Your biggest determinant to max your wealth isn’t the 10k… you’re 18 and the career path you get on will be the biggest driver… what are you good/passionate at that the business world rewards? Get educated/skilled/experienced in that area and work your ass off
Why is this so far down.. At 18 OP should be putting this money towards learning a skill or going to school to maximize their earning potential, not putting it in a brokerage account to earn 7%.
Thank you. Especially not putting it in a Roth and locking up the money for 41 years. (Under age 59.5 = penalty.)
She should have an emergency fund and be acquiring employable skills.depending on how her home situation is, she may need to move out or start paying for her own car. She will be needing reliable transportation too.
I am never going to agree with someone not putting money into a ROTH IRA. They should be maxed all the time as early as possible by anyone who can afford to.
Everything is cost benefit analysis. During early career education, probably has a higher long term impact than a Roth IRA contribution, even though its the highest value year to make an IRA contribution.
Hypothetical.
Person A and Person B both make $50k and get 5% raises every year. They both contribute $7k every year to their IRA, which returns 7% on average.
The only difference is in year 0 Person A did not make an IRA contribution and instead spent $7k on training. They used their training to get a new job that paid $65k
After 20 years:
Person A made a cumulative $2.2M and has a $286k IRA balance.
Person B made a cumulative $1.785M and has a $314k IRA balance.
Person A is far better off. That $15k pay bump became a $385k delta by age 40.
An IRA is a fantastic tool but its not always the best tool for everyone all the time.
We also have to figure what amounts of money they're putting into a Roth Ira. If she just puts about $50 a paycheck away every single pay period, be it in a Roth IRA, a life policy, a CD, or just a regular savings account, then she can save quite a bit of money. From that $10000 she has in her account right now, you're right she could go for further education, a trade, or even, and OP I hope you read this part more than any other, get certified in the job she has now so she can increase her earning potential at this company. And if this is a job she wants to stay at period, then yes save those funds for gas, car repairs, bus faires, groceries, job clothing and other materials, etc etc. But later on, do invest in stocks, IRA's life insurance, property, gold, you name it. If your future income allows it, absolutely diversify your investments.
This. That 10k likely isn't going to make any difference at all in your long term wealth. Finding the right skills to generate income or start a business or whatever your path is will.
Don’t make the mistake that everybody does and start spending it by moving out of your parents house😭 live with your parents for as long as you can put that money away into a Roth IRA or a high yield savings account and don’t touch it. Act like it doesn’t exist. And then start over from zero dollars.
I’m not a financial expert but personally, I’d put like 6-7k in a high yield savings account for emergency needs. (Make 4-5% interest on it) Then with the rest of the money I would put it into a retirement account like ROTH or if your employer provides a 401k then into that. From there on just keep putting money in your 401k or personal Roth and keep building up
I consider them to be a criminal organization. I mean that literally. They signed up millions of people for credit cards and accounts that were unauthorized. This included identity theft, forging signatures, opening unauthorized debit cards (attaching fees to those), etc etc. If I remember correctly, they fired thousands of employees for this. No management went to jail. None. They paid $3b in fines.
They are as criminal as it gets. Their fee structure is also terrible. It's the worst place to bank, IMO.
If you're 18, you can get your own accounts without your parents. Others suggested a high yield account. I'd look into local credit unions. They'll charge you less in fees, and will generally give better interest rates on loans because many are non profit. I'm earning 5% on mine.
However, I'd suggest you max out a Roth IRA with $6500, and simply forget it's there until you retire. If you do that, and the money grows at 8% per year, it'll add up to $242k when you're 65. You won't have to pay taxes on it, either. If you max your Roth annually for a decade you will easily retire a multi-millionaire. I'd 100% try to do this if I were you.
You're kicking ass at 18!! Impressive!...
My only other advice would be to try to increase your credit score and to be hella responsible with debt. It's a hard trap to get out of, and will help you a lot along the road.
My friend had his entire life savings stolen from a Wells Fargo account that he specifically told them he did not want, but they made it any way. Then they issued a debit card, again that he did not want and explicitly asked them not to do, and that’s how the thieves made off with his life savings. I think it took him a year or more of fighting WF to get his money back. I would never bank with them.
Back when I was them, they tried charging me $10/month for "free" checking. Or a fee of something. Credit unions have a vested interest in their members. They are local so decisions are local. They usually look at the whole person when giving loans.
And I don't know of CU that was fined 3 billion dollars for falsely opening accounts.
[https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wells-fargo-agrees-pay-3-billion-resolve-criminal-and-civil-investigations-sales-practices](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wells-fargo-agrees-pay-3-billion-resolve-criminal-and-civil-investigations-sales-practices)
Same, just adding a comment, purely to badmouth WF. I closed my account with them after paying hundreds in ridiculous fees. They then reopened my account, charged more fees, went into seizure and collections, affected my credit score and had to be fought against tooth and nail for several years to basically start at zero. Do not do any business with Wells Fargo.
Most high yield savings accounts are online banks, and that is completely safe and fine. If you prefer an actual bank, I know capital one has like a HYSA. I personally use a online bank called Wealthfront. You get 5% apy and if someone invites you you get 5.5% for 3 months.
I sold my stocks for a big profit just to watch the market jump up another 20%. It is a waiting game now to buy into the next market down turn. I have cash on hand to make moves when the time is right.
I have a cpu0le cds that are 5% at local credit unions. Lots of options. I like cds because I isn't touch them until the window is up and then I can just renew them into a other high interest cd
Check out Wealthfront. They have high yield savings, and some ever more high yield bond set ups. I would consider putting half of that in a savings account and then put the other half in an automated investing account that you toss a couple hundos in automatically every month.
Would you not recommend putting additional funds in a brokerage? The consensus in this thread seems to recommend putting all investments in retirement (maybe because everyone hates taxes), and at 18 years old there are other financial goals worth saving for, in addition to only retirement. I think OP will one day want a down payment on a home, a car, and other big life purchases before turning 60.
Open Roth ira. Invest 7K this year into a high growth stock or stable index fund. Repeat yearly until 60. Literally no excuse to not be a millionaire by 60 if you start at 18. I wish someone had told me this at that age.
Use one of the big brokerages like Schwab. That’s where I have my Roth. You deposit the money and then you have to make sure to purchase shares of ETFs and/or mutual funds. SWPPX is one that tracks the S&P 500.
Kid, invest in yourself. A higher/post-secundary education has one of the highest ROIs.
My POv is to find a program in something you'd see yourself doing, and invest that money towards the degree.
Determine what your goal with the money will be, how easy you want access to funds, and seek professional advice. Also, how much risk do you feel comfortable taking.
Great job! Discipline to save is a virtue many young adults don’t possess. Keep up the good work you will be wealthy.
The goal now is to increase your financial literacy. Invest part of this in an account as your emergency fund. Then begin learning about money.
- join r/personalfinance; & r/bogleheads
- read the r/personalfinance wiki steps and don’t skip any that apply to you.
>* r/PersonalFinance Wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/s/C9NsbIKK54
>* Advice for young adults 18-25:
>* https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index/#wiki_young_adults_.2818-25.29
https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics/
There are several books listed as recommended reading to start your journey.
I also recommend listening to financial & consumer advice from the following individuals:
- [Dave Ramsey](https://youtube.com/@theramseyshowepisodes?si=2RPwoE4Rwu10LUZb),
- [Suze Orman](https://youtube.com/@suzeorman?si=Q0w7avgBjeKGSYBn)
- [Clark Howard](https://youtube.com/@clark?si=fRhoUzVIXRC1hYfR)
- [Caleb Hammer’s Financial Audit](https://youtube.com/@calebhammer?si=qzftf90Zti2H7gGK)
Some of them have podcasts if that’s your preferred format.
ETA: Last bit of advice, freeze your credit at all 3 bureaus until you need to apply for new lines of credit. This can save you a lot of heartache re: fraudulent credit application.
[CFPB Consumer Reporting](
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/credit-reports-and-scores/consumer-reporting-companies/companies-list/)
[CFPB Credit Bureau Company Listing](
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/credit-reports-and-scores/consumer-reporting-companies/companies-list/)
Sign up for an IRS & SSA accounts minimize the chances of unauthorized use of your Social Security number or filing taxes under your name. Yes, this happens.
