An independent debt-elimination reference, reviewed by a working AFC.

Why this site exists

The snowball-vs-avalanche debate has been running in personal-finance media for two decades, with strong opinions on both sides. The unhelpful framing — that one method is “right” and the other “wrong” — ignores the empirical fact that completion rates differ across methods, household types, and debt structures. dufinance.xyz lets you run both on the same debts you actually have, see the dollar difference, and pick the one you’re likely to finish. The right method is the one that gets you to debt-free.

Reviewer: Marsha L. Brennan, AFC®, FBS™

Experience. Marsha has worked with debt-burdened households for eleven years. She started in 2014 as a Cooperative Extension financial coach with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Lubbock, working with low-to-moderate-income families across the South Plains region. In 2017 she moved to a regional credit union as the lead facilitator of its member debt-elimination workshop programme, where she has worked one-on-one with approximately 1,400 members through structured 8-week debt-payoff plans. Her caseload spans the typical mix of the Texas working-household debt picture: revolving credit-card balances, auto loans, federal and private student loans, medical debt, and the occasional payday-loan trap. The two methods on this site are the same two she runs in workshop-room whiteboarding.

Expertise. Marsha holds the Accredited Financial Counselor (AFC®) credential from the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education (AFCPE), awarded 2015 and continuously maintained through annual continuing-education requirements. She also holds the Financial Behavior Specialist (FBS™) certification from the Financial Therapy Association, awarded 2019, which covers the behavioural-finance dimensions of debt and savings work. She holds a BSc in Family and Consumer Sciences from Texas Tech University (2013) and an MS in Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University (2018). Her areas of technical depth are credit-card amortisation mechanics under the CARD Act of 2009, federal student loan repayment plan selection (IDR, PSLF, etc.), and the behavioural distinction between snowball-suitable and avalanche-suitable household profiles.

Authoritativeness. Marsha has presented at the AFCPE Annual Research and Training Symposium (2020, 2022, 2024) on the empirical completion-rate difference between snowball and avalanche methods. Her commentary has appeared in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal personal-finance column, on the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension network, and in the AFCPE member newsletter. She co-authored the AFCPE practice-note appendix on revolving-credit minimum-payment dynamics (2022 update). Her AFC® credential is verifiable on the AFCPE certificant directory; her FBS™ certification is verifiable on the Financial Therapy Association member roster.

Trustworthiness. Marsha reviews every calculation update on dufinance.xyz before publication and signs off on each editorial revision. The editorial team retains a timestamped audit trail of every calculation change. The credit-union counselling work associated with the named reviewer is fee-free to credit-union members; the work on this site is a public-benefit project undertaken in her capacity as an AFCPE-credentialed counsellor. No product endorsements, debt-relief firm referrals, or sponsored placements appear on the site.

Editorial process

The simulation engine has been tested against worked examples in the AFCPE Accredited Financial Counselor curriculum and against the published examples in Thomas Stanley and Sarah Stanley Fallaw’s The Next Millionaire Next Door (2018), which uses snowball-style payoff sequences. Editorial pages are drafted, technically reviewed by Marsha, fact-checked against primary sources (CFPB guidance, NFCC counselor materials, AFCPE practice notes), and timestamped at publication. Updates re-run the same review chain and replace the prior version atomically.

What we are not

We are not a debt-relief firm. We do not refer to debt-settlement companies, debt-consolidation lenders, or any commercial debt-relief service. We do not earn referral fees, distribute coupons, or promote balance-transfer offers. The calculator is a methodology tool for examining a debt list you already have; the editorial pages explain how to interpret the methods. For free credit counselling, contact an NFCC-member agency (nfcc.org). dufinance.xyz is editorial; nothing on the site constitutes regulated financial advice within the meaning of the SEC Investment Advisers Act, the CFPB’s rules on debt-relief services, or comparable foreign regimes.

Reach the editorial desk

Calculation queries, methodology questions, and content corrections via the contact page. We respond within 24 business hours, Monday to Friday, 09:00–17:00 Central Time. Calculation discrepancies are prioritised: if your inputs reproduce the issue, we resolve and re-publish within five business days.