I have a friend who (together with her husband) is always meeting with a financial adviser or real estate agent (despite being years from buying in a very average market) or something. They are always looking for the magic trick to financial management. DH and I paid off 55k of high interest student loans the first 20 months of marriage, then saved for a house, then saved for IVF. I think she believes we found the magic trick and still asks me questions as if the whole thing is a mystery. The thing is, I blogged about our whole debt payoff with literally tens of posts about how we budgeted and where we found extra savings and how there was no shortcut to doing the work.
I don't want to be giving specific personal financial advice to friends. My responses are so boring: we prioritized our goals, made a budget, and tracked all our expenses. I give a caveat that spending priorities are personal, goals are personal, and that different budget/tracking styles work best for different people, so find a plan that works for you which you will follow through on and then execute.
Her revelation from the financial adviser was to create sinking funds for annual expenses. But sinking funds don't magically fix anything if you blow the budget and buy whatever Amazon deal you feel like each month. You have to actually fund sinking funds!