Originally Posted by Unregistered

You seem to be holding more cash than your expenses demand, assuming typical liabilities and spending for one who is single.

Consider long-term investments in blue chips (i.e. adopt a buy and hold strategy, rather than do speculative trading) for income at yields much better than saving accounts or FDs can offer, before inflation erodes their value.

In case you are wondering whether I practise what I preach, I am a few years younger than you, and I hold only 15% of my liquid assets in cash, and 85% in equities generating about 6.5% yield pa. I still have a mortgage of about $700k, but I have a very stable job, so I don't worry too much about income loss and don't really see the need for a huge emergency fund. The dividends from my stocks can also cover over 50% of my monthly mortgage. I am also mentally prepared to liquidate some of my shares (even at a loss) if my emergency fund runs out.

I do not know, however, whether this is the best time for one to begin investing in the stock market. My existing stock holdings were all purchased quite a while ago, and I haven't been monitoring the markets very closely, but they do seem a little toppish.