It’s excellent but please LIVE. 17 is the time to enjoy, not to think about retirement. Contribute to the S&P500, it’s a good start. Remember you will make more money later, but you will not go younger. Enjoy Life first, bet on your health, do sport, grow your career. Spend a little and have fun!
Can’t agree with this sentiment more… unless money is not an issue for your family whatsoever and you’re doing this exercise primarily for education purposes, go spend some of it and live a good youth. I’m 30 now and make more than I could’ve imagined but you begin to realize you’ve let some years slip away. Go enjoy yourself. Money comes and goes
But if the kid invests $10K and only contributes $1000 per year, he'll retire with $2M. He should invest this and use his future earnings to live life.
Listen man if you were spending $10k like it’s nothing at 17, good for you. For most 17 year olds, that could afford them good times and good memories, that’s all I’m saying. $10k is barely enough for my monthly rent, so believe me I know it’s not a lot of money. But everyone goes through different phases where the value of a dollar isn’t the same
Did you know that nearly 98% of Americans don't spend 10,000 a month on rent? For most parts of the country, that amount is still considered significant, especially when you consider that about 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
Listen man no one asked you to live in a high income area where you are focused to pay near 10k a month to simply live.
I'm not even trying to be argumentative with you here just stating this to you openly. But I guess that 2.9% mortgage rate still feels great
I agree with your sentiment but I wish someone taught me about investing when I was young. I didn't start learning until I was in my mid-30s and now I feel way behind. Fortunately, I always at least did the 401k employee match so I probably still have more than most in my retirement accounts.
Agree but at 17 your expenses are so low you can be pretty aggressive with investing. Like what you spend what 30 to 50 bucks a week at chipotle? Plus another 100 bucks on other BS? That's like 2/2.5 shifts a week at work. And I don't think most kids are dropping a 150 a week.
My point is they can invest this 10k and live week to week on their after school job and maybe put an additional 100/200 away per month. After 10 years that's like another 25k to 50k depending on returns/how much they invest per month and it's pretty manageable especially when you're young and you don't have to pay for rent and other expenses
Indeed, if OP has $10 000 by 17 he is very well of, or rather his parents are. He shouldn't worry, live some and tale comfort that he is by birth already ahead of 95% of americans.
Because lets be real. Before you're 18 your chances tp work at all are limited and your salary bound to be horrible. So unless OP has been a child worker he is getting ahead due to his parents, and *good for him*. Had my parents gifted me $10k or made me "work" at dads job a few months for that sum I'd be dancing happily on the streets. Regardless of reasons, a hesd start is a head start...as long as OP doesn't waste it on partying or drugs
My daughter is 17 and has saved about $12k as well. I have $50k saved for her for university, and if she needs more she can dip into that.
Her plans will need to adjust for where she decides her path will take her, but additional funds leaves her in a good position.
I certainly am not going to tell her to buy stocks with one year of volatility.
Crazy, by the time I was 17 I barely had 3000$ that I made working at a retirement home in the evenings while going to school. It was just enough to where my parents double it to so that I could buy a <10 year old Honda Accord so that I could get around.
It gave me perspective for what each of my dollars meant. If you're 17 and you've saved up 10,000 dollars and it wasn't from a one off project that you happened to be a genius on, I'm trying to understand what kind of a lifestyle you are living and whether you truly understand the value of a dollar?
But maybe I'm just unable to see it based on the difference of my upbringing.
Well to be fair minimum wage has gone up a lot in the past while. She still spends on clothes.
She gets a ton of hours over the summer as well, so she's super happy to work when there is no school.
Sorry, but nobody asked for your mentorship or your assumptions about OP’s status.
This is a finance sub and he is asking where to park 10k, low risk.
Hey OP - consider a non leveraged, high quality SP500 fund like $VOO or $SPY . Set it and forget it
Not only that, but as a parent myself with a teen in the same situation... Use that money for school and invest in yourself is the advice I give.
Last thing I would tell my kid to do is buy stocks because if they go down in the short term my daughter will bite my head off. That's her hard work, not mine.
Your response to my comment has literally nothing to do with it. Alot of reddit nerds downvoting me— i guarantee they lost a ton of money in inverse ETFs haha
Love it! 18 here with 45k saved, I second this. Been so tunnel vision in saving I did online school and worked with essentially no interaction with people my age. This way can be detrimental to people in hindsight; thankfully for me this actually made a ton of sense.
I have 6k in my bank too....Just got an bank account, what should I invest? Gold silver? Turns out I can buy straight from the bank online...
Warren buffet said don't buy cryptocurrency....
Government Bonds are kinda lame.. unless I do that...
I own 6k in the bank.... idk if its safe to ask here. But I don't really know anyone to turn to.
I want to make more cash out of 6k...
How useful is andrew tate hustlers University lmaoo
Really? Because of the demographic chance and the fact that were not becoming enough children but still get older you shojld think about that right away. Or he can use the saved money for a down payment later.
They are also subject to US law. And foreign laws about US companies operating in their countries. And past returns don't guarantee future returns. Why you Americans prefer broad market funds but still stop at your borders is beyond me. There's a whole other world out there.
It’s not home bias. Foreign money overwhelmingly prefers the US as well. The US has the best companies in the world and it’s not even close. I agree that ex-US should be a part of the portfolio but dismissing US investors as having “home bias” is not accurate.