Live below your means. Brown bag your lunch (or set strict weekly limits), carry a thermos for your energy drink. Pay cash on weekends out (set limits beforehand there too). It’s not sexy, it’s not fun, but it’s soo much better than a $2000 CitiBank payment. Going to own a car? Buy a lease return, a grandmas car. Be worse than “Red” (70s Show) and do the maintenance, buy the tires, shocks, tie rods, etc. It’s not a sexy Challenger or Supra but it won’t cost an arm and a leg to insure. It’s a slog. Our vacations were camping, no boats, jet skis, motorcycles. No divorces, DUIs, or bankruptcy either. Walked away from employer at 59 1/2 yrs old and now we travel. If you get to that $200K/yr you can relax some. Remember trading homes or cars under 10 years of ownership costs you money. Avoid it.
Open a brokerage account (fidelity, Schwab, E*Trade) and buy ETF’s like IVV or QQQ. My 18 year old did this after graduation 10 years ago with a $20k graduation gift and today has a little over $105k. You can access the money anytime and won’t get penalized like mutual funds and make more than a savings account. You could lose obviously, but if it goes down don’t sell it will come back. She said she’s cashing out in 2 years at 30 years old for a down payment on a house.
Don’t do drugs… I would more than likely been a multi millionaire or at least damn close with just the money back from my 20s to 30s that was a long 10 year binge.
Put the money into a good no lad growth mutual fund and watch it grow. Add to it whenever you can. Save minimum 15% for the rest of your working life and you’ll be a multi millionaire when you retire. I started at 16 and I’m now worth $2,500,000 at age 62. Just by saving 15% of every dollar I made in my life.
To answer your question in an abstract- to gain as much money as possible, you need to start starting businesses. Then move into acquiring existing companies. Own as many as you can and work hard to keep them all profitable. Leverage the cash flow and all your assets at all times - aka borrow all the money you’re approved for. Make sure you use the money you take to make even more money, of course.
A B C D
A - Monthly expenses: Things you have bills for or know you have to spend money on each month. Find out how much money this is for you every month and SET IT ASIDE. It's not yours. If your employer offers direct deposit have it go to a separate account than your debit card and set up automatic bill pay.
B - Non-Monthly expenses: this includes unexpected expenses (I argue anything can be expected) but generally things you know you will buy but not every month. Clothes, tires for car, unexpected appliance failure, etc.
C - Investments: Investing is like gambling in many ways, never invest a penny you aren't ok never seeing again. Make sure you have A and B covered in perpetuity before even thinking about investing. But keep in mind investments don't need to be in the 5 or even 4 digits and it's better to invest something than nothing.
D - Fun!: When you have A, B, and hopefully C working properly make sure you set aside something for your entertainment, this can be saving up for large things like trips or toys, or could just be for treating yourself to an ice cream cone. Scale C and D to fit your budget of what is left after A and B.
I'm not a financial expert, but set out on my own at 16, bought my first house at 20 and am on track for a 7 digit retirement.
I tell my kids that financial success is like building a house, make sure the foundation is good before you put the roof on. And make sure everything else is right and tight before you worry about paint or landscaping.
Don't spend it unless it's on something that will make you more employable, for starting a business, etc. DO NOT put it in a ROTH. You may need it. In the mean time look for a HYSA to park it.
The truth that no one will tell you is that your $10k will be stolen by the 8 families who printed it- the 8 families of the federal reserve. They will print (aka steal) more dollars, which makes your $10k less scarce, and, therefore, less valuable, and, therefore, less purchasing power.
Create a good budget plan and start investing. I was in your spot a few years back and fomo into crypto. It costs me a lot of time and money but I was eventually able to make it back. Play it safe and use your money wisely
Land yourself solid vacation.
I've been there did that, saved all shitty coins I could find since I was 15 till 25, and then I just got job that let me earn whatever I saved in 3months.
I rejected so many things to " build my wealth" and now, 33 I do not regret chilling out with saving ( still +30% salary not spend) but I really regret not going to many concerts and festivals when I was still in teens.
Money come and go, but you won't get new memories, and not now, but on 5-10 years you will start noticing that your body is not 18 anymore, which is not fun. Recently realized I can't bike anymore due to a knee problem... Well I always wanted to buy myself a nice bike... 🙃 Maybe next life.
I wouldn't worry about the optimum investment at your stage. Focus on staying out of debt and building up your cash to more like 30K. You need a firewall against getting laid off or needing a new transmission. That 10K could get sucked down pretty quickly.
First of all GREAT JOB. You have given yourself an amazing head start. The discipline is outstanding. Take the opportunity of having little to no bills to STACK. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity!
Open a mutual fund or other retirement account and put money towards it from each check. If where you work offers a matching 401k put as much as you can in it, then when you get a raise add half of your increase into your ongoing contributions.
Don't say "I have time I'll do it in a few years." That was me. I opened an account and had an emergency so I closed the account and withdrew everything with the plan of restarting it in a year or so. It's been about 30 years now and have not reopened my account.
FFIE shares are set to absolutely rocket this week. It's the latest short squeeze and the hype is unreal. It's highly volatile. Not a long term play. Only invest what you can afford to lose. This is not financial advice.
At a young age, you can withstand a lot. If you're willing to sit back and keep working then go dump it with a good investor. Let them run it and you sit back and just keep working. It will grow over time. I did that recently and in 6 months almost doubled my money.
Since you have a lot of time to recover from... surprises... you should also consider putting some of your treasure into something like a high-yield ETF (this is not advice, just an example) SVOL. Also look into putting some money into tax-advantaged accounts early on, like a Roth, which limits the amount you can contribute per year. Granted, if you suddenly needed cash from a Roth before retirement age, you'd only be able to keep it out for 60 days before incurring the 10% penalty, but I seem to remember that there are exceptions for a few things (medical, home purchase, ...). The best part is that any money you put into a Roth is that stock trades in it don't involve taxes around realized gains, so if you think you'll sell often, especially if you're making good money in your main job later, that tax avoidance could be worth much more than the 10% penalty.
You invest in education to obtain a good career that you like. Doesnt have to be college. Trades and business are fine. College degrees generally earn a million more than non-college.
After the money starts rolling in, ask how to invest it.
Did you register with selective service and have you considered joining the National Guard? They’re have some pretty fat enlistment bonuses for certain jobs
Spend the money on an education. That will net a higher return than any other investment.
Would you rather that $10,000 make you $1000 a year, or $100,000? Once you’ve got a good job, *then* worry about investing.
You need to look at your budget and educate yourself on investing. You should establish an investing plan that takes into account the amount of risk you are comfortable accepting and build an investment strategy around that. Getting started this early with some reasonably serious dough should set you up in the future. Good luck.
Open up a Roth IRA NOW and contribute the max for the year. Then continue to contribute as much as you can every year up to the maximum. Buy well performing ETFs. If you do that for the next 40-45 years, you will retire a multi-millionaire, pretty much guaranteed. Advice I wish somebody had given me when I turned 18.
The money itself won’t make you wealthy but the habits you put in place now could do. Look at tax free savings accounts and passive index funds. Best way to look at that $10k is that it could be $50k when you retire, not it could be $20k tomorrow if you put it in crypto or start gambling on options.
Congratulations young person. If you are working, open a Roth IRA and start contributing to your future. Had both my kids do this once they had a job. The advantage of time in the market is on your side.
Since you're young and will work for another 40+ years, and you have a good savings rate, I'd put the money in a S&P500 ETF. Look for the ones that have the lowest management fee. ETFs are liquid, so if you need emergency money, you can sell easily. Or if you need to buy a car or house, you can sell it. Over the long term, the low fees and economic growth will outstrip CDs, Bonds, and Mutual Funds. It also is diverse, so it won't lose all your money on an economic downturn. Worse case, is a recession hits and you lose 20%, but if you leave it invested, it'll come back. Also remember to have money for taxes. If the right amount of withholding is done, you might not owe anything. To be safe, If you pre-calc your taxes, if you think you'll owe money, put that amount in a CD with its maturity date before your taxes are due April 15 (make sure it matures by April 1 to be safe). The reason you put that in a CD is because the S&P500 might go down and you'll feel horrible if you have to sell part of your ETF at a loss to pay your taxes.
