Which debt should you pay off first?

Debt payoff playbook

Compare two ways of prioritising repayments on the debts you already recorded in Verdant. You only enter how much you can put toward debt each month.

Why this tool exists

What’s easy to miss

Avalanche: highest interest rate first

After covering every debt’s interest, put the rest toward the highest-rate debt. In this model, that usually means paying the least interest.

Snowball: smallest balance first

Clear the smallest balance first to close debts one by one. It can cost more interest, but the visible progress makes it easier to keep going.

The tool doesn’t decide for you

It calculates both and shows the difference in total interest and time to repay. If the monthly amount isn’t enough to clear the debt in the model, it explains why and suggests an amount that works.

How it works

What you enter, what you get back

  1. The app already knows

    The balance and rate of every debt you have recorded in Verdant — nothing to retype.

  2. You enter

    How much goes to debt each month, principal and interest together.

  3. You read

    For each strategy: how long until debt-free, total interest, the order debts are cleared and the month each one finishes — exportable to a file.

What the tool doesn’t account for

  • The model pays every debt’s interest each month and puts the rest on the priority debt.
  • The tool doesn’t know each loan’s contractual minimum payment. In practice, pay those minimums first before putting extra toward the priority debt.
  • If the monthly amount is below the interest accruing each month, the balance keeps growing — the tool warns you about this.
Sample table

Reading a sample result

One made-up scenario: what the tool returns, and how to read it.

These are illustrative figures, not anyone’s real data. The assumptions are set deliberately high so they match no one’s situation, and are calculated with the app’s own formulas to show how to read the results.

This is not financial advice, nor an offer to lend or invest. To work out your own situation, use the tool in the app.

Sample figures — deliberately inflated

Assumed inputs

A deliberately exaggerated example: four debts of a family that does not exist.

DebtBalanceRate / year
Yacht loan9,870,000,000 ₫23.9%
Diamond-tier credit card1,230,000,000 ₫9.6%
Crocodile farm loan5,550,000,000 ₫15.4%
Racehorse loan2,460,000,000 ₫12.9%

Swipe sideways to see the whole table.

Paid towards debt each month
480,000,000 ₫
Interest alone each month (the floor)
304,087,500 ₫
Avalanche: debt-free in60 months
Avalanche: total interest9,583,564,264 ₫
Snowball: debt-free in69 months
Snowball: total interest13,862,281,289 ₫
In this example, Avalanche saves4,278,717,025 ₫
and finishes sooner by9 months

Avalanche — highest rate first

The order each debt is cleared.

OrderDebtCleared in monthInterest paid
1Yacht loan394,300,414,055 ₫
2Crocodile farm loan523,248,402,473 ₫
3Racehorse loan581,454,312,150 ₫
4Diamond-tier credit card60580,435,585 ₫

Swipe sideways to see the whole table.

Snowball — smallest balance first

The order each debt is cleared.

OrderDebtCleared in monthInterest paid
1Diamond-tier credit card738,929,488 ₫
2Racehorse loan20362,165,611 ₫
3Crocodile farm loan422,255,632,360 ₫
4Yacht loan6911,205,553,830 ₫

Swipe sideways to see the whole table.

The model pays every debt's interest each month and puts the rest on the priority debt. In real life each debt also has its own minimum payment.

Work it out for your own situation

In the app you can change every assumption and see the result update right away.

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