Hi guys, new here! I have been lurking here for a while but am finally ready to post. I'm in my late 30's and am finally ready to get my financial situation in order (better late than never). I will explain my situation here briefly and would appreciate any suggestions.
I am single, no children, no debt of any kind, and have ≈ $70k saved in the bank (savings and CD's). I realize having money in savings vs. invested or somewhere else where it can accumulate more interest is really bad. I live in San Francisco (I know) but have rent control so my rent is actually quite affordable. I have always been good at not spending above my means- I live a very minimalist lifestyle and am definitely not a consumer. My problem has always been income- I majored in English in college so I have never been able to land any kind of high (or decent) paying job. I currently make under $50k per year, and with my spending habits can put about 1/3rd of that into savings.
My main issue is this- I am worried about both my living situation and job situation. Living situation because I know my landlord would love to get rid of me so the rent could be drastically increased, and job situation because the company I work for is not doing well. If I would lose my apartment, or my job for that matter, I would be forced to move from SF since I could no longer afford to live here.
Because of this, I am paranoid about having quick access to as much money as possible. I have been hesitant to open an index fund or whatever partially because I have never been the type of person to put money first, and second because I worry I might need to move and start over, which could take months of living off of savings before having an apartment and a new job.
So my questions are 1) how should I balance my money, in that I have quick access to what I feel I may need and the rest is accumulating as much interest as possible? and 2) starting out with all of this, what is the simplest way to get investing/accumulating more money from what I've already saved- index funds?
Thanks so much for any help.