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

[sunnycalifornia]

im starting to learn more and more about investing/stock market/real estate, etc. but its a slow process. im really interested in all of this however, so im wondering, is there anything i can do now as a freshman in college other than learn more and start to save money? IE, put $100 away every month in a saving account? i am receiving $3500 next week and im opening a saving acct. and putting that in.

[T50_Omaha8]

The best easy thing you can do is find out what percentage interest rate your savings account is paying. A lot of bigger banks will pay you very, very low interest rates--so low they are in effect stealing from you--if you don't make sure you're getting a good rate. You can invest your money in index funds or something like that, but it is really crucial that you don't just let your money rot away in a bad savings account.

A decent rate right now is at least 4% APY. If you go to HSBC (a huge British bank) you can get over 5%.

But lots of savings accounts will pay less than 1%, which isn't even enough to keep up with inflation. Those banks are essentially just preying upon the ignorance of their accountholders. Don't be one of them. If you find that it's very difficult to find out the APY of your savings account at one of the major banks, it is likely paying you a terrible rate.

[Go Blue]

If you're gonna go with a savings account, definitely go with one of those online savings ones, like the other poster mentioned. I just recently opened one with HSBC (hsbcdirect.com) since they always seem to have the highest interest rate (currently at 5.05% I believe).

A good tool to use is a savigs calculator (such as this one: http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/savin...vingscalc.html ). According to this one, if you start with $3500 and save $100 a month for 20 years, you'll have $50k in 20 years, not adjusted for inflation. These things are kinda fun to play around with in general.

In this case, I put in 5% as the average rate of return per year but you can also put your money into some sort of an aggressive market growth fund and maybe assume 8-9% growth per year on average, and plug that into the calculator and see what happens.

[JJSCOTT2]

If you want to start saving for the long-term (which you should) and not need this money day to day I would suggest a mutual fund of some kind. I'm not sure about all the companies different funds but I know for sure that Vanguard has lots of funds with $3000 upfront minimums and then will let you contribute in increments as small as $100 from then on. Sounds like this would be perfect for you.

[Isura]

Put your money in some index funds and start reading.

[ThePost]

- Learn as much as you can about money
- Don't make typical crappy $ mistakes
- Get a good education / job / start a business (Biggest factor for sure)

[Fishhead24]

When I was 18 my only concerns were girls and sports.........nice to see you have direction in your life.

[Tien]

[ QUOTE ]
im starting to learn more and more about investing/stock market/real estate, etc. but its a slow process. im really interested in all of this however, so im wondering, is there anything i can do now as a freshman in college other than learn more and start to save money? IE, put $100 away every month in a saving account? i am receiving $3500 next week and im opening a saving acct. and putting that in.

[/ QUOTE ]

You are off to a very good start.


Keep educating yourself, that is the most important thing to do regardless of any age you start investing at.

Keep reading, keep researching, your first year or first 2 years of educating yourself you will go through incredible learning curves and you will be miles ahead of all the other folks at 18 years old.

[ActionTodd]

good starting point would be to open a Savings a/c.
decent rate of rtn.
ING int rate is at 4.5% I believe
HSBCdirect 5.05%

second thing I would do is to invest in CDs.
ladder your invsmnts: 12mo/24mo/36mo/48mo/60mo

a more conservative route but time is on your side.

[bwana devil]

[ QUOTE ]
Put your money in some index funds and start reading.

[/ QUOTE ]

index funds are a great approach. theyre aggressive and still relatively safe since you dont have to be an expert in a mutual fund or specific stock.

if you dont need immediate access to the money you shouldnt be considering a savings acct - even at 5% interest rate. you can do much better than that.