<prompt> Human: I make about 150K and dont own a house. I have decent savings and regularly contribute to a 401k plan. I started looking at investing only a couple of years ago and was piling on cash until then. Most of my investing initially was done by picking individual stocks mostly oil and I got burned doing that. I recently started investing in Vanguard funds but am being very cautious about 500month with my money given my history with investing. I currently have about 200K in cash that is barely earning anything and 50K invested in index funds, gold and individual stocks. I live in California and housing is extremely expensive. Not sure what my options are given given my hesitation to both; buying a house in this market and putting more money in stocks. Any thoughts fellow redditors?  <response>: I suggest you take the time to learn investing. Here are two really good sources for getting started:Bernstein booklet: Stock series: 