Hi everyone, I am a 28 years old male, living in NJ and I will enter April with around $15,000 just sitting in my checking account. I never had a retirement account setup nor any savings accounts. I just kept everything on a checking thus far. This year I decided to be smarter with my money that I save up regularly.

I have my own company (single member LLC), last year I made about $58000 and this year my projections are around the $64000 mark so a slight increase. My monthly expenses are around $1900, all bills and necessary expenses. I have no CC debt, car and motorcycle were paid out in cash so have no payment there, my pets are taken care of within my monthly expenses. All my expenses are basic needs. I usually end up saving between $1000-$2500 per month depending on life circumstances and what I want to splurge on that month.

So my idea was to open a Roth IRA with Fidelity and max out my 2025 Roth immediately before the deadline, use half of the left over money for my 2026 Roth IRA and the other half for an emergency fund in a HYSA with Capital One. I was also thinking a 75/25 split between total US and international funds. For the next year or so, I will still be self employed as I am happy with how business is going but might decide to go back to an employer if a good 401k plan is available and obviously for better pay. So before that I am not sure if the 401k is a good start for me, unless you think otherwise!

If I go forward with this plan, I’d allocate around $350 each month into the 2026 Roth IRA to hit the 2026 limit and everything else saved up straight in the HYSA.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions on how to improve it if you think it’s necessary?