I’m 27 and trying to sanity-check my cash vs investments balance.
Right now I’m holding more money in cash (checking + HYSA) than I have invested in the market, and it’s starting to feel inefficient. I’ve been slowly deploying cash into investments, but I still feel very cash-heavy.
Some context: • Roth IRA is maxed out (hit the limit back in September) • Contributing to a 401k and increasing contributions for next year • Any additional investing is going into low-cost index funds in a taxable brokerage, crypto and recently I got into silver. • I currently have about a 16-month emergency fund, which feels excessive given that my job feels very secure
I know cash has its place, but sitting on more cash than invested capital at my age feels suboptimal. I’m planning to dump a good amount into my Roth as soon as 2026 opens up, but until then I’m unsure how aggressive I should be.
Hypothetical question: If you had $180k total right now, how much would you keep in cash (checking/HYSA) versus put into investments?
THANK YOU IN ADVANCE