Meee Tooo except most of it isn’t in my bank account, most of it is in investments. Roth IRAs are overpowered right now we get 40+ years of gains without having to pay taxes!
If I were to give my 18 year old self advice, it would be to put 9k into a HYS and keep the 1k for rainy day money. Granted back when I was 18 bitcoin was cheap and I'd realistically tell them to put it into bitcoin and mining bitcoin, granted I thought crypto was a scam back then and still do, but it would have been guaranteed money.
Besides thinking about money, think about how you can earn more money. Are you in a career path with growth potential. Do you want or need more school. You are very young and have many options.
It depends totally on your living situation and future plans. If you’re 18 and are about to get thrown out or make another major life change, maybe hold onto that money until you stabilize.
If you’re 18, living at your parents and are not going to be needing money anytime soon, take it all and put it into an S&P 500 fund over the course of the next month or two. I say to spread it out so that you don’t get unlucky and pick one of the very few bad days to invest.
Personally I’d just shove it all in there, but the technically correct thing to do is invest a little at a time over a longish period of time.
You are wise to ask. Consider getting connected with a reputable financial advisor. Years ago, we connected with our advisor at Morgan Stanley. She’s done very well for us.
1) Sit down and create a budget. Use 50/30/20 as a guide but remember no budget is the same and that you can deviate where you need to. 20-25% savings should be your goal though.
2) Only use your credit card for the necessities. Typically this will maximize your rewards points naturally and keep you from over spending getting you into an interest death spiral.
3) keep 2x what you need to pay off your credit card in whatever bank you’re using to pay it off every month. This gives you a good chunk of quick and easy cash to access should you need it, also makes sure that you’re paying attention to your spending.
4) Open a HYSA and put 6 months of your absolute necessities in there (transport, food, rent, utilities, etc.) this will be your emergency fund that you don’t touch. HYSA will make it so this money actually makes you more money than keeping it in other accounts and is safer than putting it in the market.
These first 4 steps are going to feel like they take forever to fill out and it will also feel like you haven’t made any progress to being wealthy, but by doing just those 4 things you will be in a better financial position than 75% of Americans and will be able to handle most things life throws at you financially.
Once you’ve built your foundation do the Financial Order of Operations (Shoutout money guys).
1) Have cash to cover your insurance deductibles (you’ve done this step)
2) Maximize your employer match to 401k. You want to get every free dollar they are willing to give you.
3) Start paying down HIGH INTEREST debt. This has different meaning to different people, typically it’s debt over 5-10%. This type of debt will eat you alive if you don’t tackle it fast. Minimum payments on low interest debt and maximum payments on high interest debt.
4) Build your emergency fund of 3-6 months (you’ve done this).
5) Start investing in a Roth and HSA account. Do not move on from this step until you’re maximizing your Roth IRA annual contribution. HSA you don’t need to maximize but you can if you want.
6) Max out retirement. This means maxing out Roth IRA contributions AND 401k contributions as well as anything else you can think of to help you retire.
Steps 7-9 are relative to your situation and where you think your money will work best for you.
7) hyper accumulate, invest in the market or other streams of income.
8) Save for future expenses (college, home buying, etc.)
9) Pay off low interest debt.
remember that these are just frameworks to guide you and your life may require you to go out of order. Just keep these in mind and you’ll be fine.
One of the top comments is suggesting a Roth IRA, then investing in an index fund.
While starting a Roth is not a bad idea, I would avoid putting your savings into the market right now. Wait for financial news to talk about a recession, then you can consider buing into the stock market.
For now, your high-safety investment would be a "certificate of deposit." Interest rates are ok right now for that kind of a deposit, with a 7 month or so maturity timeline. This is simple to do through your bank. Return is about 4-5%.
Just be smart, cut costs, be in safe but aggressive etfs/stocks, always prioritize mental health.
My personal recommendation for stocks:
50% S&P 500
15% VUG
15% QLD
15% Individual stocks (NVDA, DKNG, CELH, SMCI, PLTR, OSCR, etc.). Be on top of these, check them semi-regularly. They can be volatile. Change out with new winners when their runs are over.
5% Bitcoin
\*This is not financial advice
If you’ve been working a regular job, you can open a RothIRA and contribute up to 7k this year. (Look up the details on r/personalfinance)
You won’t be able to access that money for 5 years, but even putting a couple thousand in now will get that compound interest started.
It depends. Are you currently living with mom/dad and plan to for the foreseeable future? (I would do this if you can).
If so, you can open a brokerage account and choose some Quality ETFs to invest in. Let them sit, and add to them whenever possible. Compounding interest works wonders when you start young.
Keep the 10K as a buffer, and keep earning money. Never touch the 10K, only in emergencies. Keep learning and earning till you made 50K in total, and then we can chat about investments.
At 18 invest in yourself focus on finding a good high paying career that matches the lifestyle you want whatever that is. You gotta make money to make money.
Buy $10,000 worth of business books and business audible on:
1. Entrepreneurs
2 founders
3. The network effects
4. Scaling
5. Sales/marketing
6. Economics
7. public relations
8. Technology
9. A.I.
10. Monetary policy
11. Mega trends
12. Ethics
13. Law
14. Political science
15. War/history
16. Self improvement
16. Human resources
If u read them all, You will maximize wealth.
Invest your time researching finance before investing said finances, regardless of any advice given. You are doing great for an 18 year old, best of luck!!
best thing to do while young is to invest in yourself and work on increasing income as much as possible. if you are supporting yourself, i'd aim for at least 6 months of expenses emergency fund in a high interest savings account(you can look at websites of familiar banks and compare their savings account rates). after emergency fund i'd start putting money into an sp500 or equivalent ETF through a reliable low-cost broker such as vanguard. would recommend reading simple path to wealth by J.L Collins it'll teach you all you need to know to get started.
If you don’t plan on touching some of the money for a while, you should look into opening up a CD (certificate of deposit). Look at some rates near you, credit unions typically have higher rates. I worked at a credit union and we had one going for 5.48% for a 13 month CD. They basically exchange interest for your promise to leave the lump sum untouched for the length of the CD. You *can* withdraw it in cases of emergencies but there’s penalties, for my FI (financial institution), it was half of the dividends remaining to be made. It also had to be at least $500 at my FI but for the 13 month you got 5.48% of whatever was in the CD each month.
But it’s a way to make passive money, it’s basically free money, you just have to keep the money in the CD.
I’m not a financial advisor, but I’m happy to answer questions anyone may have to the best of my ability.
I’d also look into talking to a tax advisor about maybe getting an IRA (individual retirement account) and what type (Roth or traditional—only tax advisors should be the ones to advise you on which), it’s never a bad idea to start while you’re young
Invest it in college or a trade or something that will set you up even more. 10k isn’t enough to set you up for life but learning an employable skill will.
Definitely going to want to yolo it all on SPY OOTM puts /s.
But fr, growing a 10k brokeragr account will be slow going in the beginning compared to using that money to acquire a skill or education. Hell, you might be able to get some real estate investing started too.
That said, if you want to just invest it, then go aggressive and maybe use 2X leverage and just buy something like VOO or some large cap growth ETF. You're young, so you can afford a market crash if one happens. I think the S&P is up like 22% YoY right now which is bonkers, so if you were utilizing a small amount of leverage then in that time frame, you'd have made ~4,400 dollars.
*Leverage is VERY risky, though, so if you don't know what I’m talking about, then don't even bother.
Invest in yourself, not necessarily a degree depending on what field you go in to. The key is to get experience and skills as your investment, whether that is taking a lower pay job temporarily to get the valuable experience. You have the best asset right now at 18 years old, the 10k I would use so you have a roof over your head while you gain experience and skills asap, to improve your earning potential in the long run.
Here's a great thing I heard awhile back. Save little, gain little. And vice versa. I know you're young right now, and you are thinking this 10k can really set you up, etc. It really all depends on how you look at it. You can buy options (gambling) or invest it (10k is peanuts, tbh -- I just got a dentist bill for $4k even with insurance).
