<prompt> Human: I feel that I have a rather peculiar financial situation. Please be as critical as you would like and help me make changes to improve my life financially. Job: High School math teacher suburb of major metro area in MidwestPay: 1,400 post taxes every 2 weeks almost have masters degree which combined with a few more years of experience will give me a 15k raise over the course of a few years, so in 2 years I will be making 70k a year400month from letting friend rent second bedroom in my place, this is only temporary though. past 8 monthsBills: Cell Phone -105monthCableInternet -95monthCar insurancehomeowners insurance -90monthAssociation fee for condo -350monthCar Payment 2012 Toyota Camry, 0 apr, -340monthOther bills gym membership, elec. bill, etc. -70monthDebts: No student loans from undergrad or grad school.Owe 15,000 still on car but it is 0 apr.Have credit card but pay it off every month.Assets: Condo that I bought for 90,000, it is probably worth 70,000 now. Have it paid off though.Retirement: 30,000 total. counting teacher retirement association money as wellNon-retirement: 75,000 in investment account that is mostly all in aapl stock.Checking: 6,000.Money in limbo:I have a friend- that theoretically owes me 62,500 if not more due to me investing in his business that I may have to take to court soon. It is a very long story and not really pertinent to this analysis.So, that is my current financial state. Obviously not being diversified in my non-retirement account is my biggest issue. What else do you think I could do to help my financial state?Update: No one responded to my comment, but I did actually win 109k in a poker tourney in the midwest this last weekend super easy to fact check by the way. What should my asset allocation look like? Keep in mind I will be liable for about 140k in taxes this year due to income from poker won about 30k online earlier this year.Update 2 - havent received money in limbo. Probably wont ever. Still have aapl stock and have large gains. Have 63k in retirement now. Pay much less for cellphoneInternet. Who knows when I will sell aapl, short term on all of it still.Assistant: Money in limbo: I have a friend- that theoretically owes me 62,500 if not more due to me investing in his business that I may have to take to court soon. It is a very long story and not really pertinent to this analysis.So, that is my current financial state. Obviously not being diversified in my non-retirement account is my biggest issue. What else do you think I could do to help my financial state?Unless that friend still has the money or assets you might be able to recover, you can probably kiss it all goodbye. Banks make commercial loans as a business model, if someone cant get financing through typical channels that means the credit markets have serious doubt that the money will get repaid. Your budget looks pretty solid. Your investments are a nightmare. You have way too might tied up in a non tax efficient account holding AAPL stock. Max out a roth IRA every year. Look into Vanguard admiral shares. If you want to play individual stocks, something that is inadvisably, do it with a much smaller portion of your taxable brokerage account. I would be looking at the latest pop in AAPL as a great opportunity to diversify. If you stop trying to pick stocks and loaning friends money, you could end up with 1MM net worth in 15 - 20 years.Human: I am not too sure what I want to do with this money though. I feel a retirement account limits me in so many ways. What if a good opportunity comes along and it is helpful to have 75k in liquid assets floating around? Assistant: I feel a retirement account limits me in so many ways. How? what do you plan on doing for money when you cant work anymore What if a good opportunity comes alongSuch as? I dont mean to me a dick, but I think your track record for identifying good opportunities speaks for itself. You are taking way too much unnecessary risk with your money. Human: I feel that compared to other teachers that have been teaching for 6 years I have as much or more than them in retirement. What if I want to buy a house and update it? Having that money accessible is really handy isnt it?  <response>: I feel that compared to other teachers that have been teaching for 6 yearsDont compare yourself to everyone else Everyone else is broke and does dumb things with money every day. What if I want to buy a house and update it? Having that money accessible is really handy isnt it?The difference is you Might want to buy a house and update it. Someday you Will retire. Plan properly for retirement first. Use what is left over to dabble in real estate or whatever strikes your fancy. 