Find how long a fixed monthly payment takes to clear a balance — and what it costs.
Find how long a fixed monthly payment takes to clear a balance — and what it costs.
Enter values above and click Calculate — results will appear here with the formula explained.
Every month, interest is charged on the remaining balance; whatever remains of your payment reduces principal. The formula above inverts that process to find when the balance hits zero given a fixed payment.
The critical insight is the floor: if your payment doesn't exceed the first month's interest, the balance never falls and the debt is permanent. Near that floor, small increases in payment produce enormous improvements — the highest-leverage dollars in personal finance.
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Debt Payoff Calculator computes find how long a fixed monthly payment takes to clear a balance — and what it costs. Formula: n = −ln(1 − r·B/P) ÷ ln(1 + r), where B is balance, P payment, r the monthly rate. Example: An $8,000 balance at 22.
Every month, interest is charged on the remaining balance; whatever remains of your payment reduces principal. The formula above inverts that process to find when the balance hits zero given a fixed payment.
The critical insight is the floor: if your payment doesn't exceed the first month's interest, the balance never falls and the debt is permanent. Near that floor, small increases in payment produce enormous improvements — the highest-leverage dollars in personal finance.
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An $8,000 balance at 22.9% APR with $300/month pays off in 33 months with about $2,900 interest. Pushing the payment to $400 cuts the timeline to 23 months and interest to roughly $1,700.
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