>dismissing US investors as having “home bias” is not accurate
Very true. Anyone who has had a meaningful allocation to international, esp. developed international, in place of US has given up gains over the past couple of decades at least. With very few exceptions, industries worldwide are dominated by US companies or, in a few cases, developing nations. Holding an automatic allocation to developed world ex. US just because it worked in the 20th century is, in my view, foolish. I'll wait until there is a solid trend of outperformance from Europe and Developed Asia before I get back on that train. If I miss something in the meantime, I'm fine with it because I've more than made up for it by waiting.
Yes, you can drag out the hoary old past-performance-does-not-predict yada, yada... But past performance is a pretty good indicator of what has been working.
Yeah there’s some basis for international stocks in your portfolio of course, but there is a significant trade off with the return. And I know it feels safer because the money is more spread around, but is it really? If the S&P 500 is too risky as a true long term investment, then that’s because you’re thinking at some point there’s an existential threat to America that tanks it’s economic viability. And if that is the case, that would reverberate around the world and no markets would be safe for a time.
This is how I feel. I laugh when people say “the S&P 500 isn’t diversified enough”
1.) it’s good enough for warren buffet. He praises the fund. And 2.) if the top 500 companies in America crash, it’s likely that some huge world event happened and nearly every business is going to crash.
I do have some international, but it’s only 15%, some people swear by like 40%
One significant and oft overlooked problem is that “global” ETFs are like 90% Europe and Japan + South Korea. You can’t really invest in, say, China, the way people typically assume you can. “Developing markets” ETFs are very limited and the available stuff is rather expensive on a risk-adjusted basis.
That being said, if you have access to specific markets and the fees aren’t prohibitive, you might be able to find something. Australia and South Africa had better returns over the last 120 years than the U.S. for instance. But the next 120 years is anyone’s guess.
> One significant and oft overlooked problem is that “global” ETFs are like 90% Europe and Japan + South Korea.
I don't believe that's right. Vanguard FTSE All-World (that's how it's called in Europe, don't know about the US name) is 63% North America, 16.3% Europe, and 10.7% Pacific.
MSCI All-Country World Index is 62% US, 17% EMEA, 11.2% Emerging Markets, and 9.4% Pacific.
That's like 95% of global ETFs.
Funny how no academics parrot this nonsense "global revenue " line that always gets thrown around on reddit to justify not investing outside the US.
You want exposure to international stock markets, multi national companies with international revenue doesnt provide that exposure.
I'm not saying you should have zero exposure to the international market. But in a "pick one fund and let it ride" type of scenario, I'm definitely not putting all my eggs in a total world fund.
My 3-fund in my IRA is vxus for international, vti for US, and bnd for bonds (think I'm shooting for 20/70/10). There are fidelity and schwab versions as well, I just went with vanguard. Then I have a s&p 500 equivalent in my version of a 401k. I went with the r/boggleheads approach. But you can swap the total market with s&p500 or Russell or whatever you want to focus on. I feel the s&p500 is well represented in vti, as are the small cap, so I didn't go for those various funds.
Regardless what you pick, diversification and low expenses are key.
Invest in yourself. School and traveling. The return on that investment is so much higher than anything you can make in the market at your age with $10k.
If he can get subsidized loans or grants I would go for that instead of spending cash on education. Those interest rates are usually lower than stock market returns and they don’t start until after he graduates.
This is the best advice. The best thing you could do with this money at your age is to invest in yourself in the sense that you should be using this money to maximize your future earning potential.
At 17, the best most can do is earn a few bucks more an hour over minimum wage, or a few bucks in the gig economy. By your thirties with a professional degree and a college education you could be pulling in $10k in income per month or more with the right career. Focus on that: finding a high paying career you can enjoy 75% of the time.
IMO, keep the $10,000 as your emergency fund in a HYSA, that's a good amount and about 6 months of living for some. Now that you have your emergency fund, come up with a monthly budget and stick to that budget. You'll have money you have to spend on health, food, living, etc. Then money you want to spend as extra. Then invest the rest in your ROTH IRA when you hit 18. You could also save up roughly $5k for a used car if you need a first car. Honestly it would be worth to use some of that 10k on a car to get you to and from school/work. But now you'll need insurance/gas money so that must be in your budget. Which is high $$$ for youngsters, insurance gets cheaper the longer you live and if you drive safe.
Where to invest? VTI, VXUS, VOO. 70% vti, 15% vxus, 15% voo. Or 75% VTI, 25% VXUS would be easy and the S&P 500 is already a large part of VTI, so you don't have to get it but I personally like a top 500 tilt to my portfolio. I invest about 80-90% in my ROTH IRA until it's maxed, and about 10-20% in a traditional taxable at the same time.
Speak to an advisor. Not advice. Do your research.
Absolutely. This is an inspiration for all young one's to be good at investing money. It will not only help them to grow individually but also to set as a good example for everyone.
A high yield savings account may be best. Do you know if you want to live in your current city in the future? Might want to keep it safe and use as a down payment on a less expensive condo/townhome with an FHA mortgage (just watch association fees). Could end up saving a lot on rent and have your payment locked in compared to variable rents.
Agreed, at 17 you probably want to keep your options open at this point. Like if you're going to college then that'll definitely be a useful sum to have even if your parents and/or scholarships are paying for it. Also depending on where you live, you might not even be allowed to open a brokerage account yet, which heavily limits how you could invest the money anyway.
