Investing outside a retirement account

[jarrs05]

Wondering where you guys would suggest investing the money I have left after maxing out my Roth IRA. I curently have about 6 months living expenses in a money market yeilding 1% in the next year I plan to save enough to max out my Roth and have an additional 2 to 3 thousand to invest. My goal is to buy a car when my current one goes hopefully in about 5 years from now. I was considering a consevative balanced fund with 20 to 30 percent stocks. I plan on being able to contribute about 3 thousand a year to this fund and don't nessisaraly want to cash it all in to buy a car.

[disneysteve]

I think with a 5-year time horizon, a conservative balanced fund isn't unreasonable. Some would say not to go into stocks at all unless you are leaving the money in for at least 5 years but I think 20% or so is fine as long as you understand the risk involved.

[Gina23]

You are in the exact same situation I am in...

I am maxed out everywhere and had the rest of it sitting in a MMMF account. I subtracted out my 6 month EF and invested the rest of it in a Intermediate Term Bond fund. Yes, it's a taxable endeavor, but someome around here (I think it was Disney Steve) posted something that I'll never forget. Something along the lines of "tax implications should not drive your decision to choose one investment over another."

I have earned 9% on the decision so far. Good Luck