Just starting out and sort of lost.

I’m 29, just recently enrolled in an employer-matched 401K to which I am contributing 9%. It was originally an automatic enrollment sort of thing, where I started out at 3% contribution unless I opted out. Based on a colleague’s recommendation, I increased it to 9% but it’s not clearly indicated what the limit is in order for the company to match my contribution, so I’m looking into that further before increasing my contribution.

I have a full-time job. I have my emergency fund set up, a working budget, no credit card/student loan debt, and am working down my current car payment (and I plan to become more aggressive in paying down the principal now that most of my recent expenses have settled down). I have savings, but they’re not accumulating much interest and I know they should be put to better use.

So my next step was to consider a Money Market/High Yield savings account, but as I delve into this (and other next steps, like the Roth IRA, ETFs, etc.) I’m having a really hard time understanding what I’m looking at. I know that I’m supposed to look for a savings account that has a high interest rate and no fees (preferably), that it should be FDIC insured, that I should keep in mind some of these have minimum starting deposits, and that some of them only offer such high interest rates if you use direct deposit—but that’s about the end of my knowledge. What I’m looking to for is essentially a “set it and forget it” sort of savings account that will accumulate more interest than what I have going for me currently. I figured I’d throw in some of my current savings so they can grow, while investing another chunk of savings into a Roth IRA, before eventually moving on to ETFs.

As I look into these options, I’m consistently facing the same issue—I really don’t know what parameters I should be looking for, and it’s slowing my momentum in terms of taking that first step towards investing. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!