One of the biggest problems people have when it comes to money is figuring out what to do with it and when. Should you save up an emergency fund or pay off your debt first? Should you max out your 401(k) or invest more into your taxable brokerage account? Is it better to pay off your home early or invest your excess savings in stocks?
While there is no right answer to these questions, having a financial philosophy to rely upon when thinking about them is essential. This is what we will discuss in this post—where you should put your money, or what some have called the “financial order of operations.” I’ve been asked about this many times before, so I decided to provide my detailed answer. While the ideas discussed here won’t work perfectly in every situation, they will allow you to think more clearly about how to use your money in the future.
With that being said, let’s dig into the overarching idea behind getting the order right in your financial life.
Getting the Order Right
I was watching Bill Perkins, of Die With Zero fame, on the Modern Wisdom podcast and he said something profound about getting the order of your life right:
Life is like Tetris…Let’s say you’re in heaven and you’re about to be born and God is like, “Here is the infinite bucket of experiences. Choose what you would like on your adventure.” And you’re like “Okay. This sex thing seems interesting…okay I wanna ride a bike. I wanna get a job. I wanna graduate. I think I wanna get married and have kids. Strip clubs? That seems interesting. I’ll throw in a couple of those.”
God goes, “Okay you can have them all on one condition—you have to get the order right.” So the
