What Bill Triage Calculates
A weighted ranking of which bill to pay first when cash can't cover everything.
Bill Triage answers one question: when you can only pay some bills, which ones first?
Cash short. Current runway:
Score = (Essential Level × 10) + (Late Fee ÷ Amount × 100) Essential Level: 1=credit card, 2=internet/phone, 3=car/rent, 4=water/electric
- List every bill due this cycle with amount, late fee, and essential level.
- Score each bill with the formula; sort descending.
- Pay top-ranked bills until cash runs out; stop there.
- Override scores when eviction notice, court order, or shutoff date forces it.
- Re-run triage at the next cycle with updated balances.
Quick answer
Bill Triage answers one question: when you can only pay some bills, which ones first?
▸ Key Specs
- ▸ Formula: Score = (Essential Level × 10) + (Late Fee ÷ Amount × 100). Higher score pays first. Current runway:
runway not set . - ▸ Essential levels: 1 credit card, 2 internet/phone, 3 car/rent, 4 water/electric. The scale encodes cutoff pain.
- ▸ Late-fee ratio pulls small bills with painful penalties upward. A $25 fee on a $180 bill carries real weight.
- ▸ Top-ranked bill pulses in the critical band — partial payment will not fix it.
- ▸ All inputs stay local. No bill data leaves the browser.
- ▸ Override manually for special rules (child support, court-ordered).
▸ Worked Examples
- Electric $180 (fee $25, lvl 4) vs Credit Card $250 (fee $35, lvl 1)Electric score = 40 + 13.9 = 53.9 → MUST PAY. Credit Card = 10 + 14.0 = 24.0 → medium. With
runway not set on the clock, electric goes first. - Rent $1,200 (fee $75, lvl 3) vs Car $380 (fee $30, lvl 3)Rent = 30 + 6.3 = 36.3. Car = 30 + 7.9 = 37.9. Car edges ahead on fee ratio. Override to rent if inside eviction notice window.
- Internet $80 (fee $15, lvl 2) vs Streaming $18 (fee $5, lvl 1)Internet = 20 + 18.8 = 38.8. Streaming = 10 + 27.8 = 37.8. Internet keeps income flowing. Pay it first.
When to use which tool
- CYAN · STABLE — Cash covers all bills plus 10% buffer — normal cycle, route overflow to savings.
- GOLD · GUARDED — Cash covers essentials only — gold band, negotiate or delay tier-3/4 this cycle.
- MAGENTA · CRITICAL — Cash under tier-1 total — critical, service cutoff or eviction risk imminent.
Related
- Bill TriageWhen you can't pay everything, which bill first? Weighted ranking by service-cutoff risk and late-fee pain.
- When to Triage BillsFive situations where paying bills in order of receipt is actively harmful.
- Five Bill Triage MistakesThe errors that make a triage worse than paying bills in the order they arrived.
Frequently asked questions
› Does it account for credit-score damage?
Partially — the late-fee ratio captures monetary pain but not score impact. A missed credit-card minimum hits your credit score harder than a missed streaming bill; keep that in mind when two scores are close.
› What if all my bills are tier 4?
Then the fee-ratio component decides the order. Pay the one with the worst fee-to-balance ratio first — that's the most expensive dollar of delay.
› Should I ever skip a tier-4 bill? Trust & accuracy
Only if tier 1–3 aren't fully covered. Skipping water/electric to save the credit card is backwards math — service cutoff costs more than the interest.
› How should I use a decision framework in real life? How-to
Use a decision framework to expose the tradeoff, not to outsource the decision. Write down the inputs, compare the output with your constraints, then ask what would change the answer. The strongest use is scenario testing: base case, conservative case, and failure case.
› Is this financial, legal, or tax advice? Trust & accuracy
No, this is not legal, financial, tax, medical, or professional advice unless the page explicitly says that use case is supported. It organizes assumptions so you can inspect them. Verify high-stakes choices with qualified people who can review facts, contracts, regulations, and downside risk.