This was so easy to understand. I just completed my spreadsheet, and I feel like for once in a longtime, I have an actual plan that is both foreseeable and realistic. Thank you so much.
Wouldn't the amount added each month be lower , or a dynamic amount, each month since the interest amount is the % of the balance rather than being the same amount, or static, each month? If the balance is decreasing, the interest amount added each month would also decrease.
The correct way to get a more accurate amount of the interest would look like this =(Balance due-payment)+((Balance due x interest rate)/12) This worked perfectly for me as it multiplies the interest to the current balance due.
Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! I hesitated so much to create a debt snowball spreadsheet, because I didn't want to face the reality of what I had to do. But this made it very easy to understand, and I feel much better after laying everything out and creating this document! Thanks again for making it user friendly!!
You’re welcome! Facing your debt is sooo hard! I hope you’re proud of yourself for taking that giant first step. I’m here if you have any questions pop up. I have more resources in my shop too for budgeting and getting out of debt - mrjamiegriffin.com/shop
Thank you so much for providing this easy to use tutorial!! To anyone following (and to those who are sticklers for math) this tutorial is a great way to calculate your payments, pay off dates, etc. If you want something super exact down to the penny I'm sure there are paid versions out here that you can follow ;) ultimately, don't let perfection be the enemy of good - just get started. I finally have a plan that I am excited about sticking to! Best wishes to you Jamie!!
I just built mine. Thank you so much for explaining this so simply. Thank you so much for this video! I finally feel a sense of direction with my debt.
Great question. If you have variable payments you could set it up with an amount in the payment column that you would expect to pay, make a best guess based on your payment history. Then after you find out how much the payment is, go to your debt snowball spreadsheet and type in the actual amount you pay that month.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am locked n loaded. Your directions are amazingly easy. I hate math! But I did it with your step by step directions.
@@NazarethGuerrero-l9v absolutely. You’ll just have a lot more rows and you’ll wanna break up the monthly payment into bi-weekly amounts. You could do “Sept 24 (1st)” in the month column. I’m not sure how you’d do it so you can drag it down easily, but if you’re fine experimenting or entering everything by hand, it should work great.
You should have specifically stated to list your loans from smallest to largest in the beginning of the video. My spreadsheet is basically backwards now that its finished. I appreciate your time and effort in making this video for us. It will help greatly. Thank you.
You’re right! I didn’t realize I never mentioned that. I hope it didn’t create too much chaos in your spreadsheet. I’ll make sure I mention that specifically in future videos.
@@MrJamieGriffin Not a big deal. A simple reversal of my columns is all that I need to do. I should have had the foresight to list them the correct way myself anyways. You nailed the tricky equations, though. Thank you again!
I was wondering how you do custom dates in excel on an iPad because it’s not populating correctly and there is no custom date option that I have found.
I'm confused on your math. Wouldn't the interest rate be based on the principal balance and not what you're originally starting at? So it would get smaller every month. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I it would be more accurate to calculate the interest in the formula so it can go down month to month. Depending on the size of the loan and the interest rate that could make a difference in paying something off months earlier than expected doing it this way.
Yes absolutely it will. This video will get you a good rough estimate but won’t be exact. I’ve actually updated the free download in the description with more accurate formulas and better format to account for the interest rate. I just haven’t made the video for the updated spreadsheet yet.
So bad with Excel as it is ... what if you were able to make a large "random" payment one month on one of your debts ... how do you calculate that in without messing up the formulas?
That’s an awesome question! If you make an extra payment of say $200 one month, you can add that to your normal payment and type that into the payment column for that debt in your spreadsheet. The formula will automatically calculate the new remaining total accounting for the extra payment. You can test it out by changing the amount in your payment column. If you set up the formulas correctly, it should adjust the amount owed column.
The best way I’ve found out since making this video is to give the interest rate it’s own column and incorporate the interest rate into the formula. I’ll try to get an updated video up soon.
My guess is it's the way the date is formatted. Highlight the entire date column, click Format - Number - Custom Date and Time. IN this section you should be able to add the Month and Year and choose how you want it to appear. For example, I chose "Aug 30" from the menu so it showed the first 3 letters of the month and then the year.
I know nothing about excel, starting from scratch, desperate to pay off my student loans and house. Thank u for this simple how to video! Can I get excel on my phone or do I need a computer
I did a quick google search and it looks like there’s an excel app. If you’re setting it up for the first time I’d recommend using the computer because it’s easier to enter the formulas. But once it’s set up, using the app is great for checking and doing small updates.
