The avalanche, the snowball, and the truth about both

One saves the most interest. One keeps the most people going. The right answer depends on a number nobody puts in the spreadsheet: how discouraged you are.

There are two famous ways to pay off debt, and people argue about them like sports teams. The avalanche says: pay minimums on everything, throw every spare dollar at the highest interest rate. The snowball says: pay minimums on everything, throw every spare dollar at the smallest balance.

The avalanche is mathematically correct. Over the life of your payoff it will always cost less interest, sometimes hundreds less, sometimes thousands. If money were a spreadsheet, the argument would be over.

Money is not a spreadsheet

The snowball exists because paying off debt takes years, and years require morale. Closing an account, actually watching a balance hit zero, does something to a person that an interest calculation never will. The first zero is proof. Proof keeps people going through month fourteen, when the novelty is gone and the balance still is not.

The honest research on this is humbling for the math people: those who start with small wins are more likely to finish at all. An avalanche you abandon in month six costs infinitely more than a snowball you complete.

How to actually choose

Ask yourself one question: is your problem interest, or is it hope? If you are steady and angry at your APRs, run the avalanche and take the savings. If you are tired and need to believe this can work, take the snowball and buy the proof.

And know that there is a third option nobody names: start snowball, switch to avalanche after your first zero. The proof first, then the math. The plan that finishes is the right plan.