<prompt> Human: Cross-post from rfrugal. Im willing to admit that Im fairly financially unsavvy. Id like to get your thoughts on what I should be doing and what I could be doing better to improve my finances.About me: Upper-twenties individual living in NYC. Rent utilities is 18 of my pre-tax income. I dont know what it is as a of post-tax income. Not sure how to easily check what my post tax income was for 2013. 100K in savings. 50K in checking account. No savings account never made sense to me because of interest rates being so low. 30K is in my brokerage account in cash and with Im guessing another 20K in securities. Never had a credit card I actually applied two years ago to the bank where I had my checking account. They denied me, despite all the savings I had with them. Havent reapplied since. Basically no credit history at all. Cell plan is 50 month prepaid plan with T-Mobile. Considering switching to Straight Talk. No dependents. No debt. Rent is my only major fixed expense. I dont keep a budget. I just generally dont spend money on unnecessary things.Glad to provide additional information to help get me on the right track.Thanks!Assistant: No savings account never made sense to me because of interest rates being so lowBut keeping 80,000 in cash makes more sense? Keeping 50,000 in a checking account earning 0 or close to 0 interest makes more sense?Is the 20k in securities the extent of your wealth accumulating strategy? No 401k? No IRA? No nothing?Human: Im embarrassed to admit it but youre correct: no 401k IRA. Id had more in securities at mid last year but wanted to reduce my allocation to stocks. Assistant: Well for starters you should open up an IRA and max both 2013 and 2014 with some of that cash thats doing nothing. I would also plan to max out your 401k for 2014 If you have one. It sounds like you have no reason not to.Human: Can you suggest a guide or book so that I can understand the rulesbenefits which kinds of accounts to create? I hear people recommend Roth IRAs. Do I want that? Can I have an IRA plus a 401k? Also would love an understanding of the rules around borrowing from drawing from the account before retirement.  <response>: The sidebar for this subreddit is a great guide for understanding the basics. Whether or not you want a Roth vs. a traditional IRA is dependent on your current income and how much you expect to be making at retirement age. Yes, you can have both an IRA and a 401k. The sidebar also contains info about the potential penalties of withdrawing early. 