I'm not the original poster, but I'll tell you what I've done in the past which has worked fairly well. I put as much as I'm allowed to into an IRA for retireme

I'm not the original poster, but I'll tell you what I've done in the past which has worked fairly well. I put as much as I'm allowed to into an IRA for retirement and into my spouse's IRA, too. I max out the matching amount on my 401k. (Those 2 things alone ensure that I'm putting away 10-15% for retirement.) I do some additional short to medium-term investment in the stock market. Nothing too risky, but enough to hopefully beat inflation. I also bought a few expensive toys that I really wanted (nice high-end camera, for example) and take regular vacations to nice spots. I started giving to charity, too. I also decided to do something closer to home and helped a relative with their student debt. I started taking some of the free time I have and that nice camera to do photography for a local charity.