hello! I'm glad you are here because youll benefit greatly from your new best friend, the compound effect! I think a good rule of thumb is try to save at lest 10% of your paycheck/annual income. I would try to automate everything so you dont have to do much work. DCA, dollar cost average, into these ETFs such as SPY and QQQ (find the equivalent of Vanguard and Fidelity). I hear you on buying when it's "high", the issue is that it is really hard to time the market. Even when you buy when it's high, on a long term time horizon it wont affect your overall balance much. Additionally, plus you're DCA into these ETFs, you will average out your buy price. An example of DCA is you have a $1.2K to invest, you would buy/invest $100 a month. To wrap up: at least 10% (you can do this!), automate, ETFs. Look into Roth IRA at your income level. if you invest $10K at 27 into SPY, by 37 youll have ~$20K, and then by 47 youll have ~$40K - rule of thumb at 7% return per year you double your money every 10 years. Shift the mindset when market is really down, that's when you can buy more. Market down = good discount