For tracking your savings I’d try a Sinking Fund Spreadsheet. I show you how to make one in this video Make a Sinking Fund Spreadsheet in Google Sheets and Excel ua-cam.com/video/JXFi7X_VGlQ/v-deo.html
If you’re making multiple payments a month and it’s the same amount each time, it might work to have a row for each payment. So for May, you could have May 2023 payment 1 in the far left column. And then make sure your minimum Mahoney column is the amount you Olán on paying bi weekly. If you do that, I imagine it would work. I’m sure you could try and be more complicated with your formulas, but I think that’s the simplest way
Hi Mate - you're very close to being accurate. But, the way you calculated the interest charge will eventually take high balances/interest rate debts and lead totals astray. You can make Sheets - do the calculation for you (instead of your calculator, which you'd have to do for EVERY month, with your method above.) You're really close. What you're missing - is you need an entire column for Interest Charges. Also - a unique cell for the APR. (Right now it's in a cell with a title, preventing you from using it in formulas.) It's much easier if you keep numbers out of Row 1. (Then you can insert them into formulas.) So, Row 1 "titles" - such as "date" - "credit card 1, or Loan A" - "payment amount" - "payment towards principal" - "interest charge" - "new balance" (after payment.) Column A, likewise, is something non-related to calculations (you did it great with having that be "dates.") An alternative might be Month 1, 2, 3 - but I like yours best. Thank you for showing how to automatically make future months! I'm not good at sheets, and I was typing in months by hand! :) Your formula for the interest charge column - is "APR / 12 * balance." (APR being the cell with the APR %. As APR does change over time - in the future to update it, you can change it ONCE - and have it repopulate everything on the sheet!) Once you've got the interest charge, you add the last missing column. "Payment towards the principal." (PP?) That formula gives you the new balance. All we do from there, is calculate interest applied for next month's balance. I believe that formula is a simple "payment - interest charge = payment towards the principal." That's your New Balance. To find the accurate balance you start with for the next month: do APR / 12 * New Balance amount. I'm trying to make my own sheet now, tell me if I'm correct. I'm not sure, this is new to me. :)
That sounds like it could work. I know there are definitely ways to use more exact formulas to get an EXACT monthly interest, I just haven’t found it necessary to be so fully exact when I’ve used mine. I don’t know off the top of my head if your specific strategy will work, but I’m willing to bet if you’ve put that much thought into it, you’ll be able to tinker around and find a way to make it work!
Hi Kathryn, has this worked for you? I’m running into the issue with interest calculations not matching our payments in excel after several tutorials. Thanks in advance!
@@MrJamieGriffin That paragraph above seems way too complicated. Once you've done the first calculation of interest as you described, in the cell below keep the (new balance minus minimum payment) and then +(interest rate*new balance)/12 Then you can just pull that new calculation down and it will continue to re-calculate the interest due that month based on the new balance. Wouldn't that work? Or maybe I'm not understanding it correctly.
@@kawchman I actually have a better system now that incorporates the interest rate into the formula. I’ve been using it for new debt snowball spreadsheets I make for clients and it’s super simple. I’m planning on making a new video using it soon.
@@MrJamieGriffin sweet! Looking forward to it. I used this method last night to create my snowball spreadsheet. It may not be pretty but at least there’s a plan. This was super helpful though, thanks
Good layout and explanation, but why would you not do the math so that the interest applied goes down every month? The way you did it (if I understood) was a fixed amount.
@@jtiasgaard155 you are correct, this video sets up the interest as a fixed amount. When I made this video I didn’t have a vision for the best way to include the interest more accurately. However, I do have it fixed and am planning on making a new video. The free download also is updated to include instructions on how to incorporate accurate interest.
Hey, You speak way to fast on the equation for the interest...., Can you write it down here for me? as I got as far as the =SUM(D3-B2)... then I the math wasn't working on the rest......
No problem! The next part of the equation is to subtract the amount of estimated interest accumulated. So after the part you have it’s - total amount owed x interest rate/12.
These calculations are not correct. There has to be a way to fix it. The way it is now, the additional interest does not change as the balance goes down.
You are correct. I have since updated the free debt snowball spreadsheet download to accurately calculate interest into each payment. I just haven’t been able to make an updated video yet.
This was so easy to understand. I just completed my spreadsheet, and I feel like for once in a longtime, I have an actual plan that is both foreseeable and realistic. Thank you so much.
That’s amazing to hear! Congrats on making it happen!
How's it going with the plan? Making mine now.
