My husband and I have a dream to purchase land and build our own home with no mortgage in the near future. Ideally this would happen in about 2 years. I've done the math and it is possible, but only under the best circumstances. I would like to improve those odds to "most likely possible" at least.
We are working on lowering our expenses and raising our savings rate overall and it's going very well. Home is gaining equity quickly, etc. Right now though, I have about $20k in liquid savings sitting in a checking account - WAIT! - before you freak out on me, it's in a local credit union and I get 3% interest on that account up to $30,000 as long as I do things like have direct deposit and use my debit card so many times a month. What should I do with this money to maximize it over two years? Should I leave it getting 3% until I hit the 30k cap? If so, what should I do with savings above that? Should I move it into something possibly more lucrative like an index fund, but without the guaranteed return?
I have faith that we can make our crazy dream a reality, but we've never done any investing before and I know this community will have some great ideas. Thanks!