Hello everybody,
First of all: I am inspired and humbled by many of the stories I read here about people turning their fortunes around with Mr. Mustache's fairly simple principles. You guys rock, keep up the good work.
Now, about me:
-Mid 20s making $70k/yr
-$10k cash, $40k in investments split between a roth IRA and a 401k
-One student loan of $3000 left at 3% interest
-I own a car (which is paid off), drive it sparingly, and try to ride my bike to work as much as possible
After saving as much as I possibly could for the past 2 years (my professional career so far), I feel like I'm in a pretty good spot. I'm contributing regularly to my 401k, maxing my roth IRA (automated), and saving $500/mo directly from my paycheck into savings account. Besides my pretty low expenses ($725 for rent, $250 for food, etc.), I save the rest of what I make in my checking account.
My question is: what do I do now?
As I throw more and more money at the stache, my take home pay grows, and things get more comfortable...I still want to keep up an aggressive set of goals that will keep me on track for a badass financial future. Here's what I've been considering:
-Paying off remaining student loan: 3% interest, but a guaranteed return on the $3000 I would drop into it. Worth taking care of and being debt free?
-Saving up for a downpayment: I don't think I could buy a house just yet, but perhaps it's worth expanding upon my cash stash in order to save up to buy myself a sweet place to live? Housing is currently my biggest expense, and building up some equity would definitely be nice moving forward. What do you guys think?
-Investing more: The sky's the limit here. With the stock market pretty lofty (in my opinion), I'm hesitant to drop a lot of my cash into stocks (especially my 401k). However, at a certain point, it probably makes sense to up my investments and earn a return on some of the cash I'm sitting on. What do you guys think is a rational course of action here?
It feels like I'm maybe missing something? Perhaps you guys can give me some advice on reaching financial independence quicker, and maybe some next steps to take. I'm pretty good at staying disciplined, but only if I know what I'm working towards. Any help you guys (and girls!) can provide is greatly appreciated.
-illah