Overview
When you looking at your ability to save, you should try to fill these 'buckets', in this order. It is well laid out in the flowchart as well.
- Emergency Fund - Money to allow you to weather moderate disasters
- Should I do a Roth - Should you focus on pre-tax before post-tax? (tl;dr: No)
- Pre-tax - Money you can put away before the government taxes it
- After-tax - It's already been taxed, but can grow tax free/deferred
- Taxable - The goverment has already taken their cut, and will in the future, but it can still grow
caution
This focuses a lot on the tax treatment, because it represents a way to get better returns. Do NOT take this as advice that you should actually focus on reducing taxes. You should focus on investing as much as you can.
note
This is just the order to fill your 'buckets' in order to try to maximize your returns.