The Ledger · Oct '25 – May '26

The state of the debt, reconciled from every statement.

Eight months of balance data, every credit card, every payment Stephen sent, and where — dollar by dollar — every dollar went.

—
Total Revolving Debt · May 2026
vs Oct '25
Current Revolving Debt
—
Interest Burn — Period
—
avg $303/mo · 18% of card payments
Stephen's Zelle
—
5 payments · Mar–Apr 2026 · net $3,750
CC Payments — Period
—
83% of incoming cash · debt down just $1,009 in 8mo
01
Chapter 01 · The State

Debt over eight months — stacked and seen.

Every card's balance at statement close, carried forward month-over-month. The shape tells the story: Amazon crushed in half, Apple Card creeping up, Capital One 0623 climbing — and once Stephen's help paused, May ticked back up.

Total Revolving Debt — Stacked
Oct '25 to May '26 · carry-forward per account
Account Health — Radial Gauges
APR burden + utilization + trajectory = composite score 0–100
Payments vs. Interest
Red = wasted on interest · green = principal killed
Composition — Current Debt
Where the $13K lives right now
Across eight months, $13,422 in payments hit the cards — yet total debt fell only $1,009. The rest vanished into interest and new spending.
— The bottom line
① Clear win
Amazon nearly halved
From $4,891 to $2,521 — a 48% cut. April's $800 payment killed $746 of principal. But May's minimum-only payment let it tick back up.
② Stalled
Citi Simplicity is frozen
$2,851 → $2,884 over 8 months. Autopay (~$97) barely clears ~$72 interest. Need ≥$200/mo to make principal move.
③ Growing
Capital One 0623 is a leak
$556 → $1,934 peak, now $1,524 and ticking up again. New spending outpaced payments. Freeze the card.
④ The biggest
Apple Card · $5,701
Lowest APR (25.49%) but largest exposure — and now climbing. $120/mo in interest alone. A 0% balance transfer could save hundreds.
02
Chapter 02 · Money Flow

Every dollar that entered, and where it went.

The Sankey diagram below traces $14,747 in inflows through checking to CC payments and spending. Thickness = dollars. The answer to "where did my money go" is literally drawn here.

Money Flow — Sources → Checking → Destinations
Sankey · all figures period totals · hover flows for amounts
Of every inflow dollar, 83 cents went straight to a credit card. Yet balances dropped only $1,009 — $2,426 was consumed by interest alone.
— The cost of revolving debt
Monthly Cash Flow
Green/gold in · purple/orange out · per checking cycle
Account Pressure Map — APR × Balance × Interest Paid
X = APR · Y = current balance · bubble size = interest paid this period
03
Chapter 03 · The Attack

Avalanche ranking — kill what bleeds fastest.

Accounts sorted highest APR first. Small balances on high-APR cards get killed first (free wins). Then attack the largest drags. Sparklines show each card's 8-month trend.

The three highest-APR cards hold just $118 combined at APRs near 30%. Clearing all three is a rounding error against the total — but it kills three monthly minimums and knocks the worst APRs off the board entirely.
— Free wins first

The Deck — every card as a card.

Balance, APR, utilization, and recommended action. Hover to lift.

Balance Trajectory — Full Table
04
Chapter 04 · Stephen
Partner Contribution · Mar – Apr 2026

Stephen has funded a meaningful share of the debt attack.

Total Zelle In
—
Across 5 payments
Net (after return)
—
$175 returned to Stephen 03/12
CC paid · Mar/Apr
—
—
Own Income · Mar/Apr
—
Almost zero · Stephen was the engine
The 5 Zelle Payments
Every inflow from STEPHEN AVRO · JPM / CTI
Timeline · Stephen's Money Across the Calendar
Gold markers = Stephen Zelle in · Purple bars = CC payments (combined all cards)
Reconciliation — Stephen's money → CC payments
Every credit from Stephen, followed by CC payments made within 14 days
Allocation — Stephen's $3,925
Reality check · Why balances didn't drop more
05
Chapter 05 · The Interest Trap

$2,426 vanished into APRs. Here's exactly where.

The waterfall shows month-to-month total debt changes. Red bars = debt went up (interest + new spending outran payments). Green bars = real progress.

Debt Change Waterfall — Monthly Deltas
Running total with each month's Δ · red = increase, green = decrease
Apple Card alone burned $846 across the period — roughly a full monthly rent payment, up in smoke. The heaviest drag in the deck.
— The highest-APR card isn't always the worst
Interest Heatmap — Per Account, Per Month
Darker = more interest · rows sorted by total burn
Interest Stack · Who bleeds what, when
06
Chapter 06 · Spending Patterns

Every day, every dollar of non-CC outflow.

The calendar below lights up on days money left the account. Gold dots mark days Stephen's Zelle arrived. Purple = CC payment days. Orange intensity = spending intensity.

Daily Activity Calendar · Oct '25 – Apr '26
Each cell = one day · hover for detail
Spending $1–50 $50–150 $150–400 $400+ CC payment day Stephen Zelle day
Top Outflow Payees
Spending by Category
CC Payments by Card — Where the $12,140 went
Aggregated from every Citi Checking debit labeled as CC payment
07
Chapter 07 · The Raw Log

Every transaction, reconciled and categorized.

Citi Checking Transaction Log
170 transactions · filter by category, month, direction
Date Description Category Debit Credit