Creating graphs
To see things visually, you can create a graph. Three graph options are available
- Total debts over time, by plan
- Total interest paid over time, by plan
- Interest vs. principal, on a plan (this one can only be run on one plan at a time)
- Bank account balance over time, by plan (this one requires that you select the minimum payment plan plus any others to compare against)
You can click on the little gear next to the 'go' button to customize which reports to display. For the total debts or total interest graphs, if you choose to graph only one payment plan, the display will switch to an area graph displaying how much of your total debt each individual account is.
We highly recommend running the interest vs principal graph on the Highest Interest Payment Plan and comparing it against the results you get running it on the Minimum Fee Only Payment Plan. It's quite a comparison. Note how much bigger that red section is? That's a substantial amount of additional money going to interest. The Highest Interest plan is on the left, the Minimum payment plan is on the right.
It's a little tough to see in the scaled down image, but the blue section (payments towards principal) is actually the same size in both graphs. You just pay so much more in interest (the red section) that it gets squeezed down substantially in order to fit in the box.
Please note that graphs never use the "payoff out of order if possible" option
To create a graph:
- Click on the graphs tool button (the graph icon).
- Select the graph you want to create.
- Press the 'Go' button.