years.
You can then see how different payoff amounts and other variables impact your debt freedom date.
About the Debt Snowball and Avalanche Methods
The debt snowball and avalanche methods are two popular strategies for paying off debt. The debt snowball method prioritizes small quick wins to stay motivated, while the debt avalanche method focuses on minimizing total interest payments over time.
About the Debt Snowball Method
The debt snowball method prioritizes paying off your smallest debt balances first, regardless of interest rate.
For example, using the snowball method you would pay off a credit card with a $1,000 balance and 10% interest rate before paying off a card with a 15% interest rate and $2,000 balance.
The advantage of this method is psychological – successfully paying off a couple small debts quickly can give motivation to keep tackling larger ones. The experience of building momentum makes the snowball method one of the most popular and successful tools for paying down debt, even though it may cost more in total interest payments over time compared to other methods.
About the Debt Avalanche
In contrast, the debt avalanche method focuses on paying off debts with the highest interest rates first, regardless of balance size.
For instance, you would pay off a high-interest credit card before paying off your auto or student loans, even if the credit card has a lower overall balance.
Mathematically the debt avalanche method will likely save you more in the long run by reducing interest payments. However, it can be less motivating if your highest interest debt is also large, and you don’t experience the quick wins of eliminating your small loans first.
Custom Payoff Ranking
The Debt Payoff planner also provides a custom ranking model. You can use this to target debts you simply want to eliminate first, regardless of any other factor.
Test various scenarios to customize your debt payoff path
The Debt Payoff Planner is flexible and doesn’t force you to commit to any single method. You can experiment with variables including monthly payment amounts and time to debt payoff to find the best payoff scenario for your situation.
Budgeting for Debt Payoff
It’s recommended to make a quick budget before making a debt payoff plan. A budget shows how much money you have to put toward debt after covering your living and other expenses.
A budget can also help you find expenses to cut, giving you more to put towards debt.
The Tiller Foundation Template includes a yearly and monthly budget. Several budgets are available at the Tiller Community Template gallery.
Combining the Debt Payoff Planner with the budgeting tools in the Tiller Foundation Template will give you a master plan for transforming your financial life.
However, while it’s recommended, a budget isn’t required to use the Debt Planner template. In fact, because it’s solely based on your account balances, you don’t even need to categorize transactions to use the Debt Planner spreadsheet.
Requirements and Installation
The Debt Payoff Planner template works with any spreadsheet powered by Tiller Money Feeds. It works best with the Tiller Foundation Template.
Install the Debt Payoff Planner using the Templates feature in the Tiller Money Feeds add-on for Google Sheets, or Tiller Money Feeds add-in for Excel.
- Google Sheets: Click the “Templates” option in the main sidebar and click “Install” next to the Debt Payoff Planner
- Microsoft Excel: Click Tools at the top of the Tiller Money Feeds sidebar then choose Manage Templates and click “Install” next to the Debt Payoff Planner - note you must be using Excel Desktop version to install. Manage Templates is not yet available for Excel Online.
Click here to learn more about how to install and use this template on the Tiller Help Center.
Join us for a free webinar
Join us for a live webinar on Feb 27, 2024 @ 3PM ET / 12PM PT to see a demo, learn more, and ask questions about the the Debt Payoff Planner.
Register even if you can’t attend and we’ll send you a link to the recording.
… this would be a great sheet to incorporate current credit scores from Credit Karma or through the various reporting agencies … maybe just one box each showing current credit score?