Extra Cash, What To Do?

[cohan99]

Hello all,

I've been perusing this forum and have seen some great investment ideas thrown out there, so I thought I'd see what advice you might offer a friend of mine who has asked me to help her figure out what to do with some extra cash. Here are some details:

-Age: 23

-Salary: $45k/yr

-Savings: ~$20k, sitting in a low-interest savings account

-Debt: $0 (no student loans, car payments, etc.)

-Properties: None (rents apartment in city, is not looking to invest in a house yet)

-Looking at possibly going to grad school within 5 years

-Has SEP IRA through employer, does not contribute (unbelievable, I know, but this is going to change!)

-Has expressed interest in making a return (obviously), but doesn't want to lock down all her cash

-Medium risk tolerance--she is a little freaked out about volatility of stock market

What I have suggested is that she starts contributing to her IRA immediately, at least to the level of employer matching (5%). Then, there are a wealth of possibilities--Roth IRA? Mutual Funds? Money Market savings account?

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What would you suggest?