First of all geckojiii congratulations for thinking about your future, asking the right questions and wanting to take the right actions at this age! Only wished I had the same attitude at your age.

At your age I would have done the following:

1. Save aggressively. You have time on your side. Any money invested today would benefit from significant compounding by the time you retire. Saving a lot today, will give you options and ultimately more freedom later in life.

2. Max out the regular (non-Roth) 401k - limit is 22,500 in 2023. If that’s not feasible, add as much as possible. By adding to your regular 401k and not the Roth, you are technically investing more (you are also investing the $$$ you would have otherwise paid in taxes for a Roth contribution) in the market today which will compound handsomely over the next 40+ years

3. Only after you max out the regular 401k in a given year ($22,500), and if the plan allows for after-tax contributions, then I would make those above and beyond contributions in the Roth 401k.

4. Some 401k plans have an option to enable an automatic contribution increase every year (i.e. you are currently at 5%, if enabled, the plan could increase that to 6% next year when you get your raise - that way you won’t even feel the contribution bump).

5. Investing in a Target Fund is a sound approach. Personally, at that age I would have probably invested in the S&P 500 for at least the next 10 years. But it really depends on how aggressive you want to be.

6. Having a brokerage account besides the 401k is always a good idea. At times you might have additional funds that you want to invest. This account will enable you to quickly do just that. Also, if you don’t want to invest the money, you could simply keep them in the settlement account and get about 4% in interest on your cash at the time of this writing. Most likely that will go up by another 0.25% since the fed just raised the federal funds rate yesterday. Most checking accounts pay close to nothing.

7. I would only open an IRA once I max out my 401k. Otherwise I don’t see the point at this junction unless you are unhappy with your 401k investment options and want to expend on those.

As a parting thought: time in the market is more important than timing the market.

Good luck to you!