[claudenm]

Justin,

Congrats!

If you don't have a budget, now might be a good time to make one.

Things to consider:

Average monthly income
monthly fixed costs(rent, bills, spending money, entertainment).

Once you have done that a financial advisor will be able to help you flesh out what your desired investment goals are.

For example, you state "$1000 in interest seems pretty nice." However, if you do your budget, you may see that that $1000 in interest, while nice is not really necessary, and your money may be better invested for the mid-long term with a target rate of double-digit returns. Perhaps you'll find a mixture of the two where 50% of the money is invested in stocks, looking for long term gains, and another portion is invested in order to derive interest income.

I wish I had some books to recommend, but I think El_D makes a good suggestion when he says start learning about the stock market. Things like 5% on a CD might not seem so attractive after you learn a bit more.

BOL,

Claude