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Hi everyone,
23M here, and I have become a little obsessed with managing my money ever since I graduated from college and scored a stable job. However, I am at the point where I am wondering if I am missing out on any potential gains by not using a taxable brokerage to my advantage, even for a relatively "short" term investment.
I have maxed out my ROTH IRA for the last 3 years in a row, and just recently today, right before posting this. Since I have maxed out my contributions so early in the year, it kind of leaves me wondering what next? I already have a decent-sized emergency fund in a HYSA, which is about $10k currently. If anything, this is more than enough for several months. I live with my parents still so I am very fortunate to be able to save all of this money. I save about 70% of my paycheck every month, and the rest I use for transportation, food, and going out/having fun. This has been a good system for me, and with it I am able to save about $2700 a month.
Honestly, I envisioned funneling about 1-2000 a month into a taxable brokerage, just dropping in on VOO or VT/VTI and letting it sit for a while. Ideally I will not need this money for at least a few years; I live in NYC and buying a car isn't really feasible for where I live, and it would generally be more of a hassle than anything, I commute daily and while I have my gripes with it, it gets the job done, and a car is really the only big purchase that exceeds several thousands of dollars I would make in the short term, i.e this year or the next (assuming no emergencies). In the "longer short-term", aka about 4 years from now, I ideally want to go to medical school, or if all else fails, some level of grad school, so this would be something that, as you all know, would be terribly expensive, but saving up this much now at least gives me a leg up on this.
Would investing in VOO/VT/VTI within this time period be worth the potential risk? Some part of me feels like I am not doing enough if I just have my money in my HYSA, but maybe I am overthinking it for now. Considering my age, I know that I have some more room for riskier plays, but I suppose I would rather stay on the safe side.
More Info:
**HYSA**: \~$10k
**ROTH IRA**: \~$25,000 (I am invested in a 70% VTI 30% VXUS split currently)
**403(b):** \~$3800 (I contribute about 3% of each check to this. No employee match for at least another year, unfortunately; once that happens, ideally I will be more aggressive with this.)
**Debt:** $0🎉
**Monthly income after taxes:** $3896
Happy to hear everyone's thoughts/advice on how to move forward.
Thanks all! Happy New Year!