Personal Finance · Interactive Tool
Your next dollar
Two questions, one dollar. Where should it go? The funding order — match, debt, Roth, brokerage — matters more than most investment picks. And what's it actually taxed at? Often nothing like "your bracket": Social Security's tax torpedo, the 0% capital-gains zone, and other hidden mechanisms can double the rate on that dollar, zero it out — or push it below zero. And some lines in the tax code aren't rates at all but cliffs, where a single dollar costs hundreds.
Check off what you've already handled. The ladder highlights the single next place your money should go — and why it beats the steps below it.
Not applicable to me
A widely-used priority order, not a personalized plan — your rates, goals, and situation can reshuffle it (e.g. a low-rate mortgage, or a match on Roth vs. pre-tax). Educational only, not financial advice.
The order of operations
Every dollar you invest is the gap between what you make and what you spend. Widen that gap and everything below gets easier; without it, nothing else works.
The logic runs top to bottom: capture free money first, then guaranteed returns (paying off dear debt), then tax-advantaged space, and finally the unlimited-but-taxable account. Educational only, not advice.
Why this order?
- Free money first. An employer match is an instant, guaranteed return no investment can match. Leaving it on the table to do anything else is almost always a mistake.
- Then guaranteed returns. Paying off high-interest debt earns you a risk-free return equal to its rate. Clearing a 20% card beats any return you can reliably expect from the market.
- Then tax-advantaged space. HSAs, IRAs, and 401(k)s shelter your growth from tax — a durable, compounding edge. That space is limited each year, so it's worth filling before the taxable account.
- Then the taxable account. No limits, fully flexible, and the natural home for anything left once the sheltered space is full.
This is a sensible default, not a personalized plan: a very low-rate mortgage, a Roth 401(k) match, or a specific goal can reshuffle the middle. For the account-choice details, see the Retirement Accounts tool. Educational only, not financial advice.
Sources & further reading
How this tool was made
The priority ladder is editorial judgment about ordering, not a calculation. The marginal-rate tab is a deliberately simplified federal tax engine run live on your inputs, using current IRS revenue-procedure parameters — brackets, standard deduction, capital-gains thresholds, EIC and child-credit tables, saver's-credit tiers — plus CMS's Medicare IRMAA tiers.
Data
- Prioritizing investments, Bogleheads wiki. The community 'order of operations' the Next Dollar ladder follows.
- IRS Revenue Procedures (annual inflation adjustments) & H.R.1 (2025), Internal Revenue Service / US Congress. Federal brackets, standard deductions, capital-gains thresholds, EIC and Child Tax Credit parameters, and saver's-credit tiers by tax year, plus Medicare IRMAA tiers (CMS). Collated via the community-maintained Case Study Spreadsheet (Mr. Money Mustache forums), whose marginal-rate analysis inspired this tool; our engine is validated against it.
Educational use only, not financial advice. Every figure traces back to the sources above or to the inputs you set — the full method and the source code are public.