<human>: I'm 26, just finished my M.S. in Electrical Engineering last year at the same school where I did my Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering. Luckily my parents paid the first degree and the second was funded and paid enough to cover rent in a cheap college town. 

I now live in a much more expensive city making 82k/yr. 5% goes to 401k with company match (I have ~5k in there after about 6 months because I was more aggressive with the 401k in past months) and 5% to an ESPP. I also have RSUs that are slowly vesting. By thirty all of these accounts (which are my longterm/retirement savings) should be worth around 50k, which I'm beginning to think is not enough.

Currently I have a 10k emergency fund in savings (0.07%) that was from mutual funds that I've had since around 2008 (came out on top thanks to this recent Bull run), and then another 5k in a brokerage account that I actively manage (mainly just because I enjoy the research and it's a fun hobby).

I've always been very relaxed about money because my family has always had much much more money in bank accounts then they needed, along with two paid off houses, one of which is a rental property with income. Now that I'm working I'm paying for everything and maintaining a checking balance of around 4k -- but I know that if something came up I could possibly have my family help rather than dipping into my "emergency fund" ... I know that comes off as sounding like a spoiled jerk, but honestly I know I'd do the same if I had kids. 

Which brings me here, I need to save and invest more to get to that point. I know I can cut rent by $500 a month by downsizing and that could go directly into savings. But how should I allocate my savings? If I want to maximize liquidity and minimize risk am I really best off with cash?

How much money should be tied up in long term stuff like IRA for retirement compared to how much I should be investing in a house? Especially when I can assume that I will make more money as my career goes on.

Can you give me a shortened version of the text?
<bot>: compounding interesting is great for retirement and all, but how should I invest for the shorter term? And how am I doing?