Thanks for the insight, I really appreciate it.

I paid off my private student loans (they were like 8%), and now the federal ones I have left.. I think they're around 4%?

I think for the short term, I will open a savings account with Ally until I open the Roth IRA.

Many suggest to go to Vanguard for a Roth IRA, what are your thoughts on where I should start with that? Is there a best time to open one? Do I contribute money all at once and max out or periodically put money in? How do you choose which fund to put it in?

I appreciate the advice on the stocks, hopefully I can get to the point of deciding what to do with them if I stay long enough for all of it to vest!

Awesome, thanks for all the insight.

I doubt anything will actually be canceled, I don't expect it to be. So I guess when the time comes where no more pauses or cancellations are in sight, then I will just pay it off in one time with what I set aside to avoid the interest.

Last question, I know this is discussed a lot and I've been reading here and online, but in the short term, my first course of action will be to open a HYSA. Any advice there? I've gathered that Ally, Capital One, Discover seem to be the most popular even if there are others with higher rates, but these seem to be the ones people stick to since the rates are "safer" and won't decrease as much as others may. Is this the route I should go?

After reading a bit more, perhaps I should consider Ally's No Penalty CD... and maybe do ~65k of my ~74k?

What's your personal recommendation? Sounds like I'm in the safe bet but S&P 500 might be riskier but with greater returns? Are these the most commonly used options? Is this something I can change easily? If so, would I need to track things closely to see when to change it back and forth? Or once you pick, you pick and it just sits?

I'm willing to put in the time to educate myself using online resources, but do you think I would ever need to entertain consulting or hiring a financial planner?

Oh yeah the time horizon is just the over the amount of time I've had the 401k, so about a year and a half. Thanks for the book rec, I'll check it out!

As for the other rec, would one of the ways I would accomplish this is by reducing my Roth 401k contribution to the company match and then using that money? What kind of "account" do I open with them? Is that what a Roth IRA would be or this is something different?

Also, for my federal student loans, should I just pay those off monthly once it resumes? Any reason to explore just paying them all off at once right now?

You're definitely right. I've been trading an entire life in exchange for living far away at home and it hasn't done me any good. I'll have the rest of my life to save money. I guess now I just need to take these words and make them reality.

Haha, we will see about that. In the game of life when it comes to that, I am much, much farther behind.

So here is where I am greatly inexperienced. Online it says my "annualized rate of return" is 0.55% (I believe this was honestly negative last time I checked) & that 100% is in "American Funds 2060 Trgt Date Retire R6"

I have no idea what this means nor do I believe I ever selected anything when I set this up, maybe it was just the default?

Wow judging from my lack of knowledge on a lot of those variables in the calculator, I definitely have a lot more to learn before I even consider buying. It's just rents are skyrocketing where I live and just using the Zillow estimates of mortgage, interest, insurance and HOA, depending on the condo, it comes out to less than or about the same as renting in the area.

Online it says my rate of return on the Roth 401k is 0.55%, is this normal? It seems low?Your ballpark of "becoming a millionaire" is that possible with these retirement accounts? Or should I be out there now slowly learning also about other ways to invest?

This comment honestly means a lot. Where I'm at in life isn't making me happy, and I really want to move but throwing away 2k in rent every month is holding me back which is what has ultimately lead me to question and learn about my finances. I rented for a year after college, which is normal and most people do it for years and years, so maybe I should consider that again instead of stressing, and instead hold off on making any big decisions...