Student loans
Student loans: federal vs private repayment
Whether a loan is federal or private matters more than its interest rate — and refinancing the first into the second is a door that only opens one…
Debt is the one area of personal finance where the maths is not up for debate. A balance at 24% costs you a fixed amount per month whatever you believe about it, and every payoff strategy is just a different way of deciding which balance dies first.
What these guides add is the part the maths leaves out: why the minimum payment is designed to last decades, when a balance transfer is a genuine reset and when it is a fee with a deadline attached, what consolidation really does to the total, and what a collector can and cannot do once an account is sold. For student loans and car loans the specifics matter enormously — federal and private repayment are different worlds, and the dealership's cheapest-looking monthly payment is usually the most expensive loan on the table.
Calculators for this
Debt payoffCompare the snowball and avalanche methods with your real debts: how many months each takes and how much interest each one saves you.
Credit card payoffSee how long the minimum payment really takes — and how few extra dollars a month it takes to cut years off the balance.
Loan paymentWork out your monthly payment and how much interest you’ll pay in total. With a full amortization table and a fixed-payment vs. fixed-principal comparison.
Debt-to-incomeAdd up what you owe every month against what you earn. It is the first number a lender looks at, and you can check it before they do.
All 8 debt & loans guides
Auto loans
Car loans: the traps that cost the most
Dealers sell monthly payments, not cars. Stretch the term far enough and any price fits — which is exactly how people end up owing more than the car…
Debt
Balance transfer cards: when they work
Every dollar you pay goes to principal for a year or more. That is the whole product — and it is a deadline rather than a discount.
Debt
The minimum payment trap
The minimum payment is not designed to get you out of debt. It is designed to keep the debt comfortable — and it is extraordinarily good at its job.
Debt
Debt in collections: what to do, and what not to
Do not pay anyone who phones you. Request written validation first — and know that in many states a single payment can restart the clock on a…
Debt
Debt consolidation: when it actually helps
It reorganises what you owe without reducing it. Whether that helps comes down to one question nobody wants to answer honestly.
Borrowing
Debt-to-income: the number lenders check first
Before anyone looks at your credit score, they work out how much of your income is already promised to somebody else. You can calculate it yourself…
Debt
Get out of debt: snowball vs. avalanche
One method wins on arithmetic, the other on psychology. The best one is almost always the one you will actually finish.