<prompt> Human: Im in a weird position and dont know what to do.x200B;Currently 28 yo living in NYC, making 80kyear. Ive lived pretty frugally and have saved up 36k over the course of 6 years, but I havent touched it at all. Its just sitting there in my savings account. No 401k, no stock market, no nothing. I should note that my lack of action here is partially based on fear: Im worried about markets crashing and losing the 401k, or working until I die and thus never getting access to my retirement, but thats a whole other conversation. I want to move a portion of my money where it can slowly gain interest, but I am financially illiterate and have no idea how to do that, let alone how much to move. Whats the smartest move at this stage? Should I dump half of it into retirement to make up for lost time? Is there a good low-risklow-yield investment I can do?EDIT 1: My employer offers a 401k and matches my contribution.EDIT 2: This is how bad I am at finances. Turns out my employer automatically enrolled me into a 401k when I started working January 2018. You have my permission to roll your eyes and slap your forehead. It was a 5 contribution, totaling 3.7k in savings as of August 2018. Ive bumped it up to 12. My next step is to put 5500 into an IRA. Thanks for the assistance, everyone! This post really kicked my butt and helped me get my shit together.Assistant: Good advice here.Side note, if your savings rate is 6kyear 80k, you should strongly consider increasing the amount you save.Human: Ive only been making 80kyear since January 2018. Before this, I was making 30k-55kyear at my old job, and then I took a year off to teach in 2017 which paid almost nothing. I ate almost 10k in savings that year. Since January, Ive saved up 12k and recovered my losses from 2017. Its been a wild ride.  <response>: Since January, Ive saved up 12kOhh ok sounds totally fine then. Congrats, sounds like a good footing : 