Hello everyone. I’ve started looking into what I can do to grow my money. I wanted to start investing/purchasing real estate, but I know it’s not a good time to purchase property atm. Therefore I figured making some investments in the stock market is the next best course of action.
Straight to the point:
– 38, single, and currently an E-5 with 10 years of service in the military. 10 more till retirement.
– In the High-3 system. So no TSP matching contributions.
– $55K in Roth TSP and now doing max TSP contribution since 2022. I intend to keep maxing it till I retire in 10 years. (Started late in TSP.)
– $12K 6-month Emergency Fund in High Yield Savings Account.
– I can max out my Roth IRA account to meet the max contribution limit of $6500 for 2023. I just need to read up on Fidelity, Vanguard and Schwab.
– No debts. Student and car loans are paid off. No mortgage, but if I do purchase a house it will still be covered. All monthly expenses covered which comes to $2K that includes me being able to still enjoy eating out/going to the movies/bars/shopping. I’m sure I can trim the expenses a bit more but not to the point that I’m miserable and not being able to enjoy life.
– After all that, I still have about $100 left over which I can add to an investment.
I do plan to work a federal job, if I decide to retire from military service so that I can work towards another pension. I like to think that I am on the right track in terms of setting up my retirement goals this late in the game for me.
Going back to my original question. If you had 80K saved, how and what would you do to make it grow in the next 20 years? I do understand there is risk involved in investing in the stock market. I saw my TSP lose a bit but bounced back nicely.