I am a 28 year old single male and I have about 30k USD in my retirement account and 100k USD in my savings and checking accounts. I'm on track to save another 30-40k through the rest of the year as a remote consultant (business has been picking up). I have no debt and I live modestly. I don't believe I'll ever be married or have children. I live in Ohio, but in terms of buying a home, would be fine moving elsewhere. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the money I have saved. My main goal is to, with low risk, secure a modest lifestyle for myself so that I don't have to worry about money much even during severe multi-year economic downturns (my family had a hard time during the great recession when I was finishing up high school so that's probably why I'm fixated on this).
The leading proposition in my mind is to just sit tight for another year or so to ensure I continue to have good cash flow and then buy a small house in cash. That slashes my housing expenses and "invests" my money at least to the extent that it should keep up with inflation better than a savings account, and even if it doesn't, I still have a roof over my head.
Otherwise I know about CDs and treasury bonds and such but am concerned about what happens during periods of high inflation. I am wary of stocks.
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.