Tutorial: Debt Payoff Optimizer

This tutorial shows how to use the 7cows debt payoff optimizer to pay off several loans — credit cards, a car loan, a student loan, a mortgage — as efficiently as possible. You'll learn how to enter your loans, choose a payoff strategy, read the results, and share the plan.

The optimizer at 7cows.io/cc takes a portfolio of loans and a total monthly budget, then works out the order and schedule in which to pay them down so you finish sooner and pay less interest.

Adding Your Loans

You can build the exact same portfolio in two interchangeable ways — with the product cards on the right, or with the Quick add box on the left. They are just two views of the same data: type into the Quick add box and the cards fill in; edit a card and the Quick add text updates. Use whichever you prefer.

Product cards (right side)

The clearest way to start is the product card on the right. Each card describes one loan:

Product card for a single loan

  • Principal — the current balance you still owe.
  • Interest Rate — the loan's annual rate.
  • Loan Maturity — the remaining term.
  • Regular payment — what you currently pay each period.
  • Minimal payment — the contractual minimum you must pay.

This is the same product card used in the loan calculator, so anything you can model there you can add here. Click New Product to add another loan. You need at least two loans for the optimizer to have something to optimize.

Quick add (left side)

The same portfolio can be typed as text in the Quick add box and turned into cards with Generate:

Quick add box and optimization method slider

One loan per line, using this grammar (only the amount and @rate% are required):

[name:] amount @rate% [current payment[/period]] [min amount]
  • name: — an optional label for the loan (e.g. CC1:, carloan:).
  • amount — the balance. Accepts $, thousands separators and a k suffix: 5000, $5,000, 5k.
  • @rate% — the annual interest rate (may be negative).
  • current payment — optional; the amount you pay today (your status-quo baseline). A bare number after the rate, e.g. 120/m. Add /y (or /year) for an annual figure (divided by 12).
  • min amount — optional contractual minimum, prefixed with the min keyword: min 100.

Add one more line to set your total budget — the total monthly amount you can put toward all loans combined:

budget: amount[/period]
  • The budget: keyword followed by an amount (same $ / k / thousands rules).
  • The period defaults to monthly; /y, /yr or /year is treated as annual (divided by 12).
  • Examples: budget: $2k, budget: 2000/mo, budget: 24k/year.

A full example:

CC1: 5000 @18% min 100
CC2: 4000 @15% min 100
carloan: 20000 @6% 350/m
budget: $1500/m

Tip: click Example to load a ready-made portfolio and see how everything fits together.

Choosing a Payoff Strategy

The Optimization method slider decides how any money beyond the minimum payments is applied. As one loan is paid off, its freed-up payment "rolls over" onto the next loan — the classic debt-payoff idea:

  • Original — no optimization; every loan just follows its own schedule. Your baseline for comparison.
  • Avalanche — pay off the highest interest rate first. Pays the least total interest (recommended).
  • Snowball — pay off the lowest balance first. Quick early wins, motivating even if it costs a little more interest.
  • Worst — pay off the lowest interest first. Shown only to illustrate the worst case.

The Keep the payments schedule checkbox optimizes under the condition of keeping your original total monthly payment — useful when your budget is fixed.

Reading the Results

Portfolio KPIs

The left side shows the combined key figures for the whole portfolio:

Portfolio KPIs

  • Effective rate — the blended effective interest rate across all loans.
  • Loan term — how long until every loan is paid off.
  • Paid per $1 borrowed — total paid back for each dollar of debt.
  • Interest paid — total interest over the life of the portfolio.

Switch the method slider and watch these change — that's the quickest way to see how much a strategy saves.

Payment schedule

Below the products, the schedule shows the combined cash flow of the portfolio over time:

Portfolio payment schedule

  • Year 0 shows the loans being taken on (the negative opening balance).
  • Payments, Interest to Pay and Amortization show, per period, how much you pay, how much is interest, and how much reduces the balance.
  • Outstanding Balance falls to $0 when the portfolio is fully paid off.

Toggle Aggregated (yearly) vs monthly, or Download as CSV to analyze the plan in a spreadsheet.

Disaggregated cash flows — where the money goes

By default the table shows the Sum of Cash Flows (the whole portfolio). Switch that dropdown to a single card and set the view to Disaggregated (month by month — the way you actually pay a credit card) to see where the money really goes.

Here is the cheapest card (16%) of a three-card portfolio under Avalanche:

A cheap card receiving $0 monthly while the budget pays down pricier cards

Its monthly payment is $0 for month after month — because the budget is redistributed to the higher-rate cards first. Nothing above this card's minimum reaches it until the pricier cards are cleared, so its balance even grows as unpaid interest is added. Once the expensive cards are gone, the freed-up payment rolls over and this card finally starts getting paid down. Comparing a cheap card's line under Avalanche vs Original shows exactly how the strategy front-loads the costly debt.

Sharing Your Plan

Every portfolio has a shareable Portfolio permalink at the top — one link that captures all your loans and the chosen method. A QR code is generated automatically for sharing on mobile or in print. Individual loans also have their own Product permalink, exactly like in the loan calculator.

Tips and Best Practices

  1. Start with Avalanche — it's the cheapest strategy for total interest.
  2. Compare against Original to see how much optimizing actually saves you.
  3. Set realistic minimum payments — they constrain what the optimizer can do.
  4. Check the disaggregated view to understand which loan is being paid down first.
  5. Share the permalink to save your plan or send it to someone else.

Next Steps