4 Steps of Basic Personal Finance

I’m going to cover the most preliminary basics of personal finance and the sequence you should do things in.
Step 1: Get a understanding of where your income is coming from and what you expenses are with a budget. You want to minimize expenses where possible. You should look to limit spending on entertainment, eating out, and clothes.
Step 2: Once you budget and reduce your expenses, start putting aside money for an emergency fund. Any of us could lose our jobs at any time or have unexpected costs like medical procedures or something breaking. The goal is to have an emergency fund with 3 to 6 months of expenses.
Step 3: Once you have an emergency fund, find out if your employer will match retirement contributions. There is a limit to how much they will max, so try and take full advantage of this. The reason I want you to contribute before paying debt is the matching funds essentially guaranteed, risk free money.
Step 4: Start paying down high interest debt. The avalanche method involves paying debt in order of highest interest rate. The snowball method involves paying the debt with the smallest balances first.
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