@@Beepbopboop19 amazing! Let me know if you have questions!
Wouldn't the amount added each month be lower , or a dynamic amount, each month since the interest amount is the % of the balance rather than being the same amount, or static, each month? If the balance is decreasing, the interest amount added each month would also decrease.
The correct way to get a more accurate amount of the interest would look like this =(Balance due-payment)+((Balance due x interest rate)/12) This worked perfectly for me as it multiplies the interest to the current balance due.
This is what I’ve discovered since making this video. I am going to publish a new video with the updated formula and format for easier calculations.
@@TarynAskey-oq6ux Here's the updated video with better accuracy: ua-cam.com/video/UjlBTmkaB4Y/v-deo.html
Thank you for the date formula, I have scoured everywhere for that!!
Happy to help! It’s a life saver!
Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank you!! I hesitated so much to create a debt snowball spreadsheet, because I didn't want to face the reality of what I had to do. But this made it very easy to understand, and I feel much better after laying everything out and creating this document! Thanks again for making it user friendly!!
You’re welcome! Facing your debt is sooo hard! I hope you’re proud of yourself for taking that giant first step. I’m here if you have any questions pop up. I have more resources in my shop too for budgeting and getting out of debt - mrjamiegriffin.com/shop
Thank you so much for providing this easy to use tutorial!! To anyone following (and to those who are sticklers for math) this tutorial is a great way to calculate your payments, pay off dates, etc. If you want something super exact down to the penny I'm sure there are paid versions out here that you can follow ;) ultimately, don't let perfection be the enemy of good - just get started. I finally have a plan that I am excited about sticking to! Best wishes to you Jamie!!
Those are my thought to when you first get started. Good is better than perfect. It’s all about the progress. Congrats on getting started!
I just built mine. Thank you so much for explaining this so simply. Thank you so much for this video! I finally feel a sense of direction with my debt.
Yay! I love that you got yours made. That’s always a huge step! Glad the video was helpful! You’re on your way!
Excellent teacher ! This turned me into a Google Sheets fanatic!
@@stevemerritt7389 that’s amazing! Welcome to the spreadsheet club 🤓
this is fantastic, easy to follow, very pleasing to watch, and life changing for so many people. thank you!!
@@calistiae thanks for the feedback! I’m glad it’s helpful to make a debt free plan.
Super helpful! Thank you for taking the time to help us set up our own debt tool!
@@MonaFabuleux you’re welcome! Happy to be helpful!
Thank you!! Do you know how to make the debt free date show up in a different cell? Like at the top of the sheet.
This is a game changer!!! Thank you so much for helping my family and I set goals towards financial freedom!!
@@StrangeJack you’re welcome! Happy to help, and good luck with your debt snowball! Let me know if you need help with anything now or down the road!
this was so easy to understand, thank you! excited to make my spreadsheet now too :)
@@uxnne4492 glad to hear that! Spreadsheets can be a lot of fun! Ask questions if when they pop up!
Thank you so much. This was a great start to help me complete my payoff chart!
You're very welcome! Glad it’s helpful!
Thank you for making this video. You made the process of making a debt snowball spreadsheet simple and easy. 🙂
@@maryc4176 I’m so glad to hear that! Hopefully it helps you pay off your debt fast!
Thank you so much for this! I had no idea how to set this up. The video was easy to follow.
You’re welcome! Glad it was helpful!
I loved that I was able to understand.gave me a passion for budgeting.
@@tiannaquinn3171 that’s awesome! Good luck with your budget and new debt snowball spreadsheet!
How can this be done to current payments made every month that vary and arent the fixed payments like you have them?
Great question. If you have variable payments you could set it up with an amount in the payment column that you would expect to pay, make a best guess based on your payment history. Then after you find out how much the payment is, go to your debt snowball spreadsheet and type in the actual amount you pay that month.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am locked n loaded. Your directions are amazingly easy. I hate math! But I did it with your step by step directions.
You’re welcome! I hope it helps a ton on your debt free journey!
is there a way to switch the column for the month/year to something like biweekly?
@@NazarethGuerrero-l9v absolutely. You’ll just have a lot more rows and you’ll wanna break up the monthly payment into bi-weekly amounts. You could do “Sept 24 (1st)” in the month column. I’m not sure how you’d do it so you can drag it down easily, but if you’re fine experimenting or entering everything by hand, it should work great.
Excellent explantion! I'm excited about using this for my kids!
Glad it makes sense! I hope it’s helpful for the kids! It worked wonders for our debt.
