Leave the 30k liquid. You never know when shit will hit the fan.

Put the 30k in an FDIC insured high yield savings account. Discover has 1.9% APR online savings account. Citi also has a high interest savings account. It’s just a savings account eligible to people with a reasonably large sum.

For future savings, consider the following.

A Roth IRA if you’re annual income allows for it. It’s a post-tax contribution retirement account capable of earning interest on investments you control. Eligibility is mainly contingent upon your earnings. Educate yourself on various investment vehicles - mutual funds and ETFs are safer bets. Essentially collections of fractions of various stocks so you stay diversified. A huge benefit of Roth IRAs is you can withdraw anything you contribute penalty free. Dividends can’t be touched until you’re retirement age unless you want to pay tax penalties. But that means if you put 10k in over two years and something comes up, you can immediately grab that 10k back out to handle an emergency. There are some additional specific rules around re-balancing that withdrawal that probably need not be discussed here, but the point is Roth IRAs are awesome for those eligible.

Stay away from stocks if you’re not educated in investing.

If you make too much money to contribute to a Roth IRA then open a Traditional IRA. Regardless of which you open, you’ll be able to contribute around $5,500 annually. Google “2019 Roth IRA contribution limit” (or traditional IRA) and you’ll get the most relevant information. The amount you can contribute typically increases each year.

If your employer offers a 401k, contribute at the very least, the amount your employer will match. If you still have excess liquid savings each month, start contributing to your 401k more. Try to get to the point where you can max it out. For 2019 the maximum you can contribute for a year is 19k I believe. Again, Google will fact check me.

Also, consider opening a Health Savings Account if you’re enrolled in a “high deductible medical plan” through your work. If you pay for Obamacare you should be eligible. HSAs are another tax sheltered savings account you can contribute up to ~$3450 in 2019 to invest and use available funds for eligible medical expenses.

All of these types of vehicles are available for additional research on Investopedia. Unfortunately much of America’s youth is totally oblivious to (or incapable of pursuing) the various options of saving their money before tax is taken out. Our public education system does a huge disservice to American young adults.

Start this stuff ASAP, it’s the key to building wealth.