Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background.

New to investing — I have $20,000 cash saved, what should I do with it?
As @mbhunter says, make sure you pay off any debt you have first.  Then, it's a good idea to keep some or all of your savings as an emergency fund.  If you use every last dime to pay for a house, you'll have no cushion available when something breaks down.  The most common recommendation I've seen is to have 3-6 months worth of expenses as an emergency fund.  Once you have that, then you can start saving for your down payment.   As @Victor says, try to find the best interest rate you can for that money, but I wouldn't invest it in any kind of stock or bond product, because your need for it is too short term.  Safety is more important than growth given your time frame. When you're ready to invest, make sure you learn all you can.  You don't want to invest in something you don't understand, because that's how you get ripped off.  You can be reading and talking to people while you're saving for your house so that, when the time comes, you'll have a pretty good idea of what you want to do for investments.