Before investing anywhere else, build a liquid safety net: one year of personal living expenses and six months of business operating costs in cash you can access within 24 hours. Use an S&P 500 index fund or high-yield money market account. Without this buffer, you're not ready for emergencies.
Cash is king. And that doesn't mean necessarily keeping cash in the bank account, but if I can access it in 24 hours, that's liquid. So, so I want to have 1 year of lifestyle living expenses put away, and ideally like 6 months of business operating capital completely put away into some sort of liquid investment. So for me, that might mean an S&P 500 index fund. It might mean a high-yield money market account, but somewhere when the shit hits the fan, it doesn't matter. My business can keep operating and I can keep living for an extended period of time, and that just gives me a safety net. So what I would say to the listeners is, if you don't have that, don't invest in anything else.
