Why an emergency fund comes first
An emergency fund is the foundation everything else sits on. Without it, a single unexpected bill becomes credit card debt, and debt undoes investing progress faster than investing builds it. That's why most plans put a starter emergency fund ahead of investing: it stops one bad week from unravelling years of good decisions.
Size it to your essentials, not your lifestyle. The number that matters is what it costs to keep the lights on if income stopped — rent, food, utilities, minimum payments — because that's what the fund actually has to cover.
