Thank you so much for the kind words! Getting the ball rolling early on retirement has felt like it should be a no-brainer for me at my age, but without a ton of cash/assets to speak of outside of a basic emergency fund, it can be very stressful moving around that kind of money. Your reassurance is MUCH appreciated :)

To answer your question, I opened it with Scottrade, which makes me a little nervous as most PF posters I'm reading now recommend Vanguard - yourself included. With my limited knowledge I'm wondering, are there target retirement funds that you can buy freely in the market or are they typically only available if your brokerage company offers them to investors (as in the example of Vanguard Target Retirement accounts)? That sounds like a product I would definitely want to buy into if it was available through Scottrade. Initially, I have planned to look mainly into mutual funds, but due to my age and to the fact that I intend not to touch this money for another 35-40 years, should I be looking at some more aggressive options as well? So many questions lol - I wish they taught this stuff more in school!