Trying to Optimize Investing But I Just Lost my Job
Hey everyone, 28 year old here and looking to get a little advice from the community. I am married, one kid on the way. 1 paid off car, one car with $7k left on the loan. Zero credit card debt, we never carry a balance. Credit score roughly ~800.
My financial assets are as follows:
$9850 Roth IRA mostly in VOO and VTSAX
$4650 Vanguard brokerage acct
$2500 HSA
$11,400 HSA investments
$10,000 savings emergency fund
$9500 liquid cash
$4100 gold
$6500 silver
$3400 Bitcoin (which I’m looking at selling as soon as it goes back up, it was a mistake to buy crypto).
How am I doing on the retirement savings? I started investing a little late at 26 so it’s not as much as I’d like. I have tried to diversify a lot, but it feels unfocused and like it isn’t growing as much as I’d like. My goal is to retire by 48, though I’d love to retire even earlier, in the 40-45 range.
Additionally, I just lost my full-time job. I was making $75k a year before. We have our emergency fund, of course, and with a decent pool of liquid cash/good chance I’ll find another job in the next month or two, would it be okay to throw more of the liquid cash into a retirement account, or keep it liquid until I get a job? Or would it be better to aggressively pay off the auto loan? Both my spouse and I have part-time jobs right now as well pulling just under $3k per month.
How important is a 401k if you already have a Roth IRA? I understand employer matching is important, but I’ve always worked in public sector jobs with a pension plan (I am unfortunately not vested so losing my job was a blow), so I haven’t set up a 401k.
Posted Jul 10, 2026, 6:01 PM UTC