Payoff Debt or Save?

Compare the difference between saving money and paying off your debt. It's good to have an emergency or "rainy day" fund but once you have that, it usually makes sense to pay down debt - especially when the debt's interest is high. Below, enter the amount of cash you currently have available to use either toward investment or reducing debt. Then Enter the annual interest rate on your debt, your expected annual return on the investment you are considering, and click the Calculate button.

  Cash you have available to
save or use to reduce debt
Annual interest
on your debt
Expected annual return of
your investment
 
       
At the end of
YEAR:
An investment
will grow to:
While the debt you could have
paid off will have grown to:
For a difference of:
1 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
2 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
3 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
4 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
5 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
6 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
7 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
8 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
9 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00
10 $0.00 $0.00 $0.00