What to do with your money, in order.

The order, explained

The sequence below is the same one the chart walks you through. It is ordered by return on your next spare pound, with the things that stop you going backwards placed before the things that move you forwards.

1. 1

   Start with what actually happens each month

   Every step below is funded out of one number: what is left once the essentials are paid.

   If not: Pull the last three months of bank and card statements — three months, not one, so the annual bills show up.

2. 2

   Essentials come before everything else

   Rent, council tax, energy, food and getting to work sit above every other priority on this page.

   If not: Pause the rest of this chart. Borrowing to eat and keep the lights on is a cash-flow problem, not an investing one.

3. 3

   Insure what you could never absorb

   Savings handle a broken boiler. Insurance handles the house burning down or your income disappearing for a year.

   If not: Start with the legally required and the obviously ruinous: car insurance, buildings insurance if you own, contents if replacing everything at once would hurt.

4. 4

   Clear anything charging serious interest

   Clearing a 22% credit card is a guaranteed 22% return. No investment offers a guaranteed anything, which is why this comes before saving.

   If not: List every debt: balance, APR, minimum payment. Card statements and your credit file will fill the gaps.

5. 5

   Put a small buffer between you and the next surprise

   A small cash buffer is what stops the next boiler repair becoming next year's credit card balance.

   If not: Count months of essential outgoings, not months of salary. It is a smaller, faster number than people expect.

6. 6

   Take everything your employer will match

   A match is an instant, guaranteed return on the contribution — nothing else in this chart beats it.

   If not: Check you are enrolled at all, then get the exact formula from your scheme documents or HR. Many employers go well beyond the auto-enrolment minimum, and some match pound for pound up to a cap.

7. 7

   Make a plan for the debt that is left

   Below 10% the maths stops being obvious, so this one gets a schedule rather than a reflex.

   If not: Put the rate you are paying next to the rate you could earn on savings. If the debt costs more than the savings pay, clearing it wins — and it wins risk-free.

8. 8

   Finish the emergency fund

   This is what turns losing your job from a financial disaster into an inconvenience. The right size depends entirely on you.

   If not: Three months is the floor, and it suits a stable job, an in-demand skill set, or a second income in the household.

9. 9

   Put a number and a date on each goal

   The date is the only thing that decides whether money should sit in cash or be invested.

   If not: List each goal with a rough cost and the year you need the money. Deposit, wedding, car, career break, retirement — all of it.

10. 10

    Money with a deadline stays in cash

    Markets can sit underwater for years. Money with a date attached should not be exposed to that.

    If not: Use easy access for anything uncertain, and fixed-term accounts where you know the date and will not need it sooner.

11. 11

    Decide what the cheap debt deserves

    Both are defensible. What is not defensible is never making the call and drifting by default.

    If not: Overpaying a mortgage earns you exactly your mortgage rate, guaranteed, tax-free. Investing has beaten that over long periods, but with no guarantee and real stomach-churn along the way.

12. 12

    Long-term money gets invested, in the right wrapper

    Over long stretches cash reliably loses to inflation, and the wrapper decides how much of the growth you keep.

    If not: The question that chooses your account is when you need the money: before you can touch a pension, or after. Normal minimum pension age is 55, rising to 57 in April 2028, and expected to keep tracking the state pension age.

13. 13

    Then pick up the tax wins

    These are worth real money, and HMRC does not apply most of them for you.

    If not: Higher-rate taxpayer in a relief-at-source pension? Basic-rate relief is added automatically, but the extra 20% or 25% only arrives if you claim it through self assessment. It can be backdated four years.

14. 14

    Now go and enjoy some of it

    The point of all this was never to spend as little as possible. It was to make the spending safe.

    If not: Everything above is in place: bills covered, risks insured, expensive debt gone, a fund behind you and money working. That changes what you can responsibly spend.