You should have specifically stated to list your loans from smallest to largest in the beginning of the video. My spreadsheet is basically backwards now that its finished. I appreciate your time and effort in making this video for us. It will help greatly. Thank you.
You’re right! I didn’t realize I never mentioned that. I hope it didn’t create too much chaos in your spreadsheet. I’ll make sure I mention that specifically in future videos.
@@MrJamieGriffin Not a big deal. A simple reversal of my columns is all that I need to do. I should have had the foresight to list them the correct way myself anyways. You nailed the tricky equations, though. Thank you again!
@@RyanGetLow glad it was a quick and easy fix.
I was wondering how you do custom dates in excel on an iPad because it’s not populating correctly and there is no custom date option that I have found.
I do not have excel on my iPad, so I'm not sure how to do that. Anyone else in the comments using excel and an iPad?
Just applied ! Thanks for this !
You’re welcome! 👍🏻
Thank you! I will start using this for the new year!
You’re welcome! That’s a perfect time to get started. You got this!
when i do the drag down for the amount still owing it works for a few and then the number changes and starts to go up and not down.
One thing to double check is that the payment column is also dragged down far enough so the formula subtracts it before adding the interest back in.
I'm confused on your math. Wouldn't the interest rate be based on the principal balance and not what you're originally starting at? So it would get smaller every month. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I it would be more accurate to calculate the interest in the formula so it can go down month to month. Depending on the size of the loan and the interest rate that could make a difference in paying something off months earlier than expected doing it this way.
Yes absolutely it will. This video will get you a good rough estimate but won’t be exact.
I’ve actually updated the free download in the description with more accurate formulas and better format to account for the interest rate. I just haven’t made the video for the updated spreadsheet yet.
noticed the same thing. still very thankful for the overall formatting and taught me some shortcuts!
Here's the updated video with better accuracy: ua-cam.com/video/UjlBTmkaB4Y/v-deo.html
thank you! this was all I needed and some. new sub!
You’re welcome! Glad it’s just what you needed! Welcome to the fam!
Thank you so much! Very helpful!
You’re welcome! Glad it’s helpful! Good luck paying off your debt, you got this!
So bad with Excel as it is ... what if you were able to make a large "random" payment one month on one of your debts ... how do you calculate that in without messing up the formulas?
That’s an awesome question! If you make an extra payment of say $200 one month, you can add that to your normal payment and type that into the payment column for that debt in your spreadsheet. The formula will automatically calculate the new remaining total accounting for the extra payment. You can test it out by changing the amount in your payment column. If you set up the formulas correctly, it should adjust the amount owed column.
@@MrJamieGriffin thanks so much for the speedy response! Building my worksheet now :)
@@kellieresnick9215 keep asking questions as they come up!
The interest amount will change often, is there an easy way to update it?
The best way I’ve found out since making this video is to give the interest rate it’s own column and incorporate the interest rate into the formula. I’ll try to get an updated video up soon.
Thank you 😊
@@TaraJohnson you’re welcome! Good luck setting it up and making a plan to be debt free!
the date formula doesn't work for me:( I did Jan 25 and then "=EDATE(A3,1)" and i get the number 45713, can you please tell me what I did wrong?:(
My guess is it's the way the date is formatted. Highlight the entire date column, click Format - Number - Custom Date and Time. IN this section you should be able to add the Month and Year and choose how you want it to appear. For example, I chose "Aug 30" from the menu so it showed the first 3 letters of the month and then the year.
I know nothing about excel, starting from scratch, desperate to pay off my student loans and house. Thank u for this simple how to video! Can I get excel on my phone or do I need a computer
I did a quick google search and it looks like there’s an excel app. If you’re setting it up for the first time I’d recommend using the computer because it’s easier to enter the formulas. But once it’s set up, using the app is great for checking and doing small updates.
Can I use this for savings instead of debt?
For tracking your savings I’d try a Sinking Fund Spreadsheet. I show you how to make one in this video
Make a Sinking Fund Spreadsheet in Google Sheets and Excel
ua-cam.com/video/JXFi7X_VGlQ/v-deo.html
I appreciate this SO MUCH. Suits my needs perfectly. Thank you.
Good! Glad it’s helpful!
This was excellent! thanks so much!
