Understanding your projected debt-free date
ClarityTrack shows a projected date for when your total debt reaches zero. The projection uses your actual payment pace over the last 3 months and assumes you keep paying at that rate. It is a linear projection. The real date is typically a few months later because the projection does not fully model interest accrual.
How the projection works
- ClarityTrack averages your total monthly debt payments over the last 3 months.
- It divides your remaining total debt by that monthly average.
- The result is the projected number of months to payoff.
- The date shown is today's date plus that many months.
Why the real date is usually later
The projection is intentionally simple so you can trust the inputs. Two factors make the real date land a few months later:
- Interest keeps accruing. Each month a portion of your payment goes to interest rather than principal. The projection treats your full payment as principal reduction, which is optimistic.
- Minimum payments shrink as balances do. If you only pay minimums, the dollar amount goes down month over month, which extends the real payoff.
How to get a more accurate date
If you want a precise projection that accounts for interest, ask Clarity to run an avalanche or refinance scenario. Clarity uses a proper amortization model that accrues interest each month against each debt's APR and reports an honest months-to-payoff number.
Common questions
Why does the date change when I haven't done anything?
The projection updates monthly as your trailing 3-month average shifts. A month of larger payments pulls the date earlier; a month of smaller payments pushes it later.
My projected date says "more than 50 years." What does that mean?
Either your debts are not being meaningfully paid down (payments are roughly equal to monthly interest accrual) or there is a data issue. Check that your recent bank-detected payments are linked to debts via transactions/mark-as-payment. The projection assumes only logged payments count.
Can I use the projected date as my payoff goal?
You can, but a target date you set explicitly via plan/set-payoff-target gives the dashboard's Above the Line / Below the Line indicator something concrete to track against. The projected date is reactive; the target date is intentional.