Learning centre · Planning · 8 min · screens from October 2026

Getting out of debt

A Visa at 19.99% interest, a truck loan at 6.9%, a student loan at 5.95%, and a mortgage. Getting out of debt is arithmetic plus a choice of order: which debt to pay off first, how much extra to pay, and what happens to that money when one debt is gone. Mintro does the arithmetic and shows the month each debt will be paid off. You choose the order and the extra amount.

What you'll do

Make a debt goal for each card or loan, so each one has a payoff month
Pick highest rate first, smallest balance first, or your own order, and see the difference in months
Add an extra amount each month, and a lump sum when you have one
Apply the plan to your budget as targets once the order looks right

Step 1

Make a goal for each debt

A debt goal is linked to exactly one debt: a card (with its interest rate and minimum payment) or a loan (with its rate and payment). It is reached when the balance is zero. The goal's paid off so far is how much has been paid down, read from the account or the loan rather than typed in, so it is always accurate, and every payment that comes through from the bank updates it.

The Pay off the Visa goal opened: balance owed, rate, minimum, payoff month — The Pay off the Visa goal. What is owed comes from the account, and the payoff month comes from the plan.

The Pay off the Visa goal. What is owed comes from the account, and the payoff month comes from the plan.

make a debt goal for the Visa. The mortgage too, but last.

Step 2

Choose the order, and the extra amount

The Debts section is your payoff plan: every debt with its balance, interest rate, minimum payment, this month's payment, the month it will be paid off, and the interest still to come. Highest interest first (sometimes called the avalanche method) puts the Visa at the top. Smallest balance first (the snowball method) starts with the smallest balance. Your goal order uses the order of your goals. Add an extra amount each month, and it goes to the first debt in the order; when that one is paid off, its payment moves on to the next. With $200 extra, highest rate first, the Reyes household pays off the Visa in March 2028, the student loan in June 2029, and the truck in July 2030. The truck loan is secured on the truck, so it is placed last along with the mortgage, which means they are debt free in June 2029, saving $2,850.10 in interest and 23 months compared with paying only the minimums. The mortgage stays last and gets only its own payment unless you say otherwise.

The Debts section: strategy, extra a month, each debt with balance, rate, payment and payoff month — Debts, highest rate first, with $200 extra a month: each debt's payoff month, the interest still to come, and what this order saves.

Debts, highest rate first, with $200 extra a month: each debt's payoff month, the interest still to come, and what this order saves.

run the debts avalanche with $200 extra a month. When is the Visa gone, and the truck?

Step 3

Add a lump sum when you have one

A one-time payment toward your debts (a lump sum in a particular month) goes to the first debt in the order that month, and the payoff months of the debts after it can move earlier. A scenario can include the same lump sum without changing your plan, which is how you compare “the inheritance goes to the Visa” with “the inheritance goes to the roof” before either happens.

What you owe: the mortgage, the truck loan and the student loan, each with what is still owed, its rate, its payment, the month it is paid off at its regular payment, and the bill that pays it — What you owe. Every payment is a bank transaction, and the balance is what is left after them.

What you owe. Every payment is a bank transaction, and the balance is what is left after them.

if the $1,500 from the estate goes to the Visa in December, when is it paid off?

Step 4

Apply the plan to your budget

A plan on the Goals screen changes nothing until you apply it. Apply this plan to my budget changes only one thing: each debt goal's envelope gets a target to pay off what is left by its payoff month, which here is the Visa's payment envelope. Debts without a goal are skipped, and listed so you know. From then on, the budget asks for the payoff amount every month, and the goal tracks the balance as it falls. Mintro asks before applying, and first shows you the targets it would set.

Apply the payoff to the budget: the target it would set on the Visa's payment envelope, the debts it skips, and the button — Apply this plan to my budget shows the targets it would set before it sets them.

Apply this plan to my budget shows the targets it would set before it sets them.

apply the payoff plan to the budget