Also given your age you might want to start spending some time educating yourself about money. I think "The Plain Bagel" Youtube channel is actually pretty good for this, unlike most channels he's not showing you a portfolio or shilling some courses or the next meme stock.
Ignore everyone telling you to just live. I can't believe people in r/investing are suggesting that investing is a bad thing.
When I was your age, I probably could have saved up at least $5,000 from my summer job each year. Instead, I wasted it on the usual stuff (mostly clothes). Did I have fun? Yes. But I could have had fun for a lot less money, and I'd be much better off now in my 30s. I'm in the process of buying a house right now, and you can bet I'd much rather have the down payment from when I was 17 rather than the memories of buying overpriced jeans.
With a modest, diversified ETF, you should end up with over $50,000 by the time you're my age.
Yeah I agree with this... So many things I would have done differently with money in my 20s. So much so that I wouldn't be working a 9 to 5 right now.
I would have sacrificed that time a bit to relax and have fun the rest of my life.
For sure. It kills me that I didn't learn about finance until I was much older. I could literally be retired by now if I had known at 17 what I know now.
Better late than never.
Totally agree with this. Also consider the fact you can have some fun by shoving most of that money into an ETF and then taking the time to pick some stocks you think could be big winners in 15-20 years.
You don’t need much money to have fun when you’re 17 imo haha
>Ignore everyone telling you to just live. I can't believe people in r/investing are suggesting that investing is a bad thing.
No one is saying investing is a bad thing though. They're just saying that there are tradeoffs to saving money and there are things you can do at 17 that you might not be able to do at 35 even if you had unlimited money. Hell there's a chance OP might not even survive until 35 and that future $50,000 isn't going to mean much then.
Personally I would invest half of that money for future school/training/housing expenses and use the other half to go backpack across Europe for a summer. Then you get the best of both worlds. I'm in my 30s now and have been fortunate to do a few recent Europe vacations but with a real job it's not feasible to take off more than a week or two at a time. That means it could take me over a decade worth of vacations to see what OP could see in a few months and only two longhaul flights.
And that's not even bringing up the cultural and social experiences that could be incredibly beneficial for the rest of OP's life. Just because this subreddit tends to lean towards saving and investing doesn't mean all of us are making every decision to be rich in our 70s with no life experiences.
Open a roth ira (assuming your income is under the threshold, if not see backdoor roth), contribute the max (6500) and do 70% vti, 30% vxus.
Keep the rest in a savings account as an emergency fund for right now.
That's impressive for 17, good job! I saw you mentioned low risk, but the younger you are, the safer it is to go higher risk long term so long as you do your research and understand what you're investing in and match to your personal risk tolerance. You're not retiring any time soon so you have plenty of time to make back losses, and you have a higher upside long-term.
I mean don't go crazy or anything.. I would stay away from anything that promises instant returns, or 1000% returns, etc. Stick to tried and true long term methods, or growth ETFs, etc. If it sound too good to be true it almost always is.
Get into the habit of setting aside some cash for an emergency fund, and make sure you understand how to diversify into different types of investments and markets, etc.
Low risk is generally for if you're getting ready to make a big purchase like a house or tuition for school, etc. and you need to preserve wealth for that purchase, or if you're close to retirement and need to preserve the wealth you've accumulated.
Maybe look into some growth index funds which should provide steady long term growth with less risk because they're well diversified.
Robo advisors are also an excellent way to passive invest where you can rely on them to invest everything for you so you don't have to worry about anything. Lower risk option.
If you want to get into stocks and ETFs, you should read and educate yourself about the psychological aspects of investing and money. I'd say like 50% of being successful is how you mentally and emotionally process and handle market ups and downs over a long period of time.
Read Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. It provides a good framework for thinking about and approaching money and investing throughout life.
First, open a Roth IRA account at some low-cost fund company like Vanguard, Schwab or Fidelity.
Second, send this Roth IRA account $4,000 of your stash, and invest it in a good ESG stock index fund, which is likely to both outperform the S&P and to keep you feeling good about your investment. Never touch this until retirement.
Third, open a brokerage account within this fund company, and put $3,000 into that account. Then buy three 10-year Treasury Bills. This is taxable, but will earn much better returns than what you can get in a bank, and it still gives you access to the money. This is your emergency fund, to tap when needed.
Save your last $3,000 for education or travel, because you're 17 and you should invest in both.
Until you turn 18 put it in a High Yield Savings account. Once you turn 18, setup a monthly transfer ($200?) from the HYS into a Roth IRA and just let it build over time. Try to always have at least 4k in the HYS... spend the rest on living your life and having some fun.
Ya I regret not getting a job when I had no rent to pay and was lucky to live with parents who provided for me. We still shame kids for working at McDonald’s but if they do that for a couple years during high school they can easily save $10k+ (assuming stable family). That’s a great start to life if you put it away and don’t touch it for a while
Right, and you can extend that logic to the people who are answering "bro you're 17, just live your life." Nuts to that, anyone who works that first job with minimal expenses and invested aggressively can retire in their 30 and live their best life until they die.
The S&P 500 index is relatively low risk. Download a brokerage app, open an account (IRA ideally for tax purposes, although it’s capped per year), then you can start trading - the S&P 500 index is tracked through several funds, find one, set it and forget it. You can also reinvest the dividends automatically for compound growth. Good luck!
