<prompt> Human: It is just sitting under my mattress my checking account doing nothing. I was planning to use the money for grad school, but no longer want to go. I dont understand finance and am interested in low-risk investing.- I have zero debt and good credit 775 - The 30k doesnt include my rainy day fund. I am fairly frugal and only have to support myself. I have a budget and save around 1k a month. I already contribute to my 401k at work and put in the max they will match. I have 8k in SPY 500 Index fund, but my father set that up for me years ago I havent added anything to it in 5 years. I have no long term money goals. I might want to buy a home instead of renting but not until another 4-10 years.Sorry if you guys answered this thousands of times before. Im new to this subreddit.Assistant: If you are willing to do some reading and research, I recommend that you look into financial independence as a goal. You are already debt free and have a frugal nature. Your frugality works in your favor on the math of being able to choose whether or not you work for pay.Once youve saved and primarily invested approximately 25 times your annual expenses in low expense ratio index funds, you are financially independent. You could then retire early, start a passion project, become a professional volunteer, travel to your hearts content, etc. The choice is yours because your investments support you without you working. Truly. There are legal methods of accessing your retirement accounts before you reach 59.5. Again, there is fun to me, and maybe to you, too reading to be done on these matters. Check out the Financial Independence subreddit FAQ and The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement as beginning resources to see if this interests you. Congratulations on growing your nest egg, and best of luck with your decisions!Human: I never really even thought about retiring early. I would love to travel more! I will be looking into the linked pages.  <response>: As someone pursuing FI, it obviously agree with the guy above me. The way I see it, if I decide later that I want to spend a little more frivilously and retire at a normal time, I havent shot myself in the foot. Actually, I could probably just put the minimum into my 401k to get employer match and max an IRA every year till 60 and be fine, just because of the nestegg I have now compounding.Its tough though. You have to stay dedicated to the idea that youre working towards something. You obviously need to still enjoy life, after all, were working towards the freedom TO enjoy life the way we want. Kind of pointless to pursue that goal and be miserable in the mean time.Having a high income is like, 90 of the battle though.edit: Speaking of IRAs, do you have one? You didnt mention one, so Id guess not. If you decide to invest this money instead of saving for a house, you should seriously think about getting an IRA. Roth or Traditional, doesnt really matter, more of a judgement call. For me, I have a Roth IRA and a traditional 401k. I like the idea of having a mix of pre tax and post tax buckets of money.If you have a question, do ask. Specifically in rpfs Moronic Monday. Or if its a bigger question, as a new submission in rpf. rfinancialIndependence really prefers to have only FI focused content, and most intro pf topics have been talked into the ground over there. 