Pay off debt
with intent.

Not another budgeting app. Debt Engine reads your APRs, your BNPL deadlines, and your paycheck cadence — then tells you what to do, in order, with the math to back it.

60-second payoff dateYear one freeNo bank credentialsNo data sellingAI sharing is opt-in

Or try a free calculator first — debt avalanche, BNPL deadlines, windfall finder, or refinance math.

Today's move
Attack PayPal Credit.
19 days
$1,200 due before promo cliff
Missing the window adds about $355 retroactive interest.
Debt-free pathOct 2029
Saved
$7,896
Windfall
$3,670
THE CORE ENGINE

Three decisions that move the payoff date.

APR-aware avalanche

Attack the highest-interest debt first — real interest cost, not vibes. Automatic prioritization, recomputed as balances change.

BNPL deadline radar

Buy-now-pay-later 0% promos from Affirm, Klarna, and PayPal surface before retroactive interest hits. No major app does this.

Windfall paycheck capture

Paid biweekly, you get 26 checks a year — but most budgets assume 24. Twice a year a third check lands in a month. We earmark those windfalls for debt, invisible to the monthly budget.

And an advisor that explains it

Ask Claude — Anthropic’s AI — about your own numbers. “Should I refinance my 7.5% car loan?” The math decides your payoff order; the AI explains the why.

HOW IT WORKS

Sixty seconds to your strategy.

1

Type one debt

“Chase Sapphire”. We prefill the APR from ~30 common issuers — adjust if you know the exact rate. Add balance and minimum.

2

See your strategy

Your debt-free date, the savings from paying $X/mo extra, and — once you add a second debt — the avalanche order. No login required.

3

Save it when ready

Sign up to lock the strategy in, track payoffs, get BNPL deadline alerts, and share with a partner. Year one free.

SEE IT WORK

Every debt, on one timeline.

This is the real trajectory chart from the dashboard — rendered against an invented household: thirteen debts, ~$138k total, BNPL deadlines stacked in the front, a 401(k) loan holding up the rear. Your actual numbers show the same shape with your names on it.

ONE ENGINE, THREE PHASES

Clears your debt, then builds your retirement.

Phase 1 gets you to zero. Phase 2 captures the match and funds the IRA. Phase 3 projects the runway to retiring early. The windfall paychecks are the bridge — they attack debt while debts exist, then redirect straight into retirement. Same engine, same app; you never graduate out of it.

Net worth tracking

Accounts, retirement, real estate, vehicles, rentals. What you own against what you owe.

AI paystub importer

Snap a photo, auto-parse every deduction. No typing line items from a W-2.

Retirement projection

Current balance + contributions + realistic returns → monthly income at 65. Honest math.

Crossover & coast metrics

When does your portfolio earn more than you contribute? When can you stop saving entirely? Real FI math.

Contribution-vs-debt advisor

Every spare dollar gets a verdict — extra debt payment or retirement contribution, with the math for why.

IRA headroom + Tax Day countdown

Exactly how much IRA room you have left, and how many days remain to use last year's window.

Household sharing

Spouse, partner, or accountant — view or edit. Not another shared Google Sheet.

Zero data selling

Manual entry only. No bank credentials, no Plaid, no broker reselling your transactions.

STRAIGHT TALK

Not for you if…

  • You want auto-bank-sync

    We're manual entry. No Plaid credentials to hand over. If typing balances once a month sounds like too much, we're not it.

  • You want envelope budgeting

    That's YNAB. We do debt strategy. The two actually complement each other — we don't compete.

  • You only have one debt

    Set up autopay above the minimum and close this tab. You don't need a tool; you need a calendar.

  • You want everything free forever

    Year one's on us. After that it's $29/yr. If that's a dealbreaker we understand — go in peace.

WHY THIS EXISTS

Built by one person, not a portfolio company.

I built Debt Engine because I needed it: paying down my own stack of debts, capturing the 401(k) match, funding the IRA, and running the early-retirement math — and no tool would tell me what to do next. Just dashboards repeating what I already knew.

There are no investors here, which means no pressure to sell your data, push bank sync, or hook you with streaks. The strategy engine is deterministic math you can audit — the AI doesn’t decide your payoff order, it explains it. For that I use Claude, because when you ask a question about your own money, you deserve the best reasoning model available on your side.

Your data is yours — export everything as JSON anytime, right from Settings. If this ever shuts down, you leave with your numbers.

Start your free yearNo credit card · we'll ask before charging