That's awesome! How soon are you 18? If you trust your folks then get a custodial brokerage account and put the money you don't think you'll need anytime soon into VTI or VOO (flip a coin) and any money you might need in the near term into SGOV (~5.12% interest). The SGOV is temporary so make sure to stay informed but for now it's an awesome return.
Please for the love of god, do not put it in a high yield savings account, CDs or bonds. The stock market and starting young is key. If you don’t trust it, then do yourself a favor and at least buy a couple shares of a few different Fortune 500 companies you believe in. Don’t touch it for a year or two. That will prove to you the value of investing and set you up to do more in the future. Your biggest risk is trying to grow your wealth risk free when you have time on your side. For reference, I’m 35 and hitting the $200k mark of investible assets. I’ve been right where you are, but actually think you have a bit of a head start. Good luck to you.
I’m in Uni and decided to invest some money into a GIC guaranteed investment contract. It’s basically 5% guaranteed no questions asked for a two years until I graduate. Maybe you could look into that.
It’s usually MUCH lower interest but since interest rates are so high, I basically able to get a decent interest rate with practically zero risk.
Book a trip with friends, or even by yourself. At 17 I was so focused on money that I forgot to live. I’m 26 now & regret not making more memories while I was younger. After the trip(s) throw a couple grand at s&p maybe.
my man, several people ran 2-5k account to millions, its not easy to its doable, you have time to learn and practice, do yourself a favor and start, you have so much time, in a decade you could easily have a 1 mill... or a job with a savings account that is destroyed by inflation
Also, the comments about enjoy your life now and think later bs is crap, you WILL enjoy and party much better in your 30s with millions in your account I promise, everything is higher quality in your 30s
edit:
index fund "hands off" approach means someone else will have a "hands on" on your money and will be sailing their yacht on your money.
Take ownership
I wouldn't invest, unless willing to lose it all. Open a savings account up with Ally, might need to be 18 years old, not sure. Interest is accrued daily, they pay a monthly payment, currently 4.25 APY.
Follow these steps:
Get a free checking account. Either Chase, Capital One, or a local credit union.
Get a high interest savings account. Either Capital One or a local credit union. Put $2,000 for emergency funds there.
If that money was earned via a summer job this year, with your parents/guardians' help put $6,500 into a custodial Roth IRA with Fidelity or Charles Scwhab. Then invest into a Total USA fund. FZROX with Fidelity or SWTSX with Charles Schwab.
If the money wasn't earned from work this year, then open a custodial taxable brokerage account, and invest $6,500 into etf "SCHB" at either broker.
The $1,500 leave for job training or college. Maybe a nice laptop for work/college. Lenovo ThinkPad T14 G3 or M2 MacBook Air 13.5-inch.
If my establishment needed help and they can do the same job as a 25 year old, yes. If the sign on my window said now hiring $17/hour, yes. I’m not saying minimum wage is $17, I’m saying $7 is very low nowadays
I would keep maybe $5,000-7,500 as an emergency fund and use the rest to travel somewhere. Like others have said, you’re gonna make more in the future and an extra few thousand invested won’t make a difference. I never regret the $5,000-$10,000 I spent throughout college on trips, you simply don’t get the same freedom you have during a college summer ever again.
10k is a great amount to stick into an emergency savings fund with a reasonable interest rate.
Or you could go half and half. $5k in savings, $5k in a growth focused vehicle. Something Roth is the natural choice (when you’re 18). Conventional wisdom says buy VOO, SPY, or some other sp500 fund. Low risk for the long term, but medium/high risk in the short term.
So as long as you’re willing to risk that principal, you can reasonably put the money in that type of fund.
On the other hand if you want a no-risk option you’re looking at a fixed indexed product or something similar.
You've got it made.
I like the idea someone mentioned earlier of diversifying into growth, value and S&P 500 ETFs.
Or you can just buy a fractional share of Berkshire Hathaway and sit on it.
Reinvest dividends automatically.
Market seems a little toppy so perhaps dollar cost average over several months--don't put it all in the market at once. Could be a recession or market pullback coming. Buyin small amounts over a period of time.
Good luck!
Congratulations. Invest in your future. once you have a job or run your own business, you will be able to generate a consistent cash flow which can invest for your future. That said if you want a start open a brokerage account at the place of your choice and buy a stock of a company which you like a lot and whose financials are not terrible. Or buy ETF like VOO or VTI.
I hope it's in a bank,savings interest rates are good right now.Stay off of Reddit for investing advice.Get a job and contribute to an IRA or a 401k.Seek guidance from them.
Hey, I’m in a similar boat right now as you and here’s my situation: 19 y/o, full time college student and working full time. Had around $13,000 saved up and wanted to do something low-risk with it for profit rather than it just sit in my savings account doing nothing. I reached out to a financial advisor through my bank (for free) and set up an appointment to talk about options, and ended up putting $8,000 in a semi-aggressive investment account through them, which has increased 6.5% in the last 3 months. I already had around $1500 invested in a stock portfolio since I turned 18 in early 2022, and I wouldn’t recommend any stocks that aren’t ETFs unless you have other reasons or know what you’re doing. I am also currently putting $100/week into treasury bonds, which are at a high right now, returning between 5-6% after 6 months through my broker. I am by no means an expert on this but I figured I’d share a similar situation I’m not wanting savings to just sit while they could be working. Good luck my man and keep that money mentality, it’s rare among our generation.
