Debt Payoff Planner

Overview

The Debt Planner helps you build a structured plan to eliminate your debts. It uses your existing credit-card, loan, and line-of-credit accounts (no separate debt entry required), compares payoff strategies, and shows live projections of your debt-free date and total interest paid.

Personal tier required. (Free users see a teaser at Plan > Debt Planner with an upgrade prompt.)

Setting Up Your Debts

The planner uses the debt accounts you already have in NivoaFlow — there's no manual list to maintain. To get set up:

Make sure your credit cards, loans, and lines of credit are added to NivoaFlow, either via Plaid or as manual accounts
Go to Plan > Debt Planner
For each debt account, confirm or override:
- Current balance (auto-filled from the account)
- Interest rate (APR)
- Minimum monthly payment
Optionally exclude any debts you don't want to include in the plan (for example, a 0% promotional balance you'll handle separately)

If a connected account doesn't have an APR or minimum payment recorded, click the row to set them.

Three Strategies

Avalanche

Pay the highest interest rate first while making minimum payments on everything else. As each debt is cleared, roll that payment into the next-highest rate.

Best for: saving the most money on interest
Trade-off: your first win might take longer if the highest-rate debt has a large balance

Snowball

Pay the smallest balance first while making minimum payments on the rest. As each debt is cleared, roll that payment into the next-smallest balance.

Best for: building momentum with quick wins
Trade-off: you may pay slightly more in total interest

Custom

Drag your debts into the order you want to attack them. The planner respects your order and still rolls cleared payments forward. Use this when promotional rates, co-signed loans, or personal priorities mean the textbook order isn't right for you.

The planner shows both Avalanche and Snowball totals side by side, so you can see exactly how much interest one strategy costs versus the other.

The Extra-Payment Slider

Not sure how much extra to put toward debt each month? Drag the extra-payment slider under your debt list:

Your projected debt-free date moves earlier
Total interest paid drops
The chart highlights your sweet spot — the point where each additional dollar starts giving diminishing returns

This helps you find a realistic extra payment amount that makes a meaningful difference without stretching your budget too thin.

Lump-Sum Scenarios

Got a tax refund coming or a bonus? Use the scenario controls to model a one-off lump sum — pick the amount, the month it arrives, and which debt to apply it to. The payoff date and total interest update instantly.

For a deeper walkthrough of the scenario tools, see using the debt payoff simulator.

Tracking Progress

As real payments come in from your linked accounts, balances update and the planner recalculates your projected payoff date. Watching debts disappear from the list is a powerful motivator to stay on track. Pair this with net worth tracking to see your overall financial progress.