Anyone who has tackled paying off their debt knows having a timeframe doesn’t always work out. However, having an idea about how long to pay off debt can help drive you to meet your financial goals. Luckily, there are plenty of tools to help you put a finish line in your sights.
How to Determine How Long It’ll Take to Pay Off Your Debt
Of course, the key factor in how long it’ll take you to pay off your debt is how much debt you carry. To do this, I’ve opened a Credit Karma account. This gives me a snapshot of all my open accounts and the total amount of debt I carry. Once you get that number in your head, you know where you stand in your debt free journey.
Next, you’ll need to separate your individual accounts by amount and interest. Some people organize these by highest-to-lowest interest (how I do it) or you can organize it by lowest-to-highest amount owed. After you’ve organized your information, you can gauge how long it may take to pay off each piece of debt.
Tools to Gauge How Long to Pay Off Debt
There are a plethora of debt calculators on the internet. However, not all calculators were made the same and not all will give you the same information.
Most debt calculators have you enter some basic information:
- Amount owed
- Interest rate
- Current/expected monthly payment
- OR desired payoff timeframe
The last two bullet points are where the biggest difference is to be seen. If you are planning to only maintain the current monthly payment, rather than setting a timeframe for paying off your debt, your outcome may be drastically different. Here’s an example:
Auto Loan With Current Monthly Payment
- The balance owed: $22,074
- Interest rate: 4.8%
- Current monthly payment: $488.74
How long to pay off debt: 50 months
Auto Loan With Timeframe
- The balance owed: $22,074
- Interest rate: 4.8%
- Timeframe: 24 months
Expected monthly payment to pay it off in 2 years: $966/month
Debt Calculators to Try
If you want to find out how long it will take you to pay off your debt, there are two calculators I’d suggest checking out.
- Credit Karma: I can’t say enough about Credit Karma and the services they provide. Not only can you get your free credit score, but they also provide you with tools to help you pay things off.
- Calc XML: This site has a fantastic debt calculator that will help you figure out how long it’ll take you to pay off your debt based on your current or expected monthly payment.
When you look at paying off your debt, it is good to set goals. However, it is also important to not get discouraged when looking at the timeframe and monthly payments. You can use the tools above to determine a reasonable timeframe. Remember, everyone’s debt freedom journey is different!