Service Academy Career Starter Loan and what to do with it

[slammy01]

I'm a long time reader of the blog but I wanted to get a feel for what the community would think about the situation I'm in.

I'm a Midshipman at the US Naval Academy and just took out my Career Starter Loan. This is a special loan offered by USAA and Navy Federal which has extremely low interest rates (mine was $36,000 at .0745% for a total of $37,200). I don't have to begin paying the loan back until 90 days after I graduate and start drawing a paycheck. I have have an IRA and was able to max out contributions last year thanks to my parents help and I plan on maxing contributions for the next few years which should give me ~20K as I graduate college. I'm probably not going to have to buy a car for a while due to an old family car that is going to be signed over to me. I expect to have about 15K to invest with...what are some recommendations to do with it so I can begin building my own statch.

[sol]

Is that IRA you mentioned a Roth IRA?  That's probably the way to go for someone in your position.

If you count as active military and have access to investments in the TSP, I'd recommend the L2040 or even the L2050 through the Roth TSP option if you're willing to tie the money up for a while.

Alternately, for taxable investments, $15k will diversify nicely over a handful of funds mentioned in the growing cash thread.

[slammy01]

I have a Roth IRA set up with USAA but I am considering a move to another brokerage due to high costs associated with trading at USAA.

Thanks for the reply and the link to the growing cash thread, I'll look into it.