1. Buying a house. This is always a hot topic. Make sure you do the math to see if it makes sense in your area. This statement concerns me, "the opportunity to live rent free is almost too good to pass up". These statements typically aren't made on the basis of math/analysis, but on emotion. How do you know it's "almost too good to pass up"? Here's a great Buy vs Rent calculator that does the math for you:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html?_r=0Note, I've never lived in an area where it made sense to buy, and as a result, have come out way ahead by renting.
2. Betterment. They just take your money, and invest in Vanguard for you, after adding their fee on top. Skip the middle man. I'd recommend a Vanguard LifeStrategy automatic/robo account instead. Much less fees involved (by about half), and they handle everything for you. As Indexer mentioned, a 20/80 stock/bond portfolio would be good for this, so look at the LifeStrategy Income Fund:
https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/lifestrategy/#/It has an expense ratio (yearly fee) of 0.14%, compared to the 0.41% total fee you're paying at Betterment.
3. Whole Life Insurance. OMG, don't even give this another thought. They will just take your money, put it in bonds for you, and charge you a 2-5% fee. Again, skip the middle man.
4. Dividend stocks. This is almost as bad as the Whole Life Insurance recommendation. Anyone who recommends 100% dividend stocks for someone's short-term house downpayment money, should not be in a position to recommend anything to anyone. Dividend stocks, almost as a rule, fall harder during downturns.
In short, typically the answer is to keep short term money in a savings account. You'd like to avoid that, which makes sense considering you aren't sure if you even
want a house, so I think a LifeStrategy account makes sense. Personally, I just throw everything at my 80/20 stocks/bonds portfolio. If I need money in the short term, the 20% bonds is enough to take care of those needs. But I'm not looking for a house, so in your situation, the 20/80 stock/bond portfolio makes sense.