Kill all debt early, or pay it off as scheduled?
Debt has a rate you already know; investing has a return you are guessing at. That asymmetry is the whole decision. What actually matters is how much you can deploy each month, where it goes first, and what the plan looks like once the debt is either gone or still running.
What shapes the choice
- The balance, interest rate and remaining term of every debt you are carrying.
- The monthly amount you have free to allocate, and where it currently goes.
- The investment return you assume for the other path, and how confident you are in it.
- The accessible reserve you intend to keep whichever way the money is directed.
- Any early-repayment fee, plus the month the freed-up payment starts being invested.
Deploy the same money two ways
Duplicate the baseline and change only the destination of the money. The same total monthly amount is deployed in both copies, over the same horizon, against the same reserve floor — in one it clears debt first, in the other it goes to investments alongside the scheduled payments.
Then read the two results with different confidence. Interest you no longer pay is contractual: the rate is in the agreement and the saving happens. The investment side is an assumption you typed in, and it can be wrong in both directions. Comparable numbers on screen are not comparable certainties.
Questions worth testing
- How long does it take to clear the debts if everything available goes there first?
- How much accessible money is left while the repayments are being made?
- What does the investing path look like if the assumed return is two points lower?
- Does either path change the year at which work becomes optional?
How to read the result
The comparison uses only the balances, rates, dates and return assumption you entered. Interest saved is calculable; investment return is not, and Worthifi does not predict it, does not decide which path suits you, and does not model early-repayment fees, contractual limits or tax treatment unless you enter them. This is a planning illustration, not financial, investment, tax or debt advice.
How it works in the app
Duplicate the plan: in one copy, stage full repayments until every debt is gone; leave the other on its scheduled payments. Compare the two — the classic debt-vs-invest decision, in your own numbers.
- Duplicate the plan.
- In the copy, open each debt and tap “Pay off fully” until you're debt-free.
- Use Compare to see net worth and passive cashflow side by side.
Model this yourself