The Debt Sequencer helps you model different approaches to eliminating external debt. It shows conventional comparison panels and, when configured, a whole life banking game plan that models policy-loan consolidation and loan repayment.
What the Debt Sequencer Does
The Debt Sequencer takes your external debts (credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, etc.) and models how they would be eliminated under different assumptions. It does not make recommendations — it shows you the numbers so you can compare.
The Debt Sequencer plans how external consumer debt is cleared. When the selected path uses whole life banking, it also models the related policy-loan draws and principal reduction. Payoff Path records those monthly Actuals after handoff.
Comparison Panels
Minimum Only
The baseline — making only minimum payments on all debts with no extra cash flow applied. This shows the longest payoff timeline and the most total interest paid, serving as the reference point for comparing the other strategies.
What to look for: Total interest paid and total timeline. The difference between Minimum Only and any other strategy shows the value of directing extra cash flow toward elimination.
Avalanche
The avalanche strategy directs extra payments toward the debt with the highest interest rate first while making minimum payments on all other debts. Once the highest-rate debt is eliminated, the freed-up payment rolls into the next highest-rate debt.
What to look for: This approach typically results in the lowest total interest paid over the life of all debts.
Snowball
The snowball strategy directs extra payments toward the debt with the smallest balance first. As each debt is eliminated, the freed-up payment rolls into the next smallest balance.
What to look for: This approach eliminates individual debts sooner, which some practitioners prefer for momentum.
Whole Life Banking Strategy
The whole life banking strategy uses policy loans from your banking system to consolidate or pay off external debts, then repays capital to your system. Capital continues compounding in your policies while the external debt is eliminated.
What to look for: This approach models the effect of routing debt payments through your banking system. It shows total interest paid to external lenders vs. loan interest within your system, and tracks how loan repayment keeps your system whole.
The visible Game Plan focuses on the whole life banking path when that layer is configured. Avalanche and snowball still function as comparison math, but the action sequence shown in the Game Plan stays centered on the policy-loan path.
Configuring the Whole Life Banking Strategy
When you enable the whole life banking strategy, you choose between two approaches:
Existing CV (Use Current Policy)
You already have a policy with available cash value. Enter:
- Available CV — the cash value available for a policy loan
- Loan Rate — your carrier's policy loan interest rate
- Annual values — optional manual rows or confirmed carrier illustration values for projected available CV growth
The sequencer uses your existing CV to consolidate debts immediately (fully or partially, depending on available CV vs. total debt). Consolidated debts stop accruing external interest and instead accrue policy loan interest. Freed-up minimum payments are redirected to repay capital.
Partial consolidation: If your available CV is less than total debt, the sequencer consolidates starting from the highest-rate debt and works down. Remaining debts are paid via avalanche with the extra cash flow.
For an existing policy, today's available CV is the starting point. The default model grows it with a disclosed fixed 4% annual assumption; entering annual values manually or confirming an uploaded carrier illustration replaces that modeled schedule. The two entry paths are alternatives — you do not need both.
New Policy (Build CV First)
You plan to start a new policy. Enter:
- Base Premium — the required policy foundation
- Additional PUA Funding — premium that purchases paid-up additions and builds accessible cash value
- Loan Rate — the carrier's policy loan interest rate
The sequencer starts with a modeled annual schedule derived from the Base and PUA amounts. You can use that default, edit annual premium and year-end available cash value manually, or optionally upload a carrier illustration and confirm the extracted annual rows. A confirmed illustration replaces the modeled accessible-cash-value estimate after you review it.
Extraction keeps each printed ledger separate. Current (non-guaranteed) end-of-year values are the default modeled source. When a document also contains a guaranteed ledger, you can choose to model with guaranteed values instead, and the guaranteed ledger is preserved either way as a separate comparison line — values are never blended across ledgers. A document containing only guaranteed values asks for that choice explicitly; guaranteed values never become the modeled schedule on their own.
An inforce illustration is saved for tracking by default. Including it in the projection is an explicit choice made during review. When included, the model starts from the policy's current illustration year, with the confirmed current accessible cash value as opening capacity and the illustration's future rows as growth.
The sequencer then models a staged draw sequence: as premiums and PUA build accessible cash value, a policy loan draw fires when the modeled balance can cover the next target debt. Each draw clears a debt and frees its payment, which goes to loan repayment first; the cycle then repeats until every debt is cleared and the policy loan reaches Repaid.
If policy year 1 already includes a one-time initial contribution, keep it in the annual premium row and do not enter the same contribution again elsewhere. This prevents the model from counting the funding twice.
How to Use the Debt Sequencer
- Navigate to Tools — click Tools in the sidebar, then select Debt Sequencer
- Add your debts — enter each external debt with its balance, interest rate, and minimum payment
- Set your extra payment — enter the additional monthly amount you can allocate beyond minimums
- Configure whole life banking — optionally use existing CV or enter Base and PUA funding for a new policy; modeled annual values work without an upload
- Review or replace the annual schedule — keep the modeled values, edit the annual rows manually, or confirm values extracted from an optional carrier illustration; when a document carries both ledgers, choose whether current (non-guaranteed, the default) or guaranteed values drive the model
- Compare and select the path — Step 3 opens on the whole life path when a valid result is available; choose whole life banking, cash flow first, APR first, lowest balance first, or your exact custom order
- Review the handoff — confirm the debt order, monthly funding, rollover rule, active period, and policy schedule when applicable
- Create and open — save the scenario and open its preloaded Payoff Path
Reading the Results
The comparison panels show:
- Payoff timeline — how many months until all debts are eliminated
- Total interest paid — the total cost of interest across all debts
- Interest saved — how much interest is saved compared to the Minimum Only baseline
- Monthly payment schedule — how payments shift as individual debts are eliminated
- Payment routing — when a debt is cleared, how the modeled monthly cash flow is applied next
You can save multiple scenarios with different extra payment amounts to explore how changes in monthly allocation affect each strategy.
Saving a scenario
Saving is available on Your Debts, Your Modeled Path, and Compare — a save from any of them records everything entered so far, including the banking system configured in step 2 and the payoff order and whole life banking layer selected in step 3.
- Save As creates a new named scenario.
- Save updates the scenario you currently have open, in place. It appears once a scenario is loaded; before that, a single Save Scenario button names and creates the first one.
Loading a scenario is offered on Your Debts only, because loading replaces whatever is currently entered.
From Planning to Monthly Tracking
Debt Sequencer is the planning environment. Payoff Path is the execution and monthly tracking environment. The handoff copies the selected strategy, debt order, starting balances, funding, rollover behavior, modeled milestones, and whole life banking configuration when applicable into a fixed baseline.
Later edits to the source scenario do not silently rewrite that active baseline. In Payoff Path, record what actually happened, compare the period with the modeled row, close the month after every action is recorded or skipped, and continue with the next period generated from the same saved strategy.
The Game Plan
The Game Plan turns the whole life banking path into a month-by-month sequence:
- Monthly budget — set the total you put toward debt each month; it never drops below your combined minimum payments
- Debt-free date — the projected month you clear the last debt, with total months and total interest
- Focus steps — a numbered order showing the modeled sequence, monthly payment, clear date, and interest on each debt
- Whole life banking path — a policy loan can clear a debt up front, and the freed payments repay the policy loan on the same monthly cash flow. The plan also shows the modeled asset value at debt freedom
All Game Plan figures are Modeled and illustrative.