What should you do with $5,000?

The ordering is rarely about the amount — it is about what the money is competing with. A balance at 22% beats almost any investment, an employer match beats the balance, and a missing cash cushion beats both in the sense that without one, the debt tends to come straight back.

After that the question becomes which container the money should sit in. An HSA, if you qualify, is deductible going in, untaxed as it grows and untaxed for medical costs — federally, at least; several states treat it differently. An IRA and a workplace plan come next: for 2026 that is $7,500 of IRA room and $24,500 of your own pay into a 401(k), both reduced by anything you have already contributed this year. A taxable brokerage takes whatever is left, with no limits and no rules about when you can touch it.

Money you plan to spend within a few years sits outside all of that, in savings, because a bad year has no time to recover before you need it.