For the first step, when nobody ever showed you the first step.
The big sites teach everybody the same five generic steps and stop. But your real question is smaller and more exact: with my money, my debt, my job — what do I do first? That question has a published answer — an order of operations — and this tool computes it with your numbers. Education, in plain words. Nothing you type leaves this page.
This tool shows the standard published order of money steps using your numbers. It is education, not advice about you.
It runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.
Everything the free sequencer computes, rendered as paper you keep: your filled plan, the click-by-click walkthroughs, the 30-day plan, the full tables, the card deck, the workbook.
Starting at 35, 45, 55 — every age gets a computed answer, not a pep talk: the monthly amount, the catch-up levers the law gives you, the honest gap.
Catch-Up by Age →
Your money is sitting in cash inside a Roth IRA, a 401(k), a brokerage account. Here is what the categories in front of you are, and the clicks that finish the job.
Empty Account doors →
The fear questions, answered with mechanics and math — no sermon, no sales pitch, no pretending the market cannot fall.
Straight Answers →
Every serious published framework tells some version of the same story. Ours runs:
Other famous orders disagree in places — we show the disagreements openly instead of hiding them.
You have the one asset no catch-up rule can sell back: forty-two years of compounding.
See the computed answer →
Thirty is the most-searched 'too late' age on the internet. The math says it is not close to late.
See the computed answer →
At 35 you are at the arithmetic halfway point — and still on the strong side of the curve.
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Forty is where the sermon pages say 'don't panic' and stop. Here is the computed answer instead.
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Starting at 45 is the exact case this site's sequencer was tested on. The gap versus 27 is real; so is the catch-up path.
See the computed answer →
Fifty is the year the tax code starts helping late starters on purpose.
See the computed answer →
At 55 the numbers get bigger and so does every year of delay. The math below is the whole answer.
See the computed answer →
Sixty to 63 is a special window in the law: the largest catch-up room of your working life.
See the computed answer →
The 62–65 window is where the super catch-up burns off and Medicare enters the chat.
See the computed answer →
The Filled Plan pack, the first-account walkthrough pack, the first-30-days plan, the full catch-up tables, the decoder card deck, and the order workbook — one pack, one-time payment.
The sequencer, every age door, every decoder card — free, complete, nothing stored. The Pack is the artifact: your plan rendered as a designed, printable document, the click-by-click first-account walkthroughs, the 30-day plan, the full tables, the card deck, and the workbook. One-time $39 — no subscription, ever.
No. This is an education publisher. The sequencer shows the standard published order with your numbers; it never names a fund or stock for you, and at the big forks it says so and points to a fee-only fiduciary. The full disclaimer.
Nowhere. The sequencer runs in your browser; nothing is transmitted, stored, or sold. The privacy page is short because there is nothing to confess.
Every limit on this site is a 2026 IRS figure (Notice 2025-67, IR-2025-111), stamped with its source and the date it was checked: October 23, 2026. The IRS updates them each fall; so do we.
Index fund, in plain wordsEmployer match, in plain wordsEmergency fund, in plain wordsOrder of operations, in plain words