<prompt> Human: So Im 29, recently married - my wife and I are currently debt-free, but looking at purchasing a house in the next few months - despite that, our income, as currently stands, is significantly higher than we need to make mortgage payments. Weve both recently changed jobs within the last 6 months and have doubled our income, so our rate of savings is even higher than it had been the last few years which we were already doing pretty well on.Our current finance plan is as such - weve each maxed out contributions to our Roth IRAs for the last 6 years, and are doing it on January first of each year. Her employer does 401k matching mine does not which she contributes up to the point that they match.Weve got a comfortable 1 year emergency fund, even after factoring in the house payments were getting, we should have a fair amount of money leftover.What Im starting to question is - where do I go from here? Should we focus on paying off our the mortgage were looking at getting 4.7520 year faster, or should we look into investment - or a little bit of both?Outside of paying off the mortgage, Im really not sure where to go from here - for us, ideally, wed like to look into early retirement in our 40s or 50s if we can keep employment and income relatively stable - were not absolutely rolling in money rich, but as Im sure is evident, were doing pretty well for ourselfves.Assistant: Save for your goals. If your main goal is early retirement, increasing your 401k contributions up to the annual limit of 17k is a great way to save for that goal assuming you have halfway decent funds available. If needed, the money in a 401k can be accessed during earlier retirement through a SEPP plan.Paying down your mortgage is good step towards that as well, but assuming you can take the mortgage interest deduction and are schedule to have the home paid off in time for your early retirement 20 years to early retirement and 20 year mortgage, youll probably be better off investing than paying down the mortgage.However, if you have other goals, such as vacations, home improvements, vehicles, etc; saving towards those goals should probably be in regular savings or investment accout.EDIT: Forgot a P in SEPPHuman: I feel as if going a bit more into the numbers could give a bit more insight into the situation.As Id stated, we recently doubled our income and are bringing in roughly 8.5k a month - our expenses, at what we expect to pay for mortgage, are 3k a month, give or take, and thats probably being generous.Capping out our 401k seems like something we could do without too much issue - so then the logical question becomes what then? Weve got enough to make a down payment set aside, away from our 1 year emergency fund.Ive thought about getting involved in investments, stocks, mutual funds - but I have absolutely no idea where to start. Im fairly risk averse, but I am trying to quell that a little bit with the understanding that our financial situation right now is primed for taking at least some degree of increased risk than what we are right now, which has been very conservative.  <response>: It definitely looks like youre in a good position to max out your 401ks and Roth IRAs. Thats a total of 46kyear in tax advantaged retirement savings 11k after tax, 35k pre-tax.That depletes your ability to invest in a tax advantaged space. If you still have money to invest for retirement after that, a regular investment account is the way to go. To maximize your earnings, make sure to understand how to optimize your portfolio for tax savings 