Four fill-in worksheets that walk a first money sit-down in order: give every dollar a job, size the emergency fund in three stages, capture the full employer match, and find where the next dollar goes.
For anyone taking a first honest look at their own numbers
Monthly budget on one pageWorksheet · Budgeting
Emergency fund in three stagesWorksheet · Emergency fund
Capture your employer matchWorksheet · Employer match
Your next dollar's addressWorksheet · Order of operations
Every sheet in this pack is below, each on its own page. Choose Print orSave as PDF to get the whole set in one go.
A budget is just deciding where money goes before it goes there. Start with your monthly take-home, list what you actually spend in each of three piles, and total each one against the 50/30/20 target.
Beginner
Teen
Name
Date
Audience
For anyone giving every dollar a job
Time
About 20 minutes
Materials
Last month's take-home pay · a pen
Objective
Start from your take-home pay and give every dollar a job across needs, wants, and savings — with the 50/30/20 target beside your own numbers.
Use this when
Money feels like it disappears each month and you want a one-page plan you can redo every paycheck.
The 50/30/20 starting shape — half to needs, a third to wants, a fifth to savings and debt payoff. A starting point, not a law; the totals you fill in below are what actually matter. (The 50/30/20 rule — Warren & Warren Tyagi, All Your Worth.)
Monthly take-homewhat lands in your account after taxes and deductions$
The emergency fund is a fire extinguisher, not a stock holding — it exists to be there, not to grow. "Three to six months of expenses" sounds impossible from zero, so this sheet breaks it into three stages you can actually reach, starting with one you can fill in twenty weeks.
Beginner
First job
Name
Date
Audience
For anyone building their safety net
Time
About 20 minutes
Materials
Last month's bills or your banking app · a pen
Objective
Tally your essential monthly expenses, set the three staged targets, and name the first automated deposit.
Use this when
You want a safety net but "three to six months of expenses" feels impossibly far away from zero.
1 · What one month really costs
Essentials only — the survival number, not your full lifestyle. If you could skip it in a bad month (streaming, eating out, hobbies), leave it out.
Housingrent or mortgage — what you must pay every month
$
Foodgroceries — the survival version, not restaurants
$
Utilitiespower, water, phone, internet
$
Insurancehealth, car, renters — the payments that keep your coverage active
$
Transportationgas, transit pass, the car payment if you have one
$
Minimum debt paymentsminimums only — payoff plans live on another sheet
$
Essentials total — one monthadd the rows above; every stage below is built from this
$
2 · Your three stages
Nobody saves "three to six months" in one push. Shade the meter as you go — the first section is small on purpose. The first two stages carry most of the protection.
The printed dollars are one example household, at about $4,000 a month of essentials. Your sections use your own targets below — pencil in your stage lines, then shade what you’ve saved.
Stage 0 — your biggest deductiblewhat insurance makes you pay first, from your policy or app — usually $1,000–$2,500. The only stage that runs alongside paying off high-interest debt
$
Stage 1 — one month of essentialsyour total from box 1; where most short-term shocks stop hurting
$
Stage 2 — three to six monthsessentials × 3 (stable dual income) up to × 6 (variable income, sole earner)
$
3 · Where it lives — boring, immediate, separate
BoringHigh-yield savings at an online bank, typically paying around 3–5%. FDIC-insured, no market risk — a brokerage fund can be down 30% the same week you need it.
ImmediateReachable in a day or two. The short transfer delay is the only withdrawal cooling-off you need.
SeparateIts own clearly-labeled account — different app, different login. Not a bucket inside checking, not the vacation fund, and not the Roth IRA or a credit-card limit either: those two fail at the exact moment they’re supposed to work.
The account I’ll usename the bank and label the account "emergency fund"
4 · Before you spend it — the three tests
When the moment comes, an expense earns this money only if all three boxes check. Two out of three means it was predictable — that’s a sinking fund, not an emergency.
Unexpected — you couldn’t reasonably have planned for it
Necessary — skipping it costs income, housing, or health
Urgent — it can’t wait for next month’s paycheck
If you can see it coming six months out, it’s a sinking fund — a separate savings bucket you fill monthly for predictable expenses like tires or Christmas.
5 · The first deposit
Targets are useful; deposits are real. One automated transfer, the day after payday —$100 a week fills Stage 0 in twenty weeks; $50 a week takes forty. Doing it every week matters more than the amount.
I’ll move this much, automaticallyan amount that survives a normal month
$
Everyweek or payday — the day after money lands
Set up on this datethe hard part is the first five minutes
6 · Reflection
The number in box 1 that surprised you, and why:
At your weekly amount, the date Stage 0 will be full (your Stage 0 target ÷ your weekly amount = weeks; count forward on a calendar):
If you contribute 6% and they match 3%, your real pay is 103% of what the offer letter said. If you contribute zero, it’s 100%. This sheet finds your plan’s formula, turns it into dollars, and shows what claiming it is worth.
Beginner
First job
Name
Date
Audience
For anyone with a 401(k) and a match to claim
Time
About 15 minutes
Materials
Your benefits-portal login or plan summary · a pen
Objective
Decode your plan’s match formula, work out the match band in dollars, and see what’s currently left on the table.