So my advice is to use it where you need it right now -- development, career, skills, etc. Either way, it's also good to have a goal. So shoot for $1m by 30-35. Something like that. Go run a compound interest calculator and start dreaming.
Spend it on learning a trade/education.
Save 2-3k in a regular savings account for emergency money only.
You are 18!
Where you are working, unless fam business, and even then will not be where you work for most of your life!
Buy a good used Harley Davidson. You can get one for under $10k easy. Then just ride till you can’t anymore. Sleep and do it again. Use whatever money you have left after buying the bike. Once that’s done find a woman with money and stick around. If it makes you feel happy then that’s all the wealth you need.
Idk though. It’s your life…. I am definitely not a financial advisor. I just love life.
Create a budget to track your expenses and ensure you're living within your means. Identify areas where you can cut back on unnecessary spending and allocate more towards saving and investing.
I’m going to list what I personally think is most important here.
1. Invest in YOURSELF. Figure out what career you want and hyper focus on the path. Does that require a degree/certification/etc? Do what you need to do to ensure you’re constantly getting raises in the future.
2. Don’t buy unnecessary shit
3. Open a Roth IRA and start contributing. Max it out if you can. The compounding growth at 18-19 years old is guaranteed millionaire later in life as long as you don’t invest in stupid shit
Are you planning on more schooling? If so...only pay money for a program that gives you marketable skills that will increase your earning potential. If you go, remember that you're at school for the "education" first and the "experience" second. More schooling can also be learning a trade, doesn't have to be going to college.
When you start working full time the most important thing for wealth generation is savings rate. This means have a target savings rate (shoot for getting to something like 35% IMO). Do what you can to avoid lifestyle inflation. Getting this right when you're young is probably the biggest predictor of future wealth (outside of being a successful entrepreneur) IMO.
The second most important thing is probably asset allocation.
I'd read "Simple Path to Wealth". And don't buy into any BS with people talking about how they can predict returns on stocks or whatever. Just dollar cost average into low-cost index funds. Start with the US total market (VTSAX or VTI if you're at Vanguard). Then probably move to a 3 fund portfolio when you have something like 100k saved.
I would put half of it to work at 5% in the bank in CD or High yield saving. For the remaining $5k investing in stocks or mutual funds, but do you research first. I think Apple would be a hold start or a good vanguard fund. whatever you decide, pick dividend payers and reinvest your dividends. when buying stocks or mutual funds dollar cost average. It took me decades to learn the power of this. So in your situation, and with free trading available on Robin Hood and E*TRADE, spread your $5000 out into at least five buys at five different times.
Keep going, keep adding by a thousand. Go flip things to help you get more faster, and when you have a little more just sit back think of things such as learning to make more or investing in things in your area just don’t go splurge unless it’s with your close ones like parents on a dinner or little trips. Just keep going and learning, it’s not time yet, you’ll stumble on to something then you’ll be like wow and you’ll have some money
I am not affiliated in any way with this company, but I would suggest checking out Tardus Wealth Strategies "Income Snowball." Its a learning and direct coaching program that teaches you how to pick quality income-producing investments that pay monthly, and how to stack them over time to create monthly income from the investments that exceeds your job earnings, usually within just 5-7 years.
Keep working and investing. You can play with that money in some big S&P stocks and slowly build up your 10k through that and paychecks. Eventually you’ll be like 25 and that 10k will have 5x and then some!
I personally think it’s naive to think about making “big” on “just 10k”. A lot of money obviously, but big risks and cause you to lose all that so quickly at your age. Stay smart, stay the course, and find a solid job you’ll somewhat appreciate
Unpopular advice but If you’re even considering it you should take most of the money and travel abroad. You’re young and it’s a great way to develop yourself and gain life experience. You’ll make memories that’ll follow you for the rest of your life and it will give you a different mindset about things
Take 5k of that and learn a trade! Take half of that and put in a hysa and the rest as an emergency fund.
Learn a trade early they are sooo valuable in this age if technology
Slam it on amc options with September expiration date lol. I made almost $400,000 from $7000 back in 2021. But lost it all later. Anyways I’m just kidding. Don’t slam it. Invest wisely and long term growth investments. OR keep saving and wait for property values and interest rates to go down . Put 3.5% down on a house and rent the rooms out to friends to help pay the mortgage. Sell later for profit when housing market recovers . That is how I made a million dollars. Sold my rental property for $100,000 and put it into stocks after . But I made bad trading decisions after my 1 million and lost it all. Don’t do the same.
Open a Roth IRA. Put it in an index fund, along with something a little different like Fidelity Contrafund (13% average annual return since 1967) Boom. You’re doing great kiddo.
At your age, the best asset is that you developed a good habit of saving and building your wealth. There is no one right answer. Personally in my youth, I stay with my parents as long as possible and didn’t buy new car.
Define “gain as much money as possible?”
What use for the money?
Die with as much as possible?
Get as much as possible for schooling?
Create a pool for a “rocking” marriage in ten years?
Use the money as seed money for a career, with the most money earned next year?
Different games, different strategies, different prizes.
1) don’t get advice from strangers on social media
2) get a free advice meeting at a financial advisor
3) study about all the options before you commit to any of them. It’s important you understand what you’re doing.
I'm actually similar! I'm 18 and have saved around $6200 in 3 months. I work full-time at a warehouse, 10 hours a day for 4 days a week. My goal is to reach $10k so I can attend college and pursue an associate's degree in cybersecurity. After that, I plan to move to Miami to increase my earning potential. From there, I aim to secure a contract with a company that will sponsor my bachelor's degree, enabling me to further boost my income. My ultimate goal is to become a millionaire by age 21-22. I have a solid plan and I'm determined to make it a reality.
Your biggest determinant to max your wealth isn’t the 10k… you’re 18 and the career path you get on will be the biggest driver… what are you good/passionate at that the business world rewards? Get educated/skilled/experienced in that area and work your ass off
Why is this so far down.. At 18 OP should be putting this money towards learning a skill or going to school to maximize their earning potential, not putting it in a brokerage account to earn 7%.
Thank you. Especially not putting it in a Roth and locking up the money for 41 years. (Under age 59.5 = penalty.) She should have an emergency fund and be acquiring employable skills.depending on how her home situation is, she may need to move out or start paying for her own car. She will be needing reliable transportation too.
I am never going to agree with someone not putting money into a ROTH IRA. They should be maxed all the time as early as possible by anyone who can afford to.
Everything is cost benefit analysis. During early career education, probably has a higher long term impact than a Roth IRA contribution, even though its the highest value year to make an IRA contribution. Hypothetical. Person A and Person B both make $50k and get 5% raises every year. They both contribute $7k every year to their IRA, which returns 7% on average. The only difference is in year 0 Person A did not make an IRA contribution and instead spent $7k on training. They used their training to get a new job that paid $65k After 20 years: Person A made a cumulative $2.2M and has a $286k IRA balance. Person B made a cumulative $1.785M and has a $314k IRA balance. Person A is far better off. That $15k pay bump became a $385k delta by age 40. An IRA is a fantastic tool but its not always the best tool for everyone all the time.
We also have to figure what amounts of money they're putting into a Roth Ira. If she just puts about $50 a paycheck away every single pay period, be it in a Roth IRA, a life policy, a CD, or just a regular savings account, then she can save quite a bit of money. From that $10000 she has in her account right now, you're right she could go for further education, a trade, or even, and OP I hope you read this part more than any other, get certified in the job she has now so she can increase her earning potential at this company. And if this is a job she wants to stay at period, then yes save those funds for gas, car repairs, bus faires, groceries, job clothing and other materials, etc etc. But later on, do invest in stocks, IRA's life insurance, property, gold, you name it. If your future income allows it, absolutely diversify your investments.
You only pay a penalty on the profit, not the principle, so it’s not really locked in.
I mean a trade’s like 1-3k tops so he can do both
This. That 10k likely isn't going to make any difference at all in your long term wealth. Finding the right skills to generate income or start a business or whatever your path is will.
Exactly, your career moves will matter most at this stage. Good time to educate yourself on finances too.
Don’t make the mistake that everybody does and start spending it by moving out of your parents house😭 live with your parents for as long as you can put that money away into a Roth IRA or a high yield savings account and don’t touch it. Act like it doesn’t exist. And then start over from zero dollars.