You’re welcome! Happy to be helpful! Any other videos you want to see?
what if i'd like to make bi-weekly payments , what formula would I use? and what cell do I enter it in?:)
If you’re making multiple payments a month and it’s the same amount each time, it might work to have a row for each payment. So for May, you could have May 2023 payment 1 in the far left column. And then make sure your minimum Mahoney column is the amount you Olán on paying bi weekly. If you do that, I imagine it would work. I’m sure you could try and be more complicated with your formulas, but I think that’s the simplest way
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
You’re welcome! 👍🏻
Hi Mate - you're very close to being accurate. But, the way you calculated the interest charge will eventually take high balances/interest rate debts and lead totals astray.
You can make Sheets - do the calculation for you (instead of your calculator, which you'd have to do for EVERY month, with your method above.)
You're really close.
What you're missing - is you need an entire column for Interest Charges. Also - a unique cell for the APR. (Right now it's in a cell with a title, preventing you from using it in formulas.)
It's much easier if you keep numbers out of Row 1. (Then you can insert them into formulas.)
So, Row 1 "titles" - such as "date" - "credit card 1, or Loan A" - "payment amount" - "payment towards principal" - "interest charge" - "new balance" (after payment.)
Column A, likewise, is something non-related to calculations (you did it great with having that be "dates.") An alternative might be Month 1, 2, 3 - but I like yours best. Thank you for showing how to automatically make future months! I'm not good at sheets, and I was typing in months by hand! :)
Your formula for the interest charge column - is "APR / 12 * balance." (APR being the cell with the APR %. As APR does change over time - in the future to update it, you can change it ONCE - and have it repopulate everything on the sheet!)
Once you've got the interest charge, you add the last missing column. "Payment towards the principal." (PP?) That formula gives you the new balance. All we do from there, is calculate interest applied for next month's balance.
I believe that formula is a simple "payment - interest charge = payment towards the principal." That's your New Balance.
To find the accurate balance you start with for the next month: do APR / 12 * New Balance amount.
I'm trying to make my own sheet now, tell me if I'm correct. I'm not sure, this is new to me. :)
That sounds like it could work. I know there are definitely ways to use more exact formulas to get an EXACT monthly interest, I just haven’t found it necessary to be so fully exact when I’ve used mine.
I don’t know off the top of my head if your specific strategy will work, but I’m willing to bet if you’ve put that much thought into it, you’ll be able to tinker around and find a way to make it work!
Hi Kathryn, has this worked for you? I’m running into the issue with interest calculations not matching our payments in excel after several tutorials. Thanks in advance!
@@MrJamieGriffin That paragraph above seems way too complicated. Once you've done the first calculation of interest as you described, in the cell below keep the (new balance minus minimum payment) and then +(interest rate*new balance)/12
Then you can just pull that new calculation down and it will continue to re-calculate the interest due that month based on the new balance. Wouldn't that work? Or maybe I'm not understanding it correctly.
@@kawchman I actually have a better system now that incorporates the interest rate into the formula. I’ve been using it for new debt snowball spreadsheets I make for clients and it’s super simple. I’m planning on making a new video using it soon.
@@MrJamieGriffin sweet! Looking forward to it. I used this method last night to create my snowball spreadsheet. It may not be pretty but at least there’s a plan. This was super helpful though, thanks
Good layout and explanation, but why would you not do the math so that the interest applied goes down every month? The way you did it (if I understood) was a fixed amount.
@@jtiasgaard155 you are correct, this video sets up the interest as a fixed amount. When I made this video I didn’t have a vision for the best way to include the interest more accurately. However, I do have it fixed and am planning on making a new video. The free download also is updated to include instructions on how to incorporate accurate interest.
Here's the updated video with better accuracy: ua-cam.com/video/UjlBTmkaB4Y/v-deo.html
THANK YOU!!!!
@@pascalejulien1418 you’re welcome!
Helpful!
Awesome! Ask any questions that come up as you’re making it!
Hey, You speak way to fast on the equation for the interest...., Can you write it down here for me? as I got as far as the =SUM(D3-B2)... then I the math wasn't working on the rest......
No problem! The next part of the equation is to subtract the amount of estimated interest accumulated. So after the part you have it’s - total amount owed x interest rate/12.
thank you canelo
Haha I didn’t know who that was until just now. You’re welcome and thanks for the laugh 😂
These calculations are not correct. There has to be a way to fix it. The way it is now, the additional interest does not change as the balance goes down.
You are correct. I have since updated the free debt snowball spreadsheet download to accurately calculate interest into each payment. I just haven’t been able to make an updated video yet.
🙏🏼💯
@@frazfam7 happy to help!
*promo sm*
I THOUGHT IT WAS RON WEASLY!
I get that sometimes. More often it’s Prince Harry. 🤣
This is amazing!! Thank you so much
You’re so welcome!