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It sounds like you are on the right path, you are saving and not acquiring debt.You are also inquiring about the right decisions to make for your financial future, which is almost unheard of these days, at age 24.Hold a small amount as possible for all emergency cash needs, in your checking account. Depending on your lifestyle, that could be as little as several thousand dollars.As for what to do with the remainder of the $35,000, holding it in a savings or money market equivalent that is FDIC or similarly insured by your own countries' depositor insurance, with the highest yield available, is a reasonable course of action at this time.This is reasonable at present precisely because nobody wants to do it, and others feel they are "missing out" on the markets recent run up in general equities.If you live in the US and by chance you work in Academic, Research, Teaching, or qualified fields, your employer may provide you with access for future contributions to the TIAA-CREF stable value fund.TIAA–CREFTIAA Stable ValueIt may provide slightly better yield, but on $35,000 the difference is minimal.As for buying index funds via dollar cost averaging, adjusted for inflation, it's usually an unfavorable approach during a decade of economic ills as we are currently experiencing. Especially so at recent equity market levels. And also because even if the market moves net sideways over the next 5 years a likely surge in inflation later this decade will erode the real value of those general equity holdings.Most financial advisors though prefer their clients to dollar cost average because a) most clients are not disciplined enough to make rational choices at market extremes, and b) it is a consistent monthly income stream to their firm.But to buy low and sell high, first you actually have to buy low. There should be ample opportunities a couple of years from now for that, using a sensible strategy to control your asset allocation. But you have plenty of time to learn about that before it will need to be put into action.For now, spend the next year(s) building your cash nest egg further, and place it in the highest yielding insured cash equivalent you can find, as mentioned above.As for your lifestyle choices, you are making excellent ones so far. You are a saver. If you wish to read a great dissertation on this topic, you might wish to contact this fellow at his link below and request a sample back issue of his newsletter entitled: "Robert Kiyosaki" from 2011. It speaks eloquently to making lifestyle choices which will help you toward financial independence.http://truecontrarian-sjk.blogspot.ca/As for acquiring debt in the form of a house purchase, if you are presently living in a location where annualized rental yields average 14-17% or more as they did in places like Orlando, Phoenix, Detroit and Las Vegas did in 2010-2011, then yes, it may make sense, if you had discretionary cash.But it's probably still best to wait, use the capital you have for other investment and saving purposes, and then purchase a house in cash, at a later point in your life and at a time when everyone else is fearful of buying real estate.Hope this helps.

There are many different kinds of annuities and many different kinds of situations, so it is difficult to answer your question without more specifics. But here are some thoughts. I’ve had both kinds of annuities described below and worked with friends and relatives who have had both kinds, so what I say is based on those experiences as well as what I’ve learned by reading a lot about this subject. I am not a financial adviser or insurance salesperson.There are two fundamentally different kinds of annuities:Immediate or deferred or traditional annuities, which are like buying a pension. These are, in essence, a form of insurance that protects you from outliving your money (living too long). You pay them a big chunk of money and they guarantee to pay you a fixed amount of money every month for the rest of your life. You can also get inflation adjusted annuities of this kind. Such annuities are often used by retirees. Companies that want to provide pensions for employees often just buy the employee an annuity of this kind. If you have a child or relative who is severely disabled or otherwise unable or unwilling to manage their finances, you might consider this kind of annuity for them. I’ve seen people whose wills call for their money to be used to purchase such an annuity for a disabled or financially irresponsible child or relative, for example. It’s a conservative but relatively safe way to guarantee income for life. On the other hand, if you don’t get an inflation adjusted version (which costs more), and the annuitant (receiver of the money) lives a long time, inflation could eat away severely at the value of the monthly income. (My grandparents wanted to assure that each of their grandchildren got $100 per year for the rest of their lives, so they arranged such an annuity with a local bank. They did this back in the 1950’s when $100 per year, paid around Christmastime, would be a very welcome source of income. It would be the equivalent of over $500 today. But, of course, inflation hit us hard in the 1970’s and 1980’s and by the 1990’s that $100 didn’t seem all that valuable.) You can get quotes on these at immediateannuities.com. Prices tend to be competitive. However, current interest rates are so low that returns on these kinds of annuities are not very good these days, which is another reason to consider an inflation adjusted annuity if you want to get this kind.Variable or indexed or other structured annuities, which are actually a combination of insurance and an investment. Some look a lot like savings accounts and pay a fixed or perhaps adjustable level of interest. The investment part is typically to provide a return that is based on some index or else some agreed-upon rate of interest. The insurance part is that they often guarantee things like “no matter what happens to the index, you will never lose money”. In other words, you will always be able to get back the amount you put in. Also, such annuities are often convertible later in life to an immediate annuity or something similar. These are generally not recommended for most people because they have lower returns and higher expenses, fees and restrictions than simply investing in a conventional manner. They were once used as a tax haven for those saving for retirement, because the earnings are not taxable until you take out the money, but with the advent of IRAs and 401ks and the like, the tax benefits of this kind of annuity are of little value to most people. Those who sell these kinds of annuities tend to make big commissions, so they tend to try very hard to sell them. But if you look closely you often find that the returns aren’t as attractive as they seem. For example, an indexed annuity may be indexed to the stock market, but they don’t tell you that this does not include the dividends paid by the stocks - only the prices of the stocks. This amounts to about a 2% lower return than simply investing in the same stock index via an index mutual fund. (Even if you pay a financial adviser to manage your investments, they seldom charge more than 1%.) Combine this lower return with all sorts of restrictions on when and how much you can withdraw the money, and you find that the benefits are mediocre from an investment perspective. As far as the guarantee that you won’t lose money, you also usually may not withdraw any money for the first 10 years or so (or may have to pay a “surrender charge” to do so). Very few stock market investments lose money after a 10 year period. (Some non-profit companies such as TIAA may provide better returns in the form of higher “dividends” which are really giving you part of that stock dividend money.) If you want a growth investment with mediocre returns for a disabled or financially irresponsible relative, this kind of annuity might be worth considering, but it takes very little skill to simply invest in an index fund yourself.Insurance companies compete with each other by devising all sorts of new wrinkles on their annuity products. Pay close attention to the actual numbers and guarantees and restrictions. Sometimes the product is like an ugly pig that has been tarted up with a lot of makeup.