I spent most of my 20s cleaning up old mistakes, like student loans, credit card debt, and a car I really couldn’t afford. I just paid off the last dollar of debt last month, which feels great, but now I’m realizing I don’t actually know what to do next.
Current situation:
Income: $68k/year
Savings: $14k, about 4 months of expenses
Monthly surplus: around $900 after bills
401k: 4% right now, just enough for the employer match
Roth IRA: never opened one
My rough plan:
Open a Roth IRA this week and put in $7k from savings
Keep the other $7k as my emergency fund
Increase 401k contributions to 15%
Put extra monthly money into a taxable brokerage account, probably mostly VOO
The only side thing I’m doing is keeping a small amount in moomoo prediction markets. I just like that the contracts are tied to specific events and the amounts can stay tiny, so it scratches the “I have a view on this” itch without turning into a portfolio decision.
I know I’m late compared with people who started at 22, but at least I’m starting clean. What am I missing? If you were starting over at 30 with no debt and no investments, what would you change?