Debt payoff order

In the Financial Order of Operations, Step 3 is high-interest debt (roughly 15%+ APR) — cleared after capturing the employer match (Step 2) but before scaling up retirement contributions. The FOO frames Step 3 around the interest rate threshold; it does not, on this page, prescribe avalanche vs. snowball ordering within the high-interest bucket.

Ramsey’s Debt Snowball: list every non-mortgage debt from smallest balance to largest (interest rate is ignored), pay minimums on all of them, and attack the smallest with everything extra you have. When it’s gone, roll that freed-up payment into the next-smallest — the “snowball” grows as debts drop. His framing: “personal finance is 80% behavior and 20% head knowledge,” and quick wins keep people in the game long enough to finish.

Ramit’s published take: the debt avalanche (attack highest APR first, minimums on everything else) saves the most money over time and is the mathematically correct default. He treats the debt snowball as the fallback when psychological momentum is the only thing that will keep you paying — the right method is whichever one you’ll actually finish, but avalanche is the answer absent that behavioral constraint.