Trong video này, ta giả sử 4 mục sau là các khoản nợ chưa thanh toán của bạn. Số đầu tiên ở mỗi hàng là số dư nợ cho vay chưa thanh toán. Ví dụ, với thẻ tín dụng này, bạn có số dư nợ chưa thanh toán là 500 đô la. Số thứ hai là lãi suất phần trăm hàng năm (APR). Lãi suất là 15% cho thẻ tín dụng, 30% cho thẻ tín dụng bán lẻ, 10% cho khoản vay A và 5% cho khoản vay B. Số thứ ba được liệt kê ở đây là khoản thanh toán tối thiểu. Bạn cần trả khoản này hàng tháng. Ta có 20 cộng 30 bằng 50, rồi cộng thêm 150. Khoản thanh toán tối thiểu hàng tháng của bạn là 200 đô la. Ta viết 200 đô la. Vậy còn tổng dư nợ cho vay chưa thanh toán của bạn sẽ bằng 3500 cộng 500 bằng 4000, cộng thêm 4000 bằng 8000, cộng thêm 2000 bằng 10.000. Vậy bạn nợ 10.000 đô la. Khoản thanh toán tối thiểu của bạn là 200 đô la. Nhưng giả sử bạn phải trả nhiều hơn 200 đô la hàng tháng. Giả sử bạn có 300 đô la, 300 đô la hàng tháng. Vậy câu hỏi đặt ra là bạn sẽ làm gì sau khi trả xong các khoản thanh toán tối thiểu? Bạn sẽ làm gì với số tiền 100 đô la dư ra đó? Lời khuyên là bạn nên dùng số tiền đó để trả nợ sao cho bạn có thể thanh toán nợ nhanh nhất có thể. Nhưng bạn có thể thắc mắc rằng nên trả khoản nợ nào trước. Có nên chia 400 đô la đó thành 4 phần để trả thêm 25 đô la so với mỗi khoản thanh toán tối thiểu này không? Nên trả khoản lớn nhất trước hay khoản nhỏ nhất trước? Có nên trả khoản lãi suất cao nhất trước không? Tất cả các cách trên đều khả thi nhưng để tính toán một cách tối ưu nhất thì bạn nên trả khoản nợ lớn nhất trước. Cách thức trả nợ này được gọi là phương pháp tuyết lở. Khi áp dụng phương pháp này, bạn nên trả khoản nợ lớn nhất, khoản nợ nhiều tiền nhất của bạn trước. Trong trường hợp này là khoản nợ thẻ tín dụng bán lẻ. Vậy thứ tự trả nợ của bạn nên là trả các khoản thanh toán tối thiểu trước và nếu bạn có khoản nào dư ra thì bạn nên ưu tiên trả khoản nợ của thẻ tín dụng bán lẻ. Once the retail card is paid off, let's see, after that the credit card has the next highest interest. So, copy and paste. Then, these two loans, they're already in order, 10%, 5%. So, I'm just ordering these form highest interest cost to lowest interest cost. In this world, you would want to, essentially, rank them in this way. You obviously have to pay their minimum payments every month which is $200 but then I would take that extra hundred dollars that you have available and put it to the most costly debt. So, I would put that extra hundred dollars right over here and try to pay this one down as fast as possible. Once that is paid off, then I would put any extra you have after the minimum payments to the credit card. And once that's paid off as well, then to loan A. Once that's paid off, to loan B and hopefully you are then, you might be then debt-free. If you did the high rate method right over here, you would, and you don't incur any new debt, you would be debt-free after 47 months. And you would pay an aggregate interest of approximately 39, $3,904 in interest over those 47 months. So, you say, "Okay, Sal, I get it. "This is the mathematically optimal thing to do "to get rid of your most costly thing first "which makes sense`and then your next costly thing "and then on and on." But you tell me, "Well, you know, psychology matters here. "Psychology, maybe, got me into this debt a little bit. "So, for me, I don't like having my brain always thinking "about all of these four pieces of debt. "So, I would just love to maybe not have to worry "about four things and get to worrying "about three things as soon as possible "and then two things as soon as possible." So, if you think that is helpful, there is a method where you say, "Okay, I'm gonna pay my smallest balance first "to just get that out of the way." Now, keep in mind, if that works for you, if that psychologically allows you to say, "Okay, that hundred dollars "is gonna make a bigger dent here," that's great. That's actually called the snowball method. Let me write here. The idea is a snowball, you get one debt out of the way and then you snowball into the next. But that, just to be clear is not mathematically optimal. It will take you longer to pay your debt and you will pay more interest. But, I'll just write that down because the important thing is that you feel that you should put the hundred dollars to paying down the debt that you don't use it for something else. So, the snowball method would order these things differently. Under the snowball method, you would put your-- Let's see, your credit card has the smallest loan balance. So, let me put that first. So, copy and paste. That's your credit card. Then, after that, let's see, you have loan A. You have loan A here. So, let me copy and paste that. Copy and paste loan A. Then you have loan B. So, loan B. Oh, actually, yup, then you have loan B. Copy and paste. And then you have your retail card. And then you have your retail card. And you could see why this isn't gonna work out well. Why this isn't gonna work out well mathematically 'cause you're leaving your most expensive-- You're paying just the minimum on your most expensive, on your most expensive debt. Not only is it expensive, it's expensive on a large amount. But, let's just go through the... So, you might find it more psychologically easy to do this method because you at least get rid of the credit card debt a lot faster. You'll get down to only three sources of debt versus four much, much faster. So, in this situation, you would pay down the credit card first. So, you'd be able to knock these off faster. But, just so you make sure, there is a trade off. In this one, it's gonna take you 54 months to pay of your debt. So, seven months longer, more than half a year longer. You're going to be making payments. And you're going to pay almost double in interest. You're gonna pay 6,000, approximately $6,000 in interest in this situation versus I guess about 50% more. So, here you're paying almost 4,000 in interest. Here you're paying roughly $6,000 in interest over the 54 months. The mathematically rational one to do would be the high rate method. But this is, you know, whatever it does. Assuming you have the money, as long as you put it down towards your debt, at least you're making progress. And this is a method that some people might want to use more for psychological purposes. I have to admit, I have done this where I just wanted some debt out of the way so I pay down the small one first. But, if you really want to optimize for interest payments and paying down fast, you want to take out your costliest things first.