Great advice from Schneed , just remember he charges $ 100 for advice

. The only thing I would add < my 2 cents > , would be to open an self-directed < brokerage > IRA
House Your Retirement With Self-Directed Real Estate IRAs .
Self-directed IRA offers investment alternatives You can buy individual stocks as well as Mutual Funds & ETF's . I doubt I will ever buy a M. Fund again , just seems too easy to beat them .... Individual stocks < many of them > pay much higher dividends then M. Funds and you have no fees and expense ratio's .... in an IRA , you also pay ZERO in taxes

. Good luck and be ... pro-active .