I have 2 options to finally pay off my pandemic debt, so I asked a financial planner how to choose

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• I took on debt during the pandemic, so I asked a financial planner how to pay it off.
• The debt snowball and debt avalanche methods both look at the interest rates of your debt.
• It's important to stick to a strategy and understand why you picked the one you're using.

I run a business in the wedding industry. During the pandemic, I quickly lost clients and potential new opportunities when everything shut down.

To help keep my business afloat and pay my bills, I started taking on debt with the hopes of paying it off as soon as possible. But as the years passed, I never met my goals to erase these personal loans and credit card balances.

I'm eager to check this off my financial to-do list in 2025. After researching debt payoff strategies, I met with certified financial planner André Small, to see if it made more sense for me to take a debt snowball or avalanche approach. Here's what he shared.

A debt snowball strategy focuses on balance size

The first thing Small suggested was that I get myself organized. That means tabulating my debts, their interest rates, their balances, my monthly income, and my other financial obligations. Doing this helped me paint a picture of how much money I could afford to put toward my debt payments every month, keeping in mind that I wanted to be more aggressive with paying them off.

The first debt payoff strategy Small discussed with me is called the debt snowball approach.

"Line up your debt from the smallest to largest amounts," Small said. "Then start by paying off the smallest balance first. Use the freed-up funds from paying off that first debt to roll over to pay off the next one, and so forth until all the balances are paid off."

In my case, this would mean taking care of a $250 credit card debt balance first before moving on to larger debts that I have. After clearing that debt, I would use the discretionary funds and the money I put toward paying that minimum payment toward paying off the next debt.

"The benefit of this approach is that instead of putting money toward the minimum payments of all your debt, and having them continue to compound, you use your discretionary funds to pay them off one-by-one, starting with the lowest balance first," he said.

Small shared that this approach is well suited for someone with a lower debt-to-income ratio since they might not have the funds to pay off all their debt at once.

"A person with less money available can use this approach to get through the debt relief process and build momentum sooner," he said. "It's a good strategy for someone who needs to hold on to their cash but also wants to start clearing some debt."

A debt avalanche approach focuses on paying off your highest debt first

While the snowball approach was a good way to take small steps toward paying off debt, I wanted a faster approach that would allow me to cut down on the compounding interest that my higher balances were acquiring.

Small explained another debt payoff strategy called the debt avalanche approach. This method involves lining up your debt from the highest to lowest interest rate and paying off the debt with the highest interest rate first.

"You pay off the debt with the highest interest rate, so you have less money going toward interest payments and more going toward principal," Small said.

Small explained that this approach is great for people with a higher debt-to-income ratio because it allows them to reduce the amount of interest they pay over time.

"By knocking out the balances with the highest interest rate first, you are able to focus on the debts that accrue the most interest.

However, focusing on paying off the highest interest rate balance can be a monumental task and slow down the debt repayment process.

It's important to commit to a strategy

As I struggled to decide which approach worked best for me, Small said it's best to ask how committed you are to paying off debt.

"If you're dedicated and you have a higher income-to-debt ratio, the debt avalanche approach will help you take care of those compounding interest rates faster," he said. "But if staying committed to paying off debt is an issue or other life situations are occurring, the debt snowball approach allows for flexibility while still giving the person momentum in paying off their debt."

In the end, I decided to go with the debt avalanche approach and paused other financial goals so I could pay off my debt first.