College student financial advise

[Gailete]

I think you are in a great position at this point and I commend you for it!

[scfr]

You are off to a great start.

I know you are extremely busy with work and college, but are you in college over the summer? If not, and you have the time to do some reading right now, take the time to read "The Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth you Should Have Learned in School" by Andrew Hallum.

I think you will find it to be a very good investment of your time. You will learn a lot of fundamentals of personal finance.

[Bradyw]

Good on you! Super impressed with your money management and effort of working your way through university. I suggest starting with identifying your personal Risk Analysis. The stock market is eerily high on a very old drive so you need to be aware 'what goes up also comes down.'

Your income is low, tax is not an issue, I suggest you explore opening an account with Vanguard or other low cost firm to DCA [Dollar Cost Average] into their low cost Index Account. They will automatically withdraw an agreed, set amount each month. You will buy more shares on a weak day, less shares on a up day. You can stop the plan if your circumstances change but it easily becomes a good habit, hardly noticeable, like your phone bill. The point is to capture the benefit of compounding over the l-o-n-g term, like 35 years. Better yet, as your circumstances change, you can tweak your holdings to include other investment factors like retirement plan that captures a future employer's contribution and/or ROTH.

Thank you very much! I try not to obsess over saving/earning money, but my goals are to just stay in the green each month and start a financial foundation for after college. I will look into Vanguard/other index funds. An index fund is essentially a mutual fund, right? My knowledge isn't great on them now, but will definitely research into index funds. Thanks for the advice!

[Bradyw]

I think you are in a great position at this point and I commend you for it!

Thank you!

[Bradyw]

You are off to a great start.

I know you are extremely busy with work and college, but are you in college over the summer? If not, and you have the time to do some reading right now, take the time to read "The Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth you Should Have Learned in School" by Andrew Hallum.

I think you will find it to be a very good investment of your time. You will learn a lot of fundamentals of personal finance.

Thank you!! Nope I'm off until the end of August. Appreciate the book suggestion, I'll will look online where to purchase/rent it!

[Gailete]

I'll will look online where to purchase/rent it!

Or borrow for the library! Man of them also do e/books as well as paper although I prefer paper.

[Captain Save]

Ideally.. what would YOU like to do with the 20k? are you thinking about retirement money? What's your plan after college?

The one thing is you got the fundamentals right.. no matter what you chose to do with that money .. you have done the most difficult thing which is to save. You will go places in life.

[Bradyw]

@Captain Save

Ideally.. what would YOU like to do with the 20k? are you thinking about retirement money? What's your plan after college?

The one thing is you got the fundamentals right.. no matter what you chose to do with that money .. you have done the most difficult thing which is to save. You will go places in life.

I appreciate that, thank you!! I just try to save money where I can, and not spend it on anything egregious/unneccesary. So with my savings, I'm not looking to spend it on anything. Ideally, I'd like to continue developing my savings for 3 things: 1) To keep a solid Emergency fund [for potential medical costs, vehicle repairs, or any unforseen schooling costs once my GI Bill runs out] 2)Saving for a house down the line, and 3) saving for retirement.