FirstStepsInvesting

Orders, Compared

The Personal Finance Community Order (the 'Prime Directive')

The r/personalfinance community's published flowchart and wiki — the most-shared order on the internet, maintained since the 2010s.

The order, as published

  1. Build a starter emergency fund ($1,000 or one month of essentials)
  2. Contribute to the workplace plan up to the full employer match
  3. Pay off high-interest debt (the flowchart's line is roughly 10% APR, with mid-rate debt revisited later)
  4. Grow the emergency fund to 3–6 months of essentials
  5. Fund an IRA up to the yearly limit
  6. Return to the workplace plan toward its full limit
  7. Then: goals and regular (taxable) investing

This is the order this site's sequencer uses, with one stated refinement: the 5–10% APR debt band is shown explicitly with its interest math instead of being buried in a later flowchart box.

Run the order this site uses, with my numbers

Order of operations, in plain wordsEmployer match, in plain wordsEmergency fund, in plain words