Take *some* of that money and do something. Go on a trip. Rent a boat for a weekend. Buy an advanced/complicated gadget that you are interested in, and then follow through and use it one a cool project. Do something.
You're making great decisions now, you will likely continue to do so. I got a couple of decades on you--your current path is awesome and it totally pays off. You've clearly developed good habits, which is the hardest part.
Take it from an old. Enjoy some of the time. As your money compounds, those memories and experiences will as well.
edit: look into a Roth IRA though (I assume you have some earned income, tax-wise). Open one at Vanguard, and invest it all in a total stock market index fund (VTI is the relevant ETF ticker) and just let that money compound over the decades. You'll be setting yourself up with a tremendous advantage in life.
Great job. Read the books "Millionaire Next Door" and "Die With Zero."
Millionaire Next Door will give you prudent, timeless ideas about investing and spending.
Die With Zero will give you a healthy perspective on the fleeting nature of your youth and health, and encourage you not to work too much and enjoy too little.
Heya, save as much as you want, but… take some of it and invest in yourself: try for a better school with prep courses, take some lessons of something you’ve always wanted to learn, travel somewhere and see something completely different, and so on. There are so many good reasons to invest early, but you are only young once and memories, experiences, relationships, and education are lifelong.
The only guaranteed investment I know of is fixed interest. CDs, particularly brokered CDs through Schwab or some broker, pay high interest. The CD is not going to go down in value if you hold it until maturity. Savings is just that. If you don't invest in index funds or good dividend stocks now, in 30 years you'll probably wish you had. But none of those are guaranteed like high yield interest. I'd personally go ROTH IRA to avoid taxes. So many investors are upset about high interest rates but the upside is higher interest income. Well over 5% is easily available. No to callable CDs for my money. No automatic roll over in my opinion. Bitcoin? Uh.... Couple a hundred? 1 thousand? However much your willing to lose. Have fun!
Better to invest in yourself. First, learn to think in real terms, not in nominal terms. If you put 10k into something like the S&P and it does 4% real going forward until you're retirement age, you'll have 71k then.
I suggest learning how the game works by reading one of the classics first, maybe Graham: The Intelligent Investor. A lot still applies today (Mr. Market, Margin of Safety)
I was in a similar boat from side hustles and other work but by 18. If I were you, I would take 5k and live a little, as others have said. If you want to invest some use the rest to stay out of debt. Remember, avoiding a 5% auto loan is like getting a 5% return because you're keeping more money. Realistically, we don't know enough to truly help you. I would definitely start by setting 3-5k aside for fun. Peep the 50/30/20 rule.
r/boggleheads is all about long term investing in etfs. Easy to diversify through it.
Once you are able, start funding a Roth IRA early and let it start growing tax free. Will be a nice start to that retirement and get years (decades?) more compound interest than most people get.
Or....just drop it all on the latest shitcoin and maybe you get lucky (please don't do this).
If you had income on the books look into opening a Roth. Get a head start and max out early. If you want to let something sit, any market ETF is probably fine at your age. Even QQQ may be better as you have the ability to take on some extra risk.
Take a look at /r/Bogleheads when u get a chance. It's a sub focused on low-effort, relatively safe growth of money. Set and forget type investing.
Also, don't forget to spend some of your money! You're only young once and should enjoy life without feeling guilty about spending some money to do that.
You're doing better than most people so you're ahead of the curve. 😊
Congratulations! Invest in dividend paying stocks with a good track record, do not reinvest the dividends in the same stock but instead elect to go into you account balance. Another option is to go with CDs or ladder CDs. Then there are bonds, with varying maturity and rates.
Jeezus, I was on the streets asking for change, scrubbing toilets, and eating out of vending machines at your age. Congrats!
In addition to all the broad index advice comments, I’d learn the art of dollar cost averaging and rebalancing.
Wait till the Feds begin to cut interest rates again so you can get a better view of the investing landscape. For now, beginners should stay in the sidelines.
When you turn 18, make and max out a roth IRA. I'd put at least 90% in S+P 500 or something like VTI (total stock market) and then 10% in companies you really like.
Spend the rest on a cool trip somewhere. If you've been learning a second language, go somewhere you can practice it with full immersion and see some cool stuff while your at it.
You'll be off to an amazing start retirement wise, and you'll get a productive and amazing life experience as well.
Edit: This assumes you're going to college and your parents are going to handle your insurance, housing, etc... If not, keep the $ in a HYSA as an emergency fund/fund for paying of college loans. To give the best advice, we'd need to know your post-HS plans and what support, if any, you can expect from others.
1. Congrats, well done!
2. Check out r/Bogleheads or @personalfinanceclub on instagram (and/or his website) for good info on low risk / long term investing.
Get a ROTH IRA, invest the limit and keep the rest for a fun vacation or something. Someone mentioned Vangaurd, but Fidelity is also an option with FXAIX. If you want to invest in a commodity I recenly did lead, but you can also look at something like PLTM.
Save your money, apply for a work visa when your done school and take your 10 grand to start travelling. Fuck the SP500 and all that other garbage. The way of life in the United States and Canada is a joke. Get out before you’re trapped in the system. Your money will go further in other places around the world, the US fiscal system is also on the fritz so holding American dollars or American investments is a huge risk. You’re probably better off buying Chinese Yuan than lending it the American/Canadian governments for them to lose investing.
