Excel for personal finance and tax-time organizing

Decide which debt to attack first

The two popular methods disagree on order. The avalanche method puts every spare dollar on the highest APR first, which costs the least interest overall. The snowball method clears the smallest balance first, which gives you a quick win and one less bill. Excel can name the target for either: MAX or MIN finds the number, MATCH finds its row, INDEX returns the debt's name.

Swap MAX(C2:C4) and C2:C4 for MIN(B2:B4) and B2:B4 to get the snowball target, which here is the Store card with only $650 left. Which one suits you is your call; the sheet just shows both answers.

See what it takes to clear a debt by a date

"Debt-free in two years" becomes a number with PMT. Give it the monthly rate (APR / 12), the number of months, and the balance with a minus sign, and it returns the fixed monthly payment that brings the balance to zero in that time.

Compare the 24-month payment of $251.15 with a 36-month plan (put 36 in place of 24): $185.56 a month feels easier, but total interest rises from $1,227.69 to $1,880.04. Multiply the payment by the months and subtract the balance to see the interest for any plan.

Find the monthly deposit to hit a savings goal

PMT works for saving too. Here you start with $3,200 (the present value), want $15,000 (the future value) in 24 months, and assume a yearly return you type in G8. PMT returns how much to deposit each month.

Excel's money functions use signs for direction. The starting balance and the deposits flow the same way, so they share a sign; the goal flows back to you, so it goes in as -G5 and the deposit comes out as a positive number.

The 4% in G8 is your estimate, not a promise. Try 0% to see the plain-savings answer; the gap between the two shows how much the return is doing for you.

Project where your savings will be

The reverse question: if you keep depositing $400 a month, where will you be on the goal date? FV takes the monthly rate, the number of months, the deposit and the starting balance (both negative, because they are money you pay in) and returns the projected balance.

If FV comes out below your goal, you know before the date arrives, and the PMT formula above tells you the deposit that closes the gap.

Track your net worth

Net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe. Keep each account balance in its own cell and subtract the debt total. Use what a car would actually sell for, not what you paid.

Update the inputs on the same day each month and copy the result to a list. The trend matters more than any single month.

Total receipts by category (and by month)

Keep receipts as one row each: date, payee, category, amount. SUMIFS then totals any category, and adding a date pair narrows it to a month or a year. The ">="&DATE(...) pattern builds the condition from a real date, which avoids mistakes with typed date text.

This keeps records sorted the way you or your tax preparer asked for. The category names are yours; the sheet does not decide what any category means for taxes.

Set aside a share of side income and log miles

If you earn on the side, many people move a fixed share of each payment into a separate account so a bill later is not a surprise. Choose the percentage yourself (with your tax professional if you have one) and put it in G2. The sheet only multiplies.

Mileage works the same way: miles logged times the rate you type in G4. The 0.50 in the sample is a placeholder, not a published rate; replace it with the rate that applies to you.