The Real Financial Order of Operations - Part 1 of 2

7 snips

Nov 3, 2025

Dive into a fresh take on financial priorities! Start by putting your financial needs first—self-care isn’t selfish. Crush that high-interest credit card debt and forget the debt snowball myth. Get crucial insurance if others rely on your income. Don’t sleep on that Roth IRA—it’s a flexible, tax-free emergency fund! Make sure to snag your employer's 401(k) match, the only true freebie in finance. Plus, maximize your HSA for remarkable tax benefits. Stay tuned for more game-changing financial strategies!

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ADVICE

Put Your Oxygen Mask On First

Take care of your financial stability before funding others like college savings for kids.
Prioritize your retirement and cash safety so you don't become a financial burden to dependents.

ADVICE

Obliterate High-Interest Credit Card Debt

Attack high-interest credit card debt aggressively and immediately.
Pay the balances costing you the most interest rather than using the debt snowball.

ADVICE

Get Term Life And Disability Insurance

Buy term life insurance if others depend on your income and avoid whole-life products.
Obtain long-term disability coverage replacing ~60–70% of income if employer coverage is absent.

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This week we’re tearing apart one of personal finance’s most overused frameworks: the “financial order of operations.”

You’ve heard a version of it before—pay this, save that, sacrifice now, maybe retire someday. The problem? Most of those systems were built by people who either (a) never had real financial stress, or (b) have spent too long in the Dave Ramsey cinematic universe.

So, I rebuilt the order from scratch. And it actually works in the real world, whether you make $40,000 or $400,000.

Here’s what we cover:

1️⃣ Put your own oxygen mask on first.
Take care of yourself before your kids. Financial stability isn’t selfish—it’s responsible.

2️⃣ Obliterate credit card debt.
The “snowball method” is financial astrology. Attack the highest-interest balance first.

3️⃣ Get insurance.
If someone depends on your income, you need term life and long-term disability. No gimmicks.

4️⃣ Max out your Roth IRA.
It’s flexible, tax-free, and doubles as a stealth emergency fund.

5️⃣ Grab your 401(k) match.
A 50% employer match is the only free lunch on Wall Street.

6️⃣ Max out your HSA (if you can).
The triple tax advantage—deductible going in, tax-free growth, tax-free withdrawals—is unbeatable.

We’ll go deeper into emergency funds, taxable brokerage accounts, and smart debt strategies in Part 2 next week.

And a MASSIVE thank you to this episode's sponsor, Facet. If you are tired of paying more to an advisor simply because you make more, check out facet.com/tyler today to learn more.

👉 PLUS: stick around until the end of the episode for a modern trick that helps you find the money to do all of this in under 20 minutes—without canceling Netflix or giving up your morning coffee.

If this episode helps you—or if you simply enjoy hearing someone roast bad financial advice with love—please consider leaving a review on Apple or Spotify or share this with a friend who still believes paying off a $200 credit card before a $20,000 one is “confidence building.”

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