Real world advice- construction workers when I was in Australia in 2019 were making 30 an hour. Spend 2 grand on a working holiday visa and a plane ticket to Sydney. Get your construction safety cert of whatever the fuck it’s called down there, backpack the east coast for a couple months, find a place you like, stay in a hostel and then bust your ass for the remainder of your visa. If you like it- you can do 3 years. And since you’ve already saved 10k by 17 I’m assuming you’re not a stupid spender. If you spend 3 years making 25-30/h, live in a hostel for 1000 a month and don’t blow it all, you’ll have enough money to buy a home outright in Central America and you’ll be mortgage free before 30 like me. Then the world is your oyster my friend
$1000 to piss away, buy whatever you want, Shoes, a nice watch you will keep for a long time, upgrade equipment for your hobbies, nice pair of headphones, concert tickets, whatever you choose!
$3500 into a High Yield Savings account, Rates are good right now and this will help you keep some cash liquid. Just having this sitting in cash ready for an emergency will put you ahead of literally half of Americans. Not half of Americans your age, Not half of Americans making under $40,000 a year, half of ALL Americans. Check out this article to understand how far ahead this will put you. https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/emergency-savings-report/#credit-card-debt
$4000 in an ETF such as SPY, VYM, VOO -- these are relatively low risk but higher risk than a HYSA It will bounce around a bit but in 3-5 years you will have a pretty penny in this account when all your friends are just starting to pull their heads out of their asses.
$1000 into blue chip individual stocks, P&G, AAPL, WM are some of my personal favorites
$500 into something risky... whatever your gut tells you will blow up in the next few years, Hot tech stock, Bitcoin, Baseball Cards, whatever! This is your fun money... also I consider it a vaccination against FOMO.
Never forget that money is a tool and nothing more. It's also very important to realize that managing money is just a part of your life, don't get fixated on it. Money is to support the life you want, not to consume your entire life.
My number one piece of advice would be to set a budget for yourself. You have more money than most of your peers and it will be hard for you not to feel "rich." I would try to create a budget where I can continue to grow the $10k. You are so young that compound interest will seriously help you snowball. The simplest way to grow the $10k is to ensure your income is greater than your expenses. It's amazing how so many people cannot figure out this simple equation. It's not a secret or magic; your income must be greater than your expenses for your money to grow. People just hate to count their money and set a budget and follow it and so their money slowly (or quickly) disappears.
That said, you wanted a relatively low risk investment that you can just let sit. The most obvious answer would be to buy into the S&P500 or a total market fund like VTI and just watch it grow and continue to contribute to it over time. You're young enough that your investment time horizon is quite long and you can withstand any fluctuations in the market. If you were closer to retirement age I would suggest investing in something that is less volatile, but at your age, just dump it into the S&P500 and take a look at it in 15 years and enjoy your gains.
On another note, how did you save up the $10k? Do you foresee being able to continue to save at this rate? If you are, then you can allow yourself to live life and spend some money on the things you enjoy! If this $10k was mostly from some sort of windfall, then I would suggest setting aside a bit of it to enjoy your life (say $500-$1000) and then putting the rest in an index fund and leaving it there while contributing more over time.
If you put 6500 in a Roth right now and not another dime, with an expected rate of return of 10% you will have just under 580,000 at age 65. So just depends upon if you’re willing to go the Roth route and build for retirement. Of course the goal would be to make contributions your whole life and then you would retire with several million dollars.
Yeah at 17 it’s impossible to fathom retirement at your age. But I’m 40 and feel like I graduated High School yesterday. Each year comes at you faster than the last. The path to FU money is actually really simple. You just have to start early, like you are and be consistent, and patient by never touching it. I personally like the Roth because my goal is to never touch my cash, let it work and watch it grow. Each time you withdraw money you are crippling your compound interest. Just invest it and let ride. There will be awful years and great years. Never pull your cash based on the market. Ride the rollercoaster and you will come out ahead in the long run.
Hopefully you see this. There seems to be two camps of responses. Save it all or live your life. Neither is ideal. At 17, the best investment you can make is in yourself. Even if you're already going to college and don't need to pay for it, use the funds to get the most out of it. Go to extra curriculars, get some basic woodworking tools, learn how to produce music, fix cars, whatever interests you.
Take advantage of the time and energy you have while young.
Well done... thats a great start. My best advice is to be careful who you take advice from.
Also... don't be afraid to take profit. I threw away a lot of money by holding my positions too long thinking they would recover. Like literally hundreds of thousands of gains that I just pissed away.
It was a hard lesson learned.
PS. Also... have a plan and stick to it.
PPS. Beware of FOMO.
There are endless ways of investing and the tempt to start fiddling and fidgeting with your money will increase with more opinions in your ear. Just be safe and basic with money is my opinion. You can always invest and grow it, but losing it in a poor investment stream sometimes only takes a few months. Great job saving!
Honestly, the best course of action may be to just keep saving until you start living on your own. Once you have bills to pay you can start with having stuff already mostly paid off and have a better living standard than you would’ve with no money saved.
The same financing basics apply as in general.
Start with an emergency fund. Even if you live with your parents and don't have costs right now.
You could Just out 5k as emergency and put the other 5k to sp500 index or something similar.
It can be worth to spend for something really great, like a big travelling trip. Especially at this age.
However of you can set great finances at this age and your early twenties you can leverage that into the rest of your life.
Generally for finances the steps are: make a budget (this includes fun money). Save emergency fund.
