<prompt> Human: Ive started my first real job this week, and I am making around 70k USD annually after taxes and a company 401k. I am a 21 year old with zero debt, a beat-up car that I bought with cash in high school, and no dependents. Ive been frugal with the 9 an hour I was making up until now, and I have excellent credit.What do I do to grow this money? Obviously I dont want five or six figures in a checking or savings account thats actually losing money to inflation. Ive watched my parents struggle with money their entire lives, and I want to start as early as I can to avoid that struggle. Ive read the How to handle link in the sidebar, and unfortunately, its marginally helpful at best for my situation. Ive done some reading and understand that investing in a Roth IRA andor traditional IRA is absolutely worth it. But this still leaves a relatively large amount of money that I dont know what to do with. Ive lived my life until this point making 12k per year or less, and havent accumulated any debts. Im going to continue living like this; Im not going to go out and make poor investments into new cars and expensive toys. So even if I live like a rich man from my perspective and spend 30k a year on living, that still leaves a large chunk of money that, frankly, I have no idea of what to do with.I know next to nothing about investing, or even where to start with it. I dont needwant to be rich, I just want financial stability and to be able to support a family without worrying about the mortgage payment or electricity bill every month. What can I do to build a solid financial foundation, starting early in my life? Thank you for reading all this, and thank you in advance for any advice.Edit: I wanted to thank everyone for all of the helpful and well thought-out responses and advice. Thank you guys, genuinely. This is my first personal finance post and I wasnt sure what to expect, but all of the replies Ive received have been polite and helpful. Thank you guys. I feel like I have a much better idea of where to start now, which is all that I wanted for the moment.Assistant: planning is good but you just started this week and, to be blunt, havent even gotten your first check yet. id say to hold off for at least a few months and settle in first...Human: Yeah, youre completely correct. But honestly, Im overwhelmed and a little scared. I know its a little irrational, but Ive watched every single person in my extended family squander any real money theyve ever made, and end up with nothing to show for it but maybe a new car that they cant make the payments on. I want a plan going forward, plain and simple.  <response>: I was in your exact situation 10 years ago. I went from making almost nothing to almost immediately making 60K a year. As stated above, do nothing. Do not buy anything, do not change your lifestyle right away. Just let the money accumulate so you can get a picture of how your money will move while staying at your 9 an hour lifestyle.I guarantee you will be amazed. Now after you have a nice efund setup, save for a car. If you live with parents, pay them rent. If you cant stay long, the next step would be housing. At that income I would consider saving up for a down payment on a house.Life style changes should be incremental and slow. Do not go out buying the best of everything, just upgrade and try to keep your mindset as close to the way you lived before this job as you can and you will be ok. 