Your money fills one basin at a time. Fill it, then let it spill to the next.
Answer a few questions and Waterfall identifies the ideal home for your next dollar — the one that puts your money to work hardest from here.
Past 45: if you are not already on a retirement savings path by then, the moves required get drastic — large catch-up contributions, a later retirement date, or a materially different lifestyle. Those tradeoffs deserve a professional rather than a decision tree.
Past $750k net worth: tax placement, concentration risk, and estate basics start to matter more than sequencing, and they get personal enough to be worth paying someone for.