text:  then you're ready to invest. Knock those out first. And once those are in place, asking questions like, does your company offer a match? If so, fund that first. It's 100% return on your money. There's no other investment that can do that. If not, open an account. Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity, lot of custodians out there and create an automated savings contribution and have the money go into a simple index fund that is aligned with your time horizons.