<prompt> Human: I am 40 years old, married and have 2 Kids 7 and 5. I am the sole earner of the household. I have close to 100K in savings account but I do not have any 401K or other retirements savings. I want to plan for the retirement as well as my kids college. Where should I start the investing? I make around 100K a year. I own a home and paying 3Kmonth mortgage and HOA. No other significant expenses other than the usual medical insurance, food, kids activities, clothes, etc. Update: 1Thank you for providing valuable advice and insights.I saw following advices recurring in multiple comments1. Open IRARoth IRA for me and my wife.2. SEP 401K for self employed and max out contributions. 3. Invest in low cost funds and diversify the portfolio across all holdings.4. Talk to a Certified Financial PlannerFiduciary.4. Payoff mortgage as much as possible.I see that Fidelity and Vanguard have been the most mentioned IRA provider. Can anyone advice on which one of them provide better options for low cost diversified funds that are on the conservative side?  <response>: You can start with the links on the sidebar. You need to start an IRARoth IRA to get some tax deferred money going.Do not worry about funding your kids college at this point. Your retirement needs to be priority 1. 