Hi all- I'm new here, new to trying this managing money intentionally thing, and have an investment question. I have read the investment order advice above and will provide here a bit of background (I know I could post a full case study, but it looks like a lot of work to do it right, and I'm not quite there yet with recording and tracking!):
55K income
no debt
renting 1950/mo
76K in 401K investing currently 7.5% (matched at 100%), e-mail in to HR to increase contribution
no Roth
90K cash (20k of which in 1.5% 1yr cd)
single with three kids and required to not do high deductible Health Insurance, so no HSA
I have more money in cash than I'd like right now, but I don't know where to put it (50K has come as a lump sum recently) and I have another lump sum of 68K arriving this week. I live in a moderately HCOL location (median house price 500K), and would like to own again, but the numbers suggest renting. Because I'd like to own again, I feel like I should keep cash for down payment, but I don't know!
It seems like I could up my 401K contribution to max, replacing income with some of this cash through the end of the year, open and fully fund Roth, then put rest of cash somewhere?
Going forward beyond this year I think I can either fully fund 401K or I can hit match, fund Roth, and come back for another 2K/year or so (will work on figuring out more exactly my budget), but I'm mostly wondering what to do with the current 100K or so (combined) inheritance. Thank you so much for any advice you can and are willing to give (with the limited information I've provided!).