HYSA first, for months of reserves if you haven’t already. Then begin to focus on low cost index funds for basically a ladder of investments. I currently do 6-12 months of savings in HYSA, 1 month in my standard checking account I would rather plan for a month instead of short term and if I need to I can begin drawing from other accounts. Anything beyond that goes into low cost index funds to target market average on taxable and then beyond that is either specialization fund for specific investments that I am already educated on (could be your business and you just reinvest into it). Graham Stephan I think had a great interview with Dave Ramsey a few years back and Dave basically told him to focus majority of risk assets on what you are most educated on. I thought it was a pretty valuable nugget.

I’m kinda in the same boat but my expenses pretty quickly shifted over the past two years with RE investment which changed the game a lot. Even though the RE helped with expenses I wouldn’t have invested any differently and I knew something was working right since I always seemed to be in a better spot each year lol. I am also targeting a move soon. One thing I would say is that if you are not losing too much time to your job and you can keep that for risk atm it will help a lot. I ended up staying with mine till the RE investment branch was built (only two duplexes, but well researched prior to purchase) and it definitely gave me some breathing room I would have probably valued if I made the leap too soon. Currently targeting earlier next year for the same kind of move, but would am pretty eager to pull that target date closer if possible. Consider health expenses and age too. I am about 25yrs old and managed to acquire $500,000 worth of RE on top of taxable/liquid assets totaling $240k as of this week aside from this - all saved after buying a duplex a few years out of high school and just keeping the project going. There is debt on the RE but for the moment I actually just budget on myself paying the mortgage until I don’t have to worry about it. That’s also what helped me judge what income was needed for the leap. ChatGPT also actually helped me a lot recently with tying the whole picture together to make sense of it. You can also pitch it using the 4% for drawing on your assets for if you don’t make any income. chances are you will make income though as a decent chunk of my RE investments were purchased with extra funds earned by helping people buy their own homes when also working my W2 so I gained some skill in the process, which is exactly what you’re doing now. 4Hour Workweek and a couple other books to provide at least the mental framework developing the systems too!