is there anything i can do now as an 18 year old?

[bwana devil]

[ QUOTE ]
a more conservative route but time is on your side.

[/ QUOTE ]

the opposite is true. the younger one is the more aggressive one should be.

having the money in more aggressive investments allows for greater returns and more time to recover from downturns. an 18 year old should welcome this type of growth. a 60 year old would hate this idea and should ladder CDs and take the sure money.

[ActionTodd]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
a more conservative route but time is on your side.

[/ QUOTE ]

the opposite is true. the younger one is the more aggressive one should be.

having the money in more aggressive investments allows for greater returns and more time to recover from downturns. an 18 year old should welcome this type of growth. a 60 year old would hate this idea and should ladder CDs and take the sure money.

[/ QUOTE ]very true what you said

however, there are some that are overly too aggressive
and never looks back

conservative is an option but not the only option

I guess it really boils down to the individual [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[investormcgee]

The first question that people seem to be missing is what exactly do you want to do with your money? Is this money that you want to grow for a few years then buy a car with or are you interested in starting your saving for retirement? If it's money that you are going to need within three to five years and you can't afford to lose it go with the savings account. If it's money that you are going to need within three to five years and want it to grow but it not crucial to be there open a trading account and buy an index, as risky as you want.

Do you have a job? If you have earned income (a salary) and don't need this money I would suggest starting an IRA. Ask anyone who invests that is over 30 and they'll tell you they wished they had started retirement savings earlier in life. Opening an IRA at 18 and sticking with contributions over the next few years would pay-off immensely come retirement. Sure you won't be able to use the money for over forty years but if you made smart investment choices you'd be living like a king once you retire.

First figure out what you want to do with your money, then decide what you want to invest it in.

[prohornblower]

It's good to see you are so young and wanting to look towards your financial future. By tax day 2008 you should be able to put $4K in for a Roth IRA contribution (if you have at least that much in 2007 earned income) with $100-200 leftover.

As someone else stated, don't do dumb stuff like wasting money. I think, because you are so young, that this advice is significantly more important than what to do with the money you've got. I think by the time people are 25-28 they start to realize how much they've spent and how stupid it was. If you can keep from doing this at a young age AND invest in long-term index funds (such as a Target Retirement fund through Vanguard Roth IRA), you will be owning everyone by the time you are 40.

Good luck. I'm 28, and just began vigorously saving my money a couple years ago. I love it, and have a lot more peace of mind at this age than I could have hoped for.

[QTrips]

^^^ Yeah.. what he said! I'm 58... and don't have a dime for retirement because I was stupid with my money all my life. [And it had zip to do with poker/gambling]

On the up side.. when I become a bag lady... I'll at least be able to afford a better class of bags. lol [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Learn to stay away from credit cards as much as possible. They are evil evil evil. Handy... and 'common'... but evil. If you MUST use them.. make sure you pay them off every month... or whatever it is you bought... you DONT NEED!