FirstStepsInvesting

Orders, Compared

The Baby Steps (Dave Ramsey)

Ramsey Solutions' published 7 Baby Steps — the most famous order in American personal finance.

The order, as published

  1. Save a $1,000 starter emergency fund
  2. Pay off all non-mortgage debt, smallest balance first (the snowball)
  3. Grow the emergency fund to 3–6 months
  4. Invest 15% of income into retirement accounts
  5. Save for children's college
  6. Pay off the house early
  7. Build wealth and give

Where it differs: it takes NO employer match until step 4, and it orders debt by balance, not by interest rate — a behavioral choice its author defends openly. The arithmetic cost of skipping an early match is real, and the comparison page shows it in dollars rather than arguing about it.

Run the order this site uses, with my numbers

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