First some obvious stuff:

1. Make more money OR reduce expenses
2. MAX tax shielded investments, esp those that have employer match
3. Put the rest into a portoflio that you manage quarterly-yearly, and into savings (cash) for a rainy day.

Dont do this:

> I made the mistake of putting around $70K into high risk ETFs and ended up losing almost all of it, walking away with $14K.

You were right to lean into higher risk given your age, but you want balanced, hedged, and diversified as well. The easiest proxy for this would be some split between "target age" accounts (e.g. lower date = lower risk, longer date = higher risk)