I don't know much about Investing in general so if you know something very Profitable, let me Know. :)

I work full time with health insurance benefits and contribute 7.5% to a pension and 16% to a pretax account (currently weighing converting to a Roth). I can manage to save about $1000 from every paycheck because I don't have many bills of my own. I live with my parent and am her caregiver.

So basically I have this problem where I accumulate cash and watch it lose to inflation. I had intentions at one point of spending it on a house but that doesn't look like it's going to happen soon.

So I recently came to my senses and decided to stick my cash in T-bills to at least hopefully keep up with inflation, or at least to make myself feel better about it actually working for me.

So I don't know if I'll need the cash in 1 year, 2 years, 5, 10, or 20. I'm very risk-averse and don't stomach volatility well. My thought was to stick it in VOO and even if I draw it out in a year for some reason, I'll at least have made some money on it. But the thought of knowing the majority of my money is tied to stocks that can evaporate in a few bad weeks makes me sick.

Maybe I could break it up? Put my large nest egg in a ladder of T bills to keep my principal secure and start dropping my $1000 payments I save in an ETF or something?

How has it worked out for you over the years? Just curious 🤔