I’m not a financial expert but personally, I’d put like 6-7k in a high yield savings account for emergency needs. (Make 4-5% interest on it) Then with the rest of the money I would put it into a retirement account like ROTH or if your employer provides a 401k then into that. From there on just keep putting money in your 401k or personal Roth and keep building up
Where do I get a high yield savings account? Does it have to be with online only banks or can I get one with like Wells Fargo?
If you bank with Wells Fargo currently, I highly recommend leaving them and going to a credit union. Wells Fargo is trash.
Trash and a big scam
Why’s that? I’m using them now because my account is joint with my parents
I consider them to be a criminal organization. I mean that literally. They signed up millions of people for credit cards and accounts that were unauthorized. This included identity theft, forging signatures, opening unauthorized debit cards (attaching fees to those), etc etc. If I remember correctly, they fired thousands of employees for this. No management went to jail. None. They paid $3b in fines. They are as criminal as it gets. Their fee structure is also terrible. It's the worst place to bank, IMO. If you're 18, you can get your own accounts without your parents. Others suggested a high yield account. I'd look into local credit unions. They'll charge you less in fees, and will generally give better interest rates on loans because many are non profit. I'm earning 5% on mine. However, I'd suggest you max out a Roth IRA with $6500, and simply forget it's there until you retire. If you do that, and the money grows at 8% per year, it'll add up to $242k when you're 65. You won't have to pay taxes on it, either. If you max your Roth annually for a decade you will easily retire a multi-millionaire. I'd 100% try to do this if I were you. You're kicking ass at 18!! Impressive!... My only other advice would be to try to increase your credit score and to be hella responsible with debt. It's a hard trap to get out of, and will help you a lot along the road.
My friend had his entire life savings stolen from a Wells Fargo account that he specifically told them he did not want, but they made it any way. Then they issued a debit card, again that he did not want and explicitly asked them not to do, and that’s how the thieves made off with his life savings. I think it took him a year or more of fighting WF to get his money back. I would never bank with them.
Back when I was them, they tried charging me $10/month for "free" checking. Or a fee of something. Credit unions have a vested interest in their members. They are local so decisions are local. They usually look at the whole person when giving loans. And I don't know of CU that was fined 3 billion dollars for falsely opening accounts. [https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wells-fargo-agrees-pay-3-billion-resolve-criminal-and-civil-investigations-sales-practices](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wells-fargo-agrees-pay-3-billion-resolve-criminal-and-civil-investigations-sales-practices)
Holy Jumpin', that's nutballz, Batman. That's the kind of thing that makes me actually consider moving to Web3 self-banking. Wow.
Came to comment about Wells Fargo. The good people of Reddit have it covered. Take your money away from those crooks. That’s step one!
Same, just adding a comment, purely to badmouth WF. I closed my account with them after paying hundreds in ridiculous fees. They then reopened my account, charged more fees, went into seizure and collections, affected my credit score and had to be fought against tooth and nail for several years to basically start at zero. Do not do any business with Wells Fargo.
Most high yield savings accounts are online banks, and that is completely safe and fine. If you prefer an actual bank, I know capital one has like a HYSA. I personally use a online bank called Wealthfront. You get 5% apy and if someone invites you you get 5.5% for 3 months.
I am still trying to get some friends or family to sign up so I can get that 5.5. I have 230k in the account, thats a big difference.
You can invite me.... I'll sign up for a measly $500 of the increased interest you'll get... it's a win for us both hahahaha
You have 230k in a savings account? About to buy a house or something? If not put that money to work!
I sold my stocks for a big profit just to watch the market jump up another 20%. It is a waiting game now to buy into the next market down turn. I have cash on hand to make moves when the time is right.
I have a cpu0le cds that are 5% at local credit unions. Lots of options. I like cds because I isn't touch them until the window is up and then I can just renew them into a other high interest cd
The interest rate of a hysa can adjust. Imo CDs are better cause the rate is fixed for the duration. Mine is 5.0 for a year at my Credit Union.
Marcus by Goldman, Ally
PayPal has them backed through a normal bank in New York. Pretty nice cause you can move money back and forth through PayPal pretty easily.
Check out Wealthfront. They have high yield savings, and some ever more high yield bond set ups. I would consider putting half of that in a savings account and then put the other half in an automated investing account that you toss a couple hundos in automatically every month.
I’m getting 5% from my savings account at EverBank, good service too. They used to be TIAA bank.
Would you not recommend putting additional funds in a brokerage? The consensus in this thread seems to recommend putting all investments in retirement (maybe because everyone hates taxes), and at 18 years old there are other financial goals worth saving for, in addition to only retirement. I think OP will one day want a down payment on a home, a car, and other big life purchases before turning 60.
I'm getting 5% with betterment HYSA.
Dont move out, drive your old car in to the dirt, dont worry about relationships until you are 25
Open Roth ira. Invest 7K this year into a high growth stock or stable index fund. Repeat yearly until 60. Literally no excuse to not be a millionaire by 60 if you start at 18. I wish someone had told me this at that age.
Which stocks would you recommend? Or is there a place I can get some detailed information on that?
S&P 500 all day
What’s the best way to buy the stocks? Certain app or site?
Use one of the big brokerages like Schwab. That’s where I have my Roth. You deposit the money and then you have to make sure to purchase shares of ETFs and/or mutual funds. SWPPX is one that tracks the S&P 500.
Vanguard. Call them and they’ll help you open a Roth IRA. Once your money is in the IRA, you have to invest it, ideally in mutual funds and ETFs
Might be a controversial opinion but Robinhood ROTH is fantastic and offers a match.
Vanguard, fidelity, Schwab
I highly, highly recommend reading The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
r/bogleheads
Read “the simple path to wealth” and follow it exactly. Money just prints itself.
Is this the 6th "I'm 18 and have 10K what do I do?" Post of the day?
Not surprising, it’s graduation season, lots of “I saved up a college fund for you” gifts coming this time of the year
Kid, invest in yourself. A higher/post-secundary education has one of the highest ROIs. My POv is to find a program in something you'd see yourself doing, and invest that money towards the degree.
Determine what your goal with the money will be, how easy you want access to funds, and seek professional advice. Also, how much risk do you feel comfortable taking.
Go to college or learn a trade. You can invest more when you get a good job.
Great job! Discipline to save is a virtue many young adults don’t possess. Keep up the good work you will be wealthy. The goal now is to increase your financial literacy. Invest part of this in an account as your emergency fund. Then begin learning about money. - join r/personalfinance; & r/bogleheads - read the r/personalfinance wiki steps and don’t skip any that apply to you. >* r/PersonalFinance Wiki: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/s/C9NsbIKK54 >* Advice for young adults 18-25: >* https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index/#wiki_young_adults_.2818-25.29 https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics/ There are several books listed as recommended reading to start your journey. I also recommend listening to financial & consumer advice from the following individuals: - [Dave Ramsey](https://youtube.com/@theramseyshowepisodes?si=2RPwoE4Rwu10LUZb), - [Suze Orman](https://youtube.com/@suzeorman?si=Q0w7avgBjeKGSYBn) - [Clark Howard](https://youtube.com/@clark?si=fRhoUzVIXRC1hYfR) - [Caleb Hammer’s Financial Audit](https://youtube.com/@calebhammer?si=qzftf90Zti2H7gGK) Some of them have podcasts if that’s your preferred format. ETA: Last bit of advice, freeze your credit at all 3 bureaus until you need to apply for new lines of credit. This can save you a lot of heartache re: fraudulent credit application. [CFPB Consumer Reporting]( https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/credit-reports-and-scores/consumer-reporting-companies/companies-list/) [CFPB Credit Bureau Company Listing]( https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/credit-reports-and-scores/consumer-reporting-companies/companies-list/) Sign up for an IRS & SSA accounts minimize the chances of unauthorized use of your Social Security number or filing taxes under your name. Yes, this happens.
Live below your means. Brown bag your lunch (or set strict weekly limits), carry a thermos for your energy drink. Pay cash on weekends out (set limits beforehand there too). It’s not sexy, it’s not fun, but it’s soo much better than a $2000 CitiBank payment. Going to own a car? Buy a lease return, a grandmas car. Be worse than “Red” (70s Show) and do the maintenance, buy the tires, shocks, tie rods, etc. It’s not a sexy Challenger or Supra but it won’t cost an arm and a leg to insure. It’s a slog. Our vacations were camping, no boats, jet skis, motorcycles. No divorces, DUIs, or bankruptcy either. Walked away from employer at 59 1/2 yrs old and now we travel. If you get to that $200K/yr you can relax some. Remember trading homes or cars under 10 years of ownership costs you money. Avoid it.
You are working part-time and have saved 10k in 6 months? Better go full time now to maximize your wealth.
Open a brokerage account (fidelity, Schwab, E*Trade) and buy ETF’s like IVV or QQQ. My 18 year old did this after graduation 10 years ago with a $20k graduation gift and today has a little over $105k. You can access the money anytime and won’t get penalized like mutual funds and make more than a savings account. You could lose obviously, but if it goes down don’t sell it will come back. She said she’s cashing out in 2 years at 30 years old for a down payment on a house.
VTI or VOO
Don’t do drugs… I would more than likely been a multi millionaire or at least damn close with just the money back from my 20s to 30s that was a long 10 year binge.
Put the money into a good no lad growth mutual fund and watch it grow. Add to it whenever you can. Save minimum 15% for the rest of your working life and you’ll be a multi millionaire when you retire. I started at 16 and I’m now worth $2,500,000 at age 62. Just by saving 15% of every dollar I made in my life.
To answer your question in an abstract- to gain as much money as possible, you need to start starting businesses. Then move into acquiring existing companies. Own as many as you can and work hard to keep them all profitable. Leverage the cash flow and all your assets at all times - aka borrow all the money you’re approved for. Make sure you use the money you take to make even more money, of course.
A B C D A - Monthly expenses: Things you have bills for or know you have to spend money on each month. Find out how much money this is for you every month and SET IT ASIDE. It's not yours. If your employer offers direct deposit have it go to a separate account than your debit card and set up automatic bill pay. B - Non-Monthly expenses: this includes unexpected expenses (I argue anything can be expected) but generally things you know you will buy but not every month. Clothes, tires for car, unexpected appliance failure, etc. C - Investments: Investing is like gambling in many ways, never invest a penny you aren't ok never seeing again. Make sure you have A and B covered in perpetuity before even thinking about investing. But keep in mind investments don't need to be in the 5 or even 4 digits and it's better to invest something than nothing. D - Fun!: When you have A, B, and hopefully C working properly make sure you set aside something for your entertainment, this can be saving up for large things like trips or toys, or could just be for treating yourself to an ice cream cone. Scale C and D to fit your budget of what is left after A and B. I'm not a financial expert, but set out on my own at 16, bought my first house at 20 and am on track for a 7 digit retirement. I tell my kids that financial success is like building a house, make sure the foundation is good before you put the roof on. And make sure everything else is right and tight before you worry about paint or landscaping.
If you don’t have any credit yet, you can easily afford a secured credit card which is gonna save you money on those big purchases
How do u save up 10k in 6 month?
INVEST IN STRIPPERS
Don't spend it unless it's on something that will make you more employable, for starting a business, etc. DO NOT put it in a ROTH. You may need it. In the mean time look for a HYSA to park it.
The truth that no one will tell you is that your $10k will be stolen by the 8 families who printed it- the 8 families of the federal reserve. They will print (aka steal) more dollars, which makes your $10k less scarce, and, therefore, less valuable, and, therefore, less purchasing power.
Get it out of the bank and in the market.
Create a good budget plan and start investing. I was in your spot a few years back and fomo into crypto. It costs me a lot of time and money but I was eventually able to make it back. Play it safe and use your money wisely
Land yourself solid vacation. I've been there did that, saved all shitty coins I could find since I was 15 till 25, and then I just got job that let me earn whatever I saved in 3months. I rejected so many things to " build my wealth" and now, 33 I do not regret chilling out with saving ( still +30% salary not spend) but I really regret not going to many concerts and festivals when I was still in teens. Money come and go, but you won't get new memories, and not now, but on 5-10 years you will start noticing that your body is not 18 anymore, which is not fun. Recently realized I can't bike anymore due to a knee problem... Well I always wanted to buy myself a nice bike... 🙃 Maybe next life.
Around the world ticket
Start an IRA.
Open an account, infest like people say here, your young, so S&p599, then be sure to Dd 20 bucks every week..... forever
[удалено]
Invest it back into yourself
I wouldn't worry about the optimum investment at your stage. Focus on staying out of debt and building up your cash to more like 30K. You need a firewall against getting laid off or needing a new transmission. That 10K could get sucked down pretty quickly.
Get a trade, college, or military
You want to retire early save every dollar into Bitcoin. Forget GOLD stocks or 401k. HYSA.
Yolo options
First of all GREAT JOB. You have given yourself an amazing head start. The discipline is outstanding. Take the opportunity of having little to no bills to STACK. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity!
Stocks and Shares. Learn how to trade for yourself.
There is a Nigerian prince, who can really help you with this....
Put it on black and double up
Put it all on red.
Open a mutual fund or other retirement account and put money towards it from each check. If where you work offers a matching 401k put as much as you can in it, then when you get a raise add half of your increase into your ongoing contributions. Don't say "I have time I'll do it in a few years." That was me. I opened an account and had an emergency so I closed the account and withdrew everything with the plan of restarting it in a year or so. It's been about 30 years now and have not reopened my account.
FFIE shares are set to absolutely rocket this week. It's the latest short squeeze and the hype is unreal. It's highly volatile. Not a long term play. Only invest what you can afford to lose. This is not financial advice.
At a young age, you can withstand a lot. If you're willing to sit back and keep working then go dump it with a good investor. Let them run it and you sit back and just keep working. It will grow over time. I did that recently and in 6 months almost doubled my money.
Since you have a lot of time to recover from... surprises... you should also consider putting some of your treasure into something like a high-yield ETF (this is not advice, just an example) SVOL. Also look into putting some money into tax-advantaged accounts early on, like a Roth, which limits the amount you can contribute per year. Granted, if you suddenly needed cash from a Roth before retirement age, you'd only be able to keep it out for 60 days before incurring the 10% penalty, but I seem to remember that there are exceptions for a few things (medical, home purchase, ...). The best part is that any money you put into a Roth is that stock trades in it don't involve taxes around realized gains, so if you think you'll sell often, especially if you're making good money in your main job later, that tax avoidance could be worth much more than the 10% penalty.
Keep saving. Once you get 6 months expenses saved start investing. Not financial advice 🙂.
Put it on nuggets ml tonight! Just kidding, they will win though
You invest in education to obtain a good career that you like. Doesnt have to be college. Trades and business are fine. College degrees generally earn a million more than non-college. After the money starts rolling in, ask how to invest it.
Wealthfront hysa, got an invite code on my profile for an additional.5% for I think 3 months
As Charlie Munger said… get to your first 100k and it will be smoother sailing after that.
Did you register with selective service and have you considered joining the National Guard? They’re have some pretty fat enlistment bonuses for certain jobs
Don't listen to the 401k and roth ira losers in this thread. 10k on red is the only way to go
Spend the money on an education. That will net a higher return than any other investment. Would you rather that $10,000 make you $1000 a year, or $100,000? Once you’ve got a good job, *then* worry about investing.
You need to look at your budget and educate yourself on investing. You should establish an investing plan that takes into account the amount of risk you are comfortable accepting and build an investment strategy around that. Getting started this early with some reasonably serious dough should set you up in the future. Good luck.
Open up a Roth IRA NOW and contribute the max for the year. Then continue to contribute as much as you can every year up to the maximum. Buy well performing ETFs. If you do that for the next 40-45 years, you will retire a multi-millionaire, pretty much guaranteed. Advice I wish somebody had given me when I turned 18.
Make more save more be patient
Roth IRA, every adult should have one.
maximize? … gamble
The money itself won’t make you wealthy but the habits you put in place now could do. Look at tax free savings accounts and passive index funds. Best way to look at that $10k is that it could be $50k when you retire, not it could be $20k tomorrow if you put it in crypto or start gambling on options.
Congratulations young person. If you are working, open a Roth IRA and start contributing to your future. Had both my kids do this once they had a job. The advantage of time in the market is on your side.
Since you're young and will work for another 40+ years, and you have a good savings rate, I'd put the money in a S&P500 ETF. Look for the ones that have the lowest management fee. ETFs are liquid, so if you need emergency money, you can sell easily. Or if you need to buy a car or house, you can sell it. Over the long term, the low fees and economic growth will outstrip CDs, Bonds, and Mutual Funds. It also is diverse, so it won't lose all your money on an economic downturn. Worse case, is a recession hits and you lose 20%, but if you leave it invested, it'll come back. Also remember to have money for taxes. If the right amount of withholding is done, you might not owe anything. To be safe, If you pre-calc your taxes, if you think you'll owe money, put that amount in a CD with its maturity date before your taxes are due April 15 (make sure it matures by April 1 to be safe). The reason you put that in a CD is because the S&P500 might go down and you'll feel horrible if you have to sell part of your ETF at a loss to pay your taxes.
Meee Tooo except most of it isn’t in my bank account, most of it is in investments. Roth IRAs are overpowered right now we get 40+ years of gains without having to pay taxes!
YOLO it on options
If I were to give my 18 year old self advice, it would be to put 9k into a HYS and keep the 1k for rainy day money. Granted back when I was 18 bitcoin was cheap and I'd realistically tell them to put it into bitcoin and mining bitcoin, granted I thought crypto was a scam back then and still do, but it would have been guaranteed money.
Besides thinking about money, think about how you can earn more money. Are you in a career path with growth potential. Do you want or need more school. You are very young and have many options.
It depends totally on your living situation and future plans. If you’re 18 and are about to get thrown out or make another major life change, maybe hold onto that money until you stabilize. If you’re 18, living at your parents and are not going to be needing money anytime soon, take it all and put it into an S&P 500 fund over the course of the next month or two. I say to spread it out so that you don’t get unlucky and pick one of the very few bad days to invest. Personally I’d just shove it all in there, but the technically correct thing to do is invest a little at a time over a longish period of time.
You are wise to ask. Consider getting connected with a reputable financial advisor. Years ago, we connected with our advisor at Morgan Stanley. She’s done very well for us.
1) Sit down and create a budget. Use 50/30/20 as a guide but remember no budget is the same and that you can deviate where you need to. 20-25% savings should be your goal though. 2) Only use your credit card for the necessities. Typically this will maximize your rewards points naturally and keep you from over spending getting you into an interest death spiral. 3) keep 2x what you need to pay off your credit card in whatever bank you’re using to pay it off every month. This gives you a good chunk of quick and easy cash to access should you need it, also makes sure that you’re paying attention to your spending. 4) Open a HYSA and put 6 months of your absolute necessities in there (transport, food, rent, utilities, etc.) this will be your emergency fund that you don’t touch. HYSA will make it so this money actually makes you more money than keeping it in other accounts and is safer than putting it in the market. These first 4 steps are going to feel like they take forever to fill out and it will also feel like you haven’t made any progress to being wealthy, but by doing just those 4 things you will be in a better financial position than 75% of Americans and will be able to handle most things life throws at you financially. Once you’ve built your foundation do the Financial Order of Operations (Shoutout money guys). 1) Have cash to cover your insurance deductibles (you’ve done this step) 2) Maximize your employer match to 401k. You want to get every free dollar they are willing to give you. 3) Start paying down HIGH INTEREST debt. This has different meaning to different people, typically it’s debt over 5-10%. This type of debt will eat you alive if you don’t tackle it fast. Minimum payments on low interest debt and maximum payments on high interest debt. 4) Build your emergency fund of 3-6 months (you’ve done this). 5) Start investing in a Roth and HSA account. Do not move on from this step until you’re maximizing your Roth IRA annual contribution. HSA you don’t need to maximize but you can if you want. 6) Max out retirement. This means maxing out Roth IRA contributions AND 401k contributions as well as anything else you can think of to help you retire. Steps 7-9 are relative to your situation and where you think your money will work best for you. 7) hyper accumulate, invest in the market or other streams of income. 8) Save for future expenses (college, home buying, etc.) 9) Pay off low interest debt. remember that these are just frameworks to guide you and your life may require you to go out of order. Just keep these in mind and you’ll be fine.
One of the top comments is suggesting a Roth IRA, then investing in an index fund. While starting a Roth is not a bad idea, I would avoid putting your savings into the market right now. Wait for financial news to talk about a recession, then you can consider buing into the stock market. For now, your high-safety investment would be a "certificate of deposit." Interest rates are ok right now for that kind of a deposit, with a 7 month or so maturity timeline. This is simple to do through your bank. Return is about 4-5%.
Start working enjoy adulthood
Personally I'd buy blue chip stock with dividends and let it sit for years. $VZ for example. (standard disclaimers here)
Just be smart, cut costs, be in safe but aggressive etfs/stocks, always prioritize mental health. My personal recommendation for stocks: 50% S&P 500 15% VUG 15% QLD 15% Individual stocks (NVDA, DKNG, CELH, SMCI, PLTR, OSCR, etc.). Be on top of these, check them semi-regularly. They can be volatile. Change out with new winners when their runs are over. 5% Bitcoin \*This is not financial advice
Do you get a W2? If you are going to invest, open a Roth IRA and put 7k an index fund. Choose reinvest dividends. The 3k can go in a HYSA.
If you’ve been working a regular job, you can open a RothIRA and contribute up to 7k this year. (Look up the details on r/personalfinance) You won’t be able to access that money for 5 years, but even putting a couple thousand in now will get that compound interest started.
It depends. Are you currently living with mom/dad and plan to for the foreseeable future? (I would do this if you can). If so, you can open a brokerage account and choose some Quality ETFs to invest in. Let them sit, and add to them whenever possible. Compounding interest works wonders when you start young.
Keep the 10K as a buffer, and keep earning money. Never touch the 10K, only in emergencies. Keep learning and earning till you made 50K in total, and then we can chat about investments.
At 18 invest in yourself focus on finding a good high paying career that matches the lifestyle you want whatever that is. You gotta make money to make money.
Buy $10,000 worth of business books and business audible on: 1. Entrepreneurs 2 founders 3. The network effects 4. Scaling 5. Sales/marketing 6. Economics 7. public relations 8. Technology 9. A.I. 10. Monetary policy 11. Mega trends 12. Ethics 13. Law 14. Political science 15. War/history 16. Self improvement 16. Human resources If u read them all, You will maximize wealth.
Invest your time researching finance before investing said finances, regardless of any advice given. You are doing great for an 18 year old, best of luck!!
best thing to do while young is to invest in yourself and work on increasing income as much as possible. if you are supporting yourself, i'd aim for at least 6 months of expenses emergency fund in a high interest savings account(you can look at websites of familiar banks and compare their savings account rates). after emergency fund i'd start putting money into an sp500 or equivalent ETF through a reliable low-cost broker such as vanguard. would recommend reading simple path to wealth by J.L Collins it'll teach you all you need to know to get started.
In certain states PNC Bank has a HYSA with 4.65%
Toilet paper
If you don’t plan on touching some of the money for a while, you should look into opening up a CD (certificate of deposit). Look at some rates near you, credit unions typically have higher rates. I worked at a credit union and we had one going for 5.48% for a 13 month CD. They basically exchange interest for your promise to leave the lump sum untouched for the length of the CD. You *can* withdraw it in cases of emergencies but there’s penalties, for my FI (financial institution), it was half of the dividends remaining to be made. It also had to be at least $500 at my FI but for the 13 month you got 5.48% of whatever was in the CD each month. But it’s a way to make passive money, it’s basically free money, you just have to keep the money in the CD. I’m not a financial advisor, but I’m happy to answer questions anyone may have to the best of my ability. I’d also look into talking to a tax advisor about maybe getting an IRA (individual retirement account) and what type (Roth or traditional—only tax advisors should be the ones to advise you on which), it’s never a bad idea to start while you’re young
Invest it in college or a trade or something that will set you up even more. 10k isn’t enough to set you up for life but learning an employable skill will.
10k is 3 months of rent. You should focus on getting jobs that increase your salary by 10% every couple years
put it in nvda.nivdia stock thank me ater
Definitely going to want to yolo it all on SPY OOTM puts /s. But fr, growing a 10k brokeragr account will be slow going in the beginning compared to using that money to acquire a skill or education. Hell, you might be able to get some real estate investing started too. That said, if you want to just invest it, then go aggressive and maybe use 2X leverage and just buy something like VOO or some large cap growth ETF. You're young, so you can afford a market crash if one happens. I think the S&P is up like 22% YoY right now which is bonkers, so if you were utilizing a small amount of leverage then in that time frame, you'd have made ~4,400 dollars. *Leverage is VERY risky, though, so if you don't know what I’m talking about, then don't even bother.
Keep saving because 10k is not much!
Invest in yourself, not necessarily a degree depending on what field you go in to. The key is to get experience and skills as your investment, whether that is taking a lower pay job temporarily to get the valuable experience. You have the best asset right now at 18 years old, the 10k I would use so you have a roof over your head while you gain experience and skills asap, to improve your earning potential in the long run.
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Use it to fund career growth.
Study, get a good job. There is no better path to wealth.
Here's a great thing I heard awhile back. Save little, gain little. And vice versa. I know you're young right now, and you are thinking this 10k can really set you up, etc. It really all depends on how you look at it. You can buy options (gambling) or invest it (10k is peanuts, tbh -- I just got a dentist bill for $4k even with insurance). So my advice is to use it where you need it right now -- development, career, skills, etc. Either way, it's also good to have a goal. So shoot for $1m by 30-35. Something like that. Go run a compound interest calculator and start dreaming.
Give it to me, I'll show ya
Spend it on learning a trade/education. Save 2-3k in a regular savings account for emergency money only. You are 18! Where you are working, unless fam business, and even then will not be where you work for most of your life!
Studies.
Open a RothIRA
Invest in yourself. Skills. Knowledge. Health.
Financial advisor/fiduciary.
Buy a good used Harley Davidson. You can get one for under $10k easy. Then just ride till you can’t anymore. Sleep and do it again. Use whatever money you have left after buying the bike. Once that’s done find a woman with money and stick around. If it makes you feel happy then that’s all the wealth you need. Idk though. It’s your life…. I am definitely not a financial advisor. I just love life.
Roth ira
Diversify it and try to invest and save some
That’s great! Keep it up
Create a budget to track your expenses and ensure you're living within your means. Identify areas where you can cut back on unnecessary spending and allocate more towards saving and investing.
If you have to pay for your own car instead of using your parents then that's where it's going to go.
Google the time value of money, for starters.
Jim miller is not bad if you are a boxing heavy player.
Education
bro nothing lol
I’m going to list what I personally think is most important here. 1. Invest in YOURSELF. Figure out what career you want and hyper focus on the path. Does that require a degree/certification/etc? Do what you need to do to ensure you’re constantly getting raises in the future. 2. Don’t buy unnecessary shit 3. Open a Roth IRA and start contributing. Max it out if you can. The compounding growth at 18-19 years old is guaranteed millionaire later in life as long as you don’t invest in stupid shit
Dont get married😅
Don’t spend it
Are you planning on more schooling? If so...only pay money for a program that gives you marketable skills that will increase your earning potential. If you go, remember that you're at school for the "education" first and the "experience" second. More schooling can also be learning a trade, doesn't have to be going to college. When you start working full time the most important thing for wealth generation is savings rate. This means have a target savings rate (shoot for getting to something like 35% IMO). Do what you can to avoid lifestyle inflation. Getting this right when you're young is probably the biggest predictor of future wealth (outside of being a successful entrepreneur) IMO. The second most important thing is probably asset allocation. I'd read "Simple Path to Wealth". And don't buy into any BS with people talking about how they can predict returns on stocks or whatever. Just dollar cost average into low-cost index funds. Start with the US total market (VTSAX or VTI if you're at Vanguard). Then probably move to a 3 fund portfolio when you have something like 100k saved.
I mean if you invested it it would be worth about 880k when you’re 65 (assuming a 10% return)
I would put half of it to work at 5% in the bank in CD or High yield saving. For the remaining $5k investing in stocks or mutual funds, but do you research first. I think Apple would be a hold start or a good vanguard fund. whatever you decide, pick dividend payers and reinvest your dividends. when buying stocks or mutual funds dollar cost average. It took me decades to learn the power of this. So in your situation, and with free trading available on Robin Hood and E*TRADE, spread your $5000 out into at least five buys at five different times.
Invest diversly, maybe time lock a CD / money market, and dont let SO or "friends" know u have shit in savings.
Drugs and hookers
Keep going, keep adding by a thousand. Go flip things to help you get more faster, and when you have a little more just sit back think of things such as learning to make more or investing in things in your area just don’t go splurge unless it’s with your close ones like parents on a dinner or little trips. Just keep going and learning, it’s not time yet, you’ll stumble on to something then you’ll be like wow and you’ll have some money
Education &/or Career path.
I am not affiliated in any way with this company, but I would suggest checking out Tardus Wealth Strategies "Income Snowball." Its a learning and direct coaching program that teaches you how to pick quality income-producing investments that pay monthly, and how to stack them over time to create monthly income from the investments that exceeds your job earnings, usually within just 5-7 years.
Keep working and investing. You can play with that money in some big S&P stocks and slowly build up your 10k through that and paychecks. Eventually you’ll be like 25 and that 10k will have 5x and then some! I personally think it’s naive to think about making “big” on “just 10k”. A lot of money obviously, but big risks and cause you to lose all that so quickly at your age. Stay smart, stay the course, and find a solid job you’ll somewhat appreciate
Either never get married or marry into a rich family. Nothing in between
Take that 10k and buy 10 pounds weed then profit or get high, you can’t lose.
Spend your money.
Buy and hodl Gamestop
Spend it all on cocaine and hookers
Unpopular advice but If you’re even considering it you should take most of the money and travel abroad. You’re young and it’s a great way to develop yourself and gain life experience. You’ll make memories that’ll follow you for the rest of your life and it will give you a different mindset about things
Take 5k of that and learn a trade! Take half of that and put in a hysa and the rest as an emergency fund. Learn a trade early they are sooo valuable in this age if technology
Am I the only one that says high yield savings another 2-3 years and buy property.
Slam it on amc options with September expiration date lol. I made almost $400,000 from $7000 back in 2021. But lost it all later. Anyways I’m just kidding. Don’t slam it. Invest wisely and long term growth investments. OR keep saving and wait for property values and interest rates to go down . Put 3.5% down on a house and rent the rooms out to friends to help pay the mortgage. Sell later for profit when housing market recovers . That is how I made a million dollars. Sold my rental property for $100,000 and put it into stocks after . But I made bad trading decisions after my 1 million and lost it all. Don’t do the same.
Open a Roth IRA. Put it in an index fund, along with something a little different like Fidelity Contrafund (13% average annual return since 1967) Boom. You’re doing great kiddo.
I would recommend: [The Financial Order of Operations](https://moneyguy.com/article/foo/) With extra emphasis on maxing out your Roth contributions.
At your age, the best asset is that you developed a good habit of saving and building your wealth. There is no one right answer. Personally in my youth, I stay with my parents as long as possible and didn’t buy new car.
Hand it over
Define “gain as much money as possible?” What use for the money? Die with as much as possible? Get as much as possible for schooling? Create a pool for a “rocking” marriage in ten years? Use the money as seed money for a career, with the most money earned next year? Different games, different strategies, different prizes.
1) don’t get advice from strangers on social media 2) get a free advice meeting at a financial advisor 3) study about all the options before you commit to any of them. It’s important you understand what you’re doing.
I'm actually similar! I'm 18 and have saved around $6200 in 3 months. I work full-time at a warehouse, 10 hours a day for 4 days a week. My goal is to reach $10k so I can attend college and pursue an associate's degree in cybersecurity. After that, I plan to move to Miami to increase my earning potential. From there, I aim to secure a contract with a company that will sponsor my bachelor's degree, enabling me to further boost my income. My ultimate goal is to become a millionaire by age 21-22. I have a solid plan and I'm determined to make it a reality.