There are varying levels of wealth:

1. Living within your means - Budgeting your money (getting into good habits and telling your money where to go)
2. Have a fully funded emergency fund
3. Pay off high-interest debt
4. Contributing to a retirement account at work to earn an employer contribution match
5. Utilize IRA contributions
6. Utilize HSA account for tax-advantaged health care expenses
7. Max out retirement accounts/IRAs
8. Education accounts for children (529s, etc... doesn't have to go to college btw)
9. Non-tax advantaged accounts
10. Hyper-accumulation (Continue contributing and allow compound interest to take you to another tax bracket)
11. Pay off any remaining lower-interest debt (if you want to carry no debt, if you reach this point you probably already know what you're doing with finances and can hedge inflation with low-interest rates, etc....)

Here's the sad reality - Most people will never even get to phase 1! 😕😱

The saddest thing is every kid can learn these principles from an extremely young age yet hardly any parents out there follow them, let alone can teach their kids.