Use this when
You have a 401(k) but aren’t sure you’re contributing enough to collect the full match.
1 · Copy the formula off your plan
Log into the benefits portal (Fidelity, Vanguard, Empower — wherever your 401(k) lives) or open the plan summary, and find the sentence about the employer match. A typical one: "50% of the first 6% you contribute." A tiered formula ("100% of the first 3%, 50% of the next 2%")? Use the combined total (5% in that example) as your ceiling. Can’t find the sentence at all? Ask HR for the Summary Plan Description, the plan’s official rulebook.
For every $1 I put in, they add50¢ and $1 are the common answers
$
…on my pay, up to this percentthe ceiling — the match stops growing past it
%
Vesting, if the plan mentions itwhen the match becomes fully yours; your own dollars always are
2 · What the formula is worth — a worked example
A $60,000 salary, a 50¢-per-dollar match on the first 6% of pay, contributing the full 6%:
$5,400 lands in the account each year, from $3,600 of your own pay. Formula: annual match = salary × your % (capped at the ceiling) × the match rate.
3 · Now your numbers
My gross pay per yearthe match runs against gross, before taxes
$
Pay × the ceiling % — what I’d contribute to max the matchthe worked example: $60,000 × 6% = $3,600
$
…and what they’d add on top, per yearthe line above × the match rate
$
My contribution rate todaythe "contribution rate" or "deferral percentage" field
%
Left on the table per year, if I’m under the ceiling= (ceiling % − my rate today) × pay × the match rate. Write $0 if you’re at the ceiling
$
4 · What claiming it is worth
The worked example’s $1,800-a-year match, invested at 7% and left alone for ten years, grows to about $25,963 — and your own contributions add roughly $51,925 on top. You did not work an extra hour for that first number. A 50¢-per-dollar match is an instant 50% return the day it posts, before any market growth. That’s why the match is the one exception to "debt first": capture the match, then attack the debt.
Same figures the lesson’s calculator shows — 7% a year after inflation, compounded monthly, ten years.
5 · One move
In the portal, the whole move is one field: raise "contribution rate" to the ceiling from box 1. While you’re there, check the investment elections — a low-cost target-date fund is the boring right answer.
I’ll raise my rate tothe match ceiling — or one point higher if the budget allows. Roth and traditional contributions both count toward it
%
Changed on this dateevery paycheck below the ceiling leaves match money behind for good
6 · Reflection
Your unclaimed match from box 3, multiplied by the years you’ve worked here:
What you’d tell a friend who says they’ll "start contributing once things settle down":
The order isn’t a matter of taste — each move earns more than the one below it. Walk the five money moves from the top, tick what’s already true, and the first unchecked box is where your next dollar belongs. It’s almost always one log-in away.
Beginner
First job
Name
Date
Audience
For anyone deciding where extra money goes
Time
About 15 minutes
Materials
Your latest account balances · a pen
Objective
Walk the five money moves in order, tick what’s already true, and find the first unchecked box — where your next dollar belongs.
Use this when
There’s money left over each month and you’re not sure whether it should go to debt, savings, or investing.
1 · Climb the ladder
Work top to bottom and tick every box that’s already true today. Be honest — a half-funded rung is an unchecked box. (The detailed map is nine steps; this is the practical five-rung version.)
1The match
Get the full 401(k) match. Free money — a 50–100% return the day you sign up. No 401(k) or no match at your job? Treat this rung as checked and move down.
I’m contributing enough to collect the full employer match
2The safety net
Cash for your biggest deductible, then any debt at about 7% or higher, then 3–6 months of expenses.
Cash on hand covers my biggest insurance deductible (this one comes even before the match if you have neither)
Debt at roughly 7% or higher is paid off — or has a written payoff plan
Three to six months of essentials sit in high-yield savings
3Roth IRA + HSA
Roth IRA every year. Fund (and invest) an HSA — a health savings account — if your health plan is a high-deductible one.
My Roth IRA is funded this year ($7,500 for most people) — and the money is invested, not parked
If my health plan is high-deductible: the HSA is funded and invested
4More into the 401(k)
Raise what you put in until you hit the yearly limit (or your plan caps you earlier).
I’m at the yearly 401(k) limit
5Everything else
A regular brokerage account, a 529 (a college-savings account), extra mortgage payments, more giving. Choose by your goals.
No box here — this rung has no finish line. You only reach it once everything above is checked.
Why this order: the match pays 50–100% the day you claim it, paying off a 22% card is the same as earning a guaranteed 22%, and the market averages about 7% a year after inflation — each rung out-earns the one below it.
2 · Your spot on the map
Find the first unchecked box from the top. That’s the address. One rung at a time — it’s a sequence, not a list you work all at once.
My next dollar belongs incopy the first unchecked line in your own words
The one log-in that moves itbenefits portal, bank transfer page, brokerage — name it
I’ll do it bya date this week beats a perfect date next month
After any major life change — new job, marriage, a baby, a move — walk the list again from the top.
3 · Reflection
The rung you expected to have checked, but don’t — and what got in the way:
What checking your current rung would let you stop worrying about:
