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, Step 2 starts with three funding paths:
- I have existing policies or cash value
- I'm starting a new policy
- I have existing policies and want to add one or more new policies
You can move back between these choices without losing values already entered. Existing policies contribute their recorded starting capacity; planned policies add separate Modeled capacity streams on the combined path.
For recorded policies, choose whether the plan includes base premium only or base plus scheduled PUA. Policy premiums and debt payments always come from the same monthly funding, so Step 2 states the premium being committed rather than asking where it comes from, and shows a shortfall when minimum debt payments plus the selected premiums exceed the available funding.
One case is still modeled through a shortfall: when a confirmed carrier illustration drives the premium, the illustration remains the authoritative figure and the tool models the path anyway, showing how much more per month the plan would need.
The policy details within those paths use the following 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, you can select active recorded policies to use their latest recorded Total Cash Value, Available CV, and policy-loan balance as the Actual starting point. The opening policy-loan balance is included in the modeled repayment path; new modeled draws are added to it. If no recorded policy is selected, enter Available CV and Loan Rate manually. The default model grows the starting Available CV 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 one or more carrier illustrations and confirm the extracted annual rows one source at a time. Sources explicitly included in the projection are combined; a tracking-only inforce source does not change the modeled schedule. An older year-one illustration can be used as a projection reference by entering the current policy year and current Available CV; later illustration rows are rebased to that actual starting point and remain a Policy Stack projection. Confirmed illustration sources replace the modeled accessible-cash-value estimate after you review them.
Choose a monthly or annual premium cadence for the model. Monthly cadence spreads projected deposits and Available CV accrual across the months; annual cadence models the premium and its associated cash-value addition at the policy anniversary. This is a projection setting, not a carrier guarantee. Saved scenarios retain the selected cadence when reopened.
The confirmed illustration is also the source of truth for scheduled premium. If that premium is higher than the amount entered above minimums, the whole life layer still models the illustration and shows a warning with the extra cash needed. Manual and modeled premium schedules still must fit the entered amount.
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.
After the outside debts and policy loan are paid, the model sends the freed monthly cash to additional PUA by default. You can instead keep that cash available. The PUA amount is Projected and does not replace the policy values from your illustration.
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 monthly allocation — enter the funding available to the modeled path as a monthly or annual figure; conventional paths keep the debt-only calculation
- Configure whole life banking — choose existing policies, a planned new policy, or the combined path; select base-only or base-plus-PUA premium commitments, which are always funded from the same monthly amount as the debt payments; modeled 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.
Reading a policy year month by month
On the modeled whole life banking path, opening a year expands it into one row per month with three columns: Premium → policy, Available CV, and Policy loan. Read left to right and a row states the mechanism it describes — premium goes in, cash value rises, the policy loan draws against it. The year summary above the grid reports how much Available CV the year added, and the grid shows when.
Available CV is net of the policy loan, and it is the same value the year row reports as Total Available CV, so the two always agree.
Available CV accrues as premium is deposited. Under a monthly premium cadence, a policy year in progress shows the cash value its deposits have funded so far rather than nothing until the anniversary. Under an annual cadence the year's cash value arrives at the anniversary, which is what a once-a-year premium describes. This is what the grid answers: why a modeled policy loan draw fires in one month and not the month before — the balance reached the next debt in that month.
The Available CV column reports the modeled cash value, not the exact amount the model treats as borrowable. A collateral cushion holds borrowing room below the figure shown, so a draw may fire slightly later than the column alone would suggest. Every value in the grid is Modeled.
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. In that saved-scenario list, use the delete control beside a scenario to remove it from the list; Policy Stack asks you to confirm first.
Starting a new plan
Start New appears in the tool header once anything has been entered. It clears the debts, banking system, and settings currently in the sequencer and returns you to the start screen, where you can start fresh, import from Liabilities, or load a saved scenario. Policy Stack asks you to confirm first.
Clearing is reversible. An Undo banner appears above the tool and restores the entire session — debts, banking system, payoff order, the scenario you had open, and the step you were on. The banner stays until you dismiss it or begin entering a new plan; once a debt exists again, Undo retires rather than replacing the new work.
Saved scenarios are not affected in either case. A scenario you had open is still in the saved list and can be loaded again from that same screen.
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.