“Snowballing” is a technique used to pay off debt by prioritizing the order of payments based on interests rates and other factors. Once one debt has been paid the newly available funds are appiled to the next prioritized debt payment and so forth. It is a quick way to get out of debt. Without a finance or accounting degree this is a little tough. I found a spreadsheet that aids in the prioitization and creates a payment calendar to show you the benefits of “snowballing” payments as well as a place to keep track of the payment amounts going forward. Dan Schizeckinosy has created an Excel spreadsheet to help organize your efforts. His “Excel Snowball Calculator” can be found on his web page. There is not a lot to look at but content is king here. I recommend downloading all of the availble spreedsheets and finding the one that works best for your financial goals.

The spreadsheet allows you to set a month and year to match your start to a debt free existence. There are a few other things to set up at the top of the sheet:

1) Your available cash for all payments
2) The Name, balance, teaser rate, months at teaser rate, final rate & minimum payment for each payment source.
3) And finally an “Extra Payment” column for one time payments that may be made along the way.

Once setup you can play with the amounts to see how they affect your speed to goal. This will be priceless once you have it setup and start seeing the possibilties. The best part about the spreadsheet is the peace of mind to see that there is an end to the indebtedness. I hope this helps anyone who decides to use it. If you find it useful send Dan some love at schizeckinosy@yahoo.com via PayPal.

If the site link is ever unavailable you can download the entire set of Snowball Calculator Spreadsheets here (144).