While the math shown in this video may not be perfect, the effect of interest on debt when you only make minimum payments is well demonstrated! By my calculations it would take 24 1/2 years to be debt free and you would end up paying $31,392.26 in interest payments! Now if you could manage to raise your monthly payments to $150 each month (only an extra $8 a month) this would cut the time down to 16 years and the interest payment to $18,409.08! Still not fun, but much better than the alternative.