<prompt> Human: My first full time job didnt offer 401k contributions so I had put roughly 34 of my paychecks in savings, and now I have a lot of money saved up, roughly 35,000.My current job does offer 401k, but only after a years probation period. In the mean time Ive opened a Roth IRA and have contributed the max amount. Vanguard target retirement 2055I want to keep some savings for an emergency fund, but with the rest Id like to invest in something that will at least combat inflation, but hopefully make some money as well. Is there any conventional wisdom for aggressive short term investing say 5 to 10 years or funds that you would recommend? Im not a scholar of investing and I dont plan on becoming one, so Im looking mostly for a set it and forget it approach.If these goals are infeasible with this kind of amateur investing I accept that as well. Thanks!  <response>: As others have said, research the 401K contributions a bit more, you can likely contribute, you just will not receive a match for the first year.The wikis general take on retirement investing is strongly conservative and appears to target people who are getting into retirement savings late in the game mid 30s. Mr Money Mustache has a good article on what your savings needs to be to retire in X years that I find to be easier to follow. Article is here.So before you get into any investing, figure out your savings rate for retirement first. He recommends 20 savings to retire in 37 years, which will be age 61 for you. Id say thats the minimum savings rate, but read the article and figure out whats right for you. Make sure to account for your employers match when it kicks in. If your employer matches up to 5, you only need to contribute 15 to your 401K to hit that 20. As for non-retirement investing, you need to figure out your goals, how far out they are, and your tolerance for risk. Our local uzonination wrote an amazing article that describes the risk associated with stock investing. While you should read the full article, his graph Your chance of selling short is a good brief look at how risky stock investing is over X years. Over a 5 year span, your chance of losing money is 20, over 10 years, 11.8. So if youre saving up to buy a house in 5 years, stocks is probably a bad bet, unless you are really comfortable risking a larger down payment. US Government issued I Bonds are the safest bet, and have an interest rate to match, hovering around 2. While 2 is pretty abysmal, its better than Allys 1.25 on savings accounts, and if you dont need the money for the next few years, you might as well get the 2. Keep in mind you cannot cash out I-bonds for at least 1 year, after that between 2-5 years you lose the last 3 months interest Which is pretty negligible, after that you can cash out with no loss of interest. There are some other options in between those, but without knowing your goals and risk tolerance, its hard to comment on. Peer to Peer lending is something Ive seen recommended for shorter term portfolios, if youre investing in A-listed consumer debt, supposedly you can get 5 for low risk, but Im not really well versed on that investing medium so Im not sure how true that is. 