[USA] Priorities: What should I spend on?

[Alex]

Hello everyone,

I am sharing one of my favorite visualizations of how to put your money to work. It's from the reddit.com/r/personalfinance wiki.

This is after you budget your normal stuff like rent, food, vacation, etc, and also after you build up a Financier month buffer (you're assigning all of your income to the next month).

Here is a slightly more complex version of this visualization.

[Joel]

I would put the Company match in your 401k ahead of an emergency fund.

[Alex]

A lot of people consider an emergency more important to have readily available, and thus more important than the match.

But you're right to a certain extent. I would prioritize a smaller emergency fund, or even just a Financier buffer, before the match, and then 401k match, and then the rest of the emergency fund.

Totally depends on the situation though. It is free money.