End of the year should be a time to reflect and calculate if you're on track to meet retirement goals, no matter how long or short your timeline.
I like this calculator from nerd wallet for determining investment returns. I tend to choose 6% as my rate of return because I can plan to achieve my retirement investment number with something conservative and if I end up doing better, maybe I could retire earlier!
Number 1 rule that most people struggle with when investing is "pay yourself first" and learn how to live off the rest of your take home. You must be consistent with investing for retirement, it can't just be "when you have extra money." 6 years ago we started saving 25% of our income to investments and made it work to live off the rest. It's not always easy but it's the only way to make it work when planning for the future. And my plan is not to work forever!
https://www.nerdwallet.com/calculato...ent-calculator
I think I've mentioned before but I use TBIL in a brokerage account to keep the small amount of money actually labeled as an "emergency fund" in something that is liquid but generates 5.3% interest. There is no reason to have any substantial amount of money in a savings account today unless it's a high interest savings account. I like the ease of TBIL compared to a savings account, however, and just parking it there for an easy 5% annualized return with interest paid out monthly.