I have built up a decent savings ($30k) and placed it in an online bank's checking account with 0.76% APY. I am wondering if this is enough money that I should consider switching it to something higher interest so that I can make money, beat inflation, etc.
In general, I don't like taking risks financially. My gut instinct is to keep it liquid. But perhaps this is not the wisest thing to do. I would like your advice on the matter.
Some other information.
- I'm an American living in USA.
- I am 30.
- I am single.
- My rent is $500/mth, including utilities. This works for now, but I may want to move into a condo within 5-10 years.
- I have zero debt.
- I own my car, although I may have to replace it in 5-10 years.
- Overall, my expenses are pretty low, and I bring in more income from my job than what my expenses cost me, so my checking account grows every year.
- I have no retirement accounts (401k, IRA, pension, etc.)
Feel free to also chime in with other financial advice. For example, if $30k isn't really enough money to invest, at what point should I start investing, and how much? Is it unwise to not have any kind of retirement account? etc.
edit: I ended up creating a brokerage account at Ally.com and investing the money in SPY. SPY is an index fund that follows the S&P 500, so it is nice and diversified and there are no penny stocks. Very diverse and very safe. If the market is up, it is up. If the market is down, it is down. Anyway, an excellent decision. The last couple of months the stock market has been doing great and I've already made quite a bit of money. Also, the commission fee is only $5 per TRANSACTION, not per share. Very cheap. Thanks for all the advice.