RAM / SSD upgrade from Macbook Pro 2012 makes sense?

Brief introduction: I have a Macbook Pro mid 2012 (13 inch) with a 500 GB hard drive and a working memory with 4 GB. (2x 2GB)

I only have 156 GB free on the hard drive (I have a lot of pictures) and my RAM is almost entirely in use. The laptop is partially inserted correctly and is very slow.

Now to my question: Does upgrading the hard drive with an SSD actually bring me what makes the laptop work faster and smoother again, even though I already have a 500 GB hard drive anyway? Or is it enough if I buy two 8GB RAM cards? I would hope that he generally works faster again. No matter whether I work with it, edit pictures or sometimes play on it.

I just read so many different articles about it that I don't know anything from front to back. (There are also so many different opinions…) If someone could help me, I would be really pleased and grateful!

PS: I don't want to buy a new laptop while the old one can still be saved.

Unfortunately, this will only be a drop in the ocean. 2012 is now 8 years old, that's an eternity for technical devices.

You may be able to save more files and maybe open more tabs in the browser, but sooner or later it will be the processor that slows you down the most. And unfortunately you can hardly change it.

Would rather upgrade to a newer device since it is very old for a MacBook

Of course he is 8 years old… But I have already read about so many people who are improving their old laptops and who have worked really well again. And I don't want to buy a new laptop if you can somehow improve the old one. But thanks anyway.

You have to see it like this: your Macbook is a car, your RAM is the wheels and the hard drive is the tank.

You can refuel your car and change the tires, this will make it run better, but none of this will work if the engine gives up after 200,000 km.

Other laptops may be easier to maintain, but the general rule applies to laptops (especially Macbooks) - at some point the processor is simply too old and it is not possible to replace it.

Of course, you can still edit documents and surf the web, but with every OSX update everything will be a little slower.

Haha that's what I call a good comparison. Yes, at the moment I was able to do the macOS Catalina update as normal, but the laptop was slow last year, so I don't know. Can't just be that.

Well 2012 is very old. Sure, what would an upgrade bring but would save me the money and would rather get something new