30 Years old - Sitting on a quarter million?

I'd recommend investing in a broad market indexed fund such as one that mirrors the Russel 2K - those are not actively managed and less likely to give you negative results based solely on poor choices by fund managers - pick one that has no-load and low fees - do your homework. They may not be flashy but they return on average better than 10% per year. As to when you can retire - there is the "Rule of 72" that shows that money invested today will take a given number of years to double based on the average earnings per year. The way you use it is to divide the number 72 by the expected average annual return to show the number of years for money invested today to double. Then use the number of years and double the outcome every multiple of that year. Example - 7.2% expected annual return - divide 72 by 7.2 resulting in 10(years) - money invested today would double every 10 years at 7.2% - at 5%, 72/5 = 14.4 years to double - I hope that does not seem too confusing