Whether you’re carrying one big credit card balance or have multiple cards and loans dragging down your finances, reducing your debt is one of the smartest money moves you can make.

But where to start? If you have just one debt, it may seem obvious how to pay it down. But how long will it take? Or put another way, how much faster could you pay it off if you made extra payments?

When you have multiple debts, it gets even trickier to figure out the best path forward. Which debts should you pay down first? How much extra should you commit each month? When can you expect to retire each debt?

Fortunately, you don’t need to rack your brain with complicated math or spreadsheets to create a personalized plan. All you need is a debt payoff calculator.

These free tools exist in abundance on the internet, and they all work essentially the same: By crunching the numbers of your debt details, plus how much money you can commit to debt reduction each month, the calculator will create a personalized plan of how much to pay, to whom, and in what order.

Even more gratifying is the calculator’s ability to tell you the date each debt will be paid off if you follow the plan. Alternatively, some calculators let you start with a pay-off goal date and then calculate how much you’ll need to pay down every month to reach that goal.

To get started, simply gather your details on debt balances, minimum payments, and interest rates. After entering these into the calculator, you can play around with different monthly payment amounts and goal dates, as well as choose a debt reduction method (debt snowball vs. debt avalanche) to identify your best path forward to a stronger financial future.