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How a debt-to-income calculator helps you qualify for loans
Your debt-to-income ratio is the single most important number lenders use to decide whether to approve you for a mortgage, auto loan, or personal loan. The formula is simple: add up every minimum monthly debt payment you have, divide that total by your gross monthly income, and multiply by 100. The result is your DTI as a percentage. Lower is better, and most experts consider anything under 36% healthy.
This calculator separates housing from other debts and lets you enter credit cards, student loans, auto loans, personal loans, and other obligations individually. It then calculates your total monthly debt, your DTI percentage, your remaining monthly income after debt payments, and provides a plain-English interpretation. The visual income-vs-debt breakdown shows at a glance how much of your paycheck is spoken for before you even start budgeting for groceries, utilities, savings, or investing.
If your DTI is too high to qualify for the loan you want, you have two levers to pull: lower your debt or raise your income. To plan a debt payoff strategy, try our Debt Payoff Calculator. To see how a new loan would affect your DTI, use our Loan Payment Estimator. To understand credit factors that work alongside DTI, read about how credit scores are calculated and credit utilization. For homebuyers, our Mortgage Calculator can show how your housing payment changes total DTI.