<prompt> Human: About me: 29 yo, making 60k a year, renting in one of those crazy expensive coastal cities.Ive been doing pretty well for a few years saving about 20 of my after-tax income. The problem, maybe, is that Ive just been tossing all of it into one bank account -- the account pays 2 on the first 25k and 0.5 thereafter, so it could be worse interest-wise, but it also could be better.So my new years resolution is to save with a little more purpose. I already have enough saved up for a 9-month emergency fund with plenty left over, and Im thinking thereafter it might make sense to split my savings half into retirement and half into a higher-yield account for home-buying someday.What Im struggling with: Should I have all my savings spoken for, as it were, by retirement home-buying emergency vacation savings? Do people keep a general savings account that isnt earmarked for anything in particular?  <response>: If you have your emergency fund and all debts paid off except for maybe a car and mortgage then yeah next step should be to build wealth with monthly contributions into a mutual fund IRA.Savings accounts lose money over time due to inflation. Money market, CDs, and bonds help preserve the money you save. Mutual funds will grow it but you have to be prepared to weather market fluctuations and not freak out and sell when it drops. When it drops you start investing more if you can because thats when making real money 