<prompt> Human: No upvotes necessary, I just need a platform to express this:Cant really boast to family about this, but my whole life growing up my parents couldnt get their act together financially Still have issues, too. My whole high school job experience involved handing over nearly every paycheck to the parents because they were always overdrawn in the bank and just scraping by my dad had impulsive purchasing problems, etc, etc.Point is- Im almost 30 and have spent the last year and a half busting my ass and I finally broke the 10,000.00 mark in my checking account. Ive managed to accrue over 1,000 in savings, too. and I have Zero credit card debt. I have learned a lot about money management through trial and error, but rpersonalfinance has been a huge source of knowledge and inspiration to get my finances in line. Thanks to this community for helping me feel moderately secure for the first time in my life!I guess its about time to get to working on that 401k thing I keep hearing so much about.Assistant: Congrats, but why do you have it wasting away in a checking account?Human: I have learned a lot about money management through trial and errorIm still trialing and erroring though to a much less ignorant extent. Its all part of the move forward. TBH, Im not sure how much I am comfortable moving out of checking and into some other sort of account, and Im not sure what kind of account that would be, either.  <response>: Dont worry too much about this. The primary function of savings is to give you security and peace of mind, which is why a liquid emergency fund is so important. Dont feel pressured to invest in anything volatile or illiquid until youre confident in your emergency fund. 