I agree with the gist of your post but your consensus advice is a bit off: >And graduated Stanford. You've even managed to save around $10K in cash from variou

I agree with the gist of your post but your consensus advice is a bit off: >And graduated Stanford. You've even managed to save around $10K in cash from various summer jobs and gifts from relatives. The consensus advice investment management professionals would offer is to sock it away in a well-diversified set of Vanguard Funds. Your first $10k is your emergency fund. From what I've read, the consensus is: don't invest it, instead keep it in an FDIC insured savings account + cash. If you need it, it'll probably be because you've been unemployed for a while. You are most likely to be unemployed during an economic downturn. The cash choice insulates against natural disasters. If you do invest it, try a target date fund that's matures in the near future. For today, 2020 would be a good choice.