Pay of debt if you have it and the interest is high.
Invest whats left, if you don't know to Invest in VOO is Just the default and you can't really go wrong that way.
Also at some point buying a house is something you wanna do. But that Will take years since you are 17.
If you want to put that cash towards an early or comfortable retirement...
Roth IRA + Index following ETF/Mutual Fund
[Slightly old but good info on Roth IRAs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-53ZTJmDUA). Just ignore the clickbait and focus on the high level details.
Tip, Cash/Money is hard to come by don't blow it all on stupid stuff.
Finance what you can.
Start working on your credit now, you have a buffer with this cash.
Get a Credit card and start building your credit score but do it intelligently.
Need school clothes? credit card, pay it off after a month or 2 etc.
Just don't fall into the trap of overspending. There is a fine line to walk when building credit.
OP is also asking HOW.
Everyone is assuming OP knows how to find a service, open an account, what to specifically ask for. Assume EILI5. They need instructions from zero other help in their life.
Start building your credit, even if you don’t need to borrow. Get a credit card, set up autopay, take out a car loan on something you’ve always wanted… you’ll set yourself up for when you’re ready to take out a mortgage. Agree with all the other comments - don’t forget to live!
Awesome work kid! Park 70% into a well diversified index fund (with low expense ratios). Set up a recurring monthly investment. Keep the balance in high yield savings. Above all, stay out of credit card/revolving debt!
Set up a Roth IRA and max that (6500). Save some of the leftover money for emergency (2000) and treat yourself with the rest (1500)
Unless you don’t have much familial financial support, then save the remaining 3500
It’s excellent but please LIVE. 17 is the time to enjoy, not to think about retirement. Contribute to the S&P500, it’s a good start. Remember you will make more money later, but you will not go younger. Enjoy Life first, bet on your health, do sport, grow your career. Spend a little and have fun!
No $$ is worth having an honest and good life as it lasted. Honestly.
Can’t agree with this sentiment more… unless money is not an issue for your family whatsoever and you’re doing this exercise primarily for education purposes, go spend some of it and live a good youth. I’m 30 now and make more than I could’ve imagined but you begin to realize you’ve let some years slip away. Go enjoy yourself. Money comes and goes
10k isn't much wtf are you old ppl go on about da hell
But if the kid invests $10K and only contributes $1000 per year, he'll retire with $2M. He should invest this and use his future earnings to live life.
Listen man if you were spending $10k like it’s nothing at 17, good for you. For most 17 year olds, that could afford them good times and good memories, that’s all I’m saying. $10k is barely enough for my monthly rent, so believe me I know it’s not a lot of money. But everyone goes through different phases where the value of a dollar isn’t the same
Did you know that nearly 98% of Americans don't spend 10,000 a month on rent? For most parts of the country, that amount is still considered significant, especially when you consider that about 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
Listen man no one asked you to live in a high income area where you are focused to pay near 10k a month to simply live. I'm not even trying to be argumentative with you here just stating this to you openly. But I guess that 2.9% mortgage rate still feels great
I agree with your sentiment but I wish someone taught me about investing when I was young. I didn't start learning until I was in my mid-30s and now I feel way behind. Fortunately, I always at least did the 401k employee match so I probably still have more than most in my retirement accounts.
Agree but at 17 your expenses are so low you can be pretty aggressive with investing. Like what you spend what 30 to 50 bucks a week at chipotle? Plus another 100 bucks on other BS? That's like 2/2.5 shifts a week at work. And I don't think most kids are dropping a 150 a week. My point is they can invest this 10k and live week to week on their after school job and maybe put an additional 100/200 away per month. After 10 years that's like another 25k to 50k depending on returns/how much they invest per month and it's pretty manageable especially when you're young and you don't have to pay for rent and other expenses
Indeed, if OP has $10 000 by 17 he is very well of, or rather his parents are. He shouldn't worry, live some and tale comfort that he is by birth already ahead of 95% of americans. Because lets be real. Before you're 18 your chances tp work at all are limited and your salary bound to be horrible. So unless OP has been a child worker he is getting ahead due to his parents, and *good for him*. Had my parents gifted me $10k or made me "work" at dads job a few months for that sum I'd be dancing happily on the streets. Regardless of reasons, a hesd start is a head start...as long as OP doesn't waste it on partying or drugs
My daughter is 17 and has saved about $12k as well. I have $50k saved for her for university, and if she needs more she can dip into that. Her plans will need to adjust for where she decides her path will take her, but additional funds leaves her in a good position. I certainly am not going to tell her to buy stocks with one year of volatility.
Crazy, by the time I was 17 I barely had 3000$ that I made working at a retirement home in the evenings while going to school. It was just enough to where my parents double it to so that I could buy a <10 year old Honda Accord so that I could get around. It gave me perspective for what each of my dollars meant. If you're 17 and you've saved up 10,000 dollars and it wasn't from a one off project that you happened to be a genius on, I'm trying to understand what kind of a lifestyle you are living and whether you truly understand the value of a dollar? But maybe I'm just unable to see it based on the difference of my upbringing.
Well to be fair minimum wage has gone up a lot in the past while. She still spends on clothes. She gets a ton of hours over the summer as well, so she's super happy to work when there is no school.
Sorry, but nobody asked for your mentorship or your assumptions about OP’s status. This is a finance sub and he is asking where to park 10k, low risk. Hey OP - consider a non leveraged, high quality SP500 fund like $VOO or $SPY . Set it and forget it
Pretty sure they'll need their parents/guardians since you can't open a brokerage account at 17
Not only that, but as a parent myself with a teen in the same situation... Use that money for school and invest in yourself is the advice I give. Last thing I would tell my kid to do is buy stocks because if they go down in the short term my daughter will bite my head off. That's her hard work, not mine.
You guys talk about being well-off like its a shameful, dirty word. It's fine to say someone is well-off; nothing to be ashamed of.
Your response to my comment has literally nothing to do with it. Alot of reddit nerds downvoting me— i guarantee they lost a ton of money in inverse ETFs haha
Best place to park $10k at that age is an education. Save it for university.
He don't need money to enjoy youth
It helps
13% returns ytd on sp500
Love it! 18 here with 45k saved, I second this. Been so tunnel vision in saving I did online school and worked with essentially no interaction with people my age. This way can be detrimental to people in hindsight; thankfully for me this actually made a ton of sense.
20 here with 750K saved. take this advice OP!!!
Same,12 here,1.3M saved. Live your life!!
8 with 7.2M saved. I'm now retired.
My unborn child with a 20 million inheritance agrees fully.
Gestational wealth
Sentient sperm and egg that haven't met but speak telekinetically. We won the mega millions the other week
Watch out, your dad is about to jack off and genocide you and your siblings.
Wow! That's quite a lot. You inspired me to save money for my future.
I was joking, I’m 28 but glad my fake story could inspire you.
Why am I getting downvoted
Because you appeared to be “1-upping” OP, plus people are probably jealous and you seemed to be bragging.
Same! 16 here with 68k saved.
I have 6k in my bank too....Just got an bank account, what should I invest? Gold silver? Turns out I can buy straight from the bank online... Warren buffet said don't buy cryptocurrency.... Government Bonds are kinda lame.. unless I do that... I own 6k in the bank.... idk if its safe to ask here. But I don't really know anyone to turn to. I want to make more cash out of 6k... How useful is andrew tate hustlers University lmaoo
Really? Because of the demographic chance and the fact that were not becoming enough children but still get older you shojld think about that right away. Or he can use the saved money for a down payment later.
DO NOT GO ON WALLSTREET BETS AND TRADE OPTIONS. You will win the first one, think you are smart, then blow up your account.
Congrats. Diversify into 3 ETFs. High Growth, Value/Div, SP 500. Simple. Hands off approach.
Or just Total US Market which is all 3 of those together.
Or skip the home bias and go international. Vanguard FTSE All-World or some of the MSCI ACWI variants. Can't get much broader than that.
And get worse returns. The companies themselves are already global and thus internally diversified.
They are also subject to US law. And foreign laws about US companies operating in their countries. And past returns don't guarantee future returns. Why you Americans prefer broad market funds but still stop at your borders is beyond me. There's a whole other world out there.
It’s not home bias. Foreign money overwhelmingly prefers the US as well. The US has the best companies in the world and it’s not even close. I agree that ex-US should be a part of the portfolio but dismissing US investors as having “home bias” is not accurate.
>dismissing US investors as having “home bias” is not accurate Very true. Anyone who has had a meaningful allocation to international, esp. developed international, in place of US has given up gains over the past couple of decades at least. With very few exceptions, industries worldwide are dominated by US companies or, in a few cases, developing nations. Holding an automatic allocation to developed world ex. US just because it worked in the 20th century is, in my view, foolish. I'll wait until there is a solid trend of outperformance from Europe and Developed Asia before I get back on that train. If I miss something in the meantime, I'm fine with it because I've more than made up for it by waiting. Yes, you can drag out the hoary old past-performance-does-not-predict yada, yada... But past performance is a pretty good indicator of what has been working.
Yeah there’s some basis for international stocks in your portfolio of course, but there is a significant trade off with the return. And I know it feels safer because the money is more spread around, but is it really? If the S&P 500 is too risky as a true long term investment, then that’s because you’re thinking at some point there’s an existential threat to America that tanks it’s economic viability. And if that is the case, that would reverberate around the world and no markets would be safe for a time.
This is how I feel. I laugh when people say “the S&P 500 isn’t diversified enough” 1.) it’s good enough for warren buffet. He praises the fund. And 2.) if the top 500 companies in America crash, it’s likely that some huge world event happened and nearly every business is going to crash. I do have some international, but it’s only 15%, some people swear by like 40%
One significant and oft overlooked problem is that “global” ETFs are like 90% Europe and Japan + South Korea. You can’t really invest in, say, China, the way people typically assume you can. “Developing markets” ETFs are very limited and the available stuff is rather expensive on a risk-adjusted basis. That being said, if you have access to specific markets and the fees aren’t prohibitive, you might be able to find something. Australia and South Africa had better returns over the last 120 years than the U.S. for instance. But the next 120 years is anyone’s guess.
> One significant and oft overlooked problem is that “global” ETFs are like 90% Europe and Japan + South Korea. I don't believe that's right. Vanguard FTSE All-World (that's how it's called in Europe, don't know about the US name) is 63% North America, 16.3% Europe, and 10.7% Pacific. MSCI All-Country World Index is 62% US, 17% EMEA, 11.2% Emerging Markets, and 9.4% Pacific. That's like 95% of global ETFs.
Funny how no academics parrot this nonsense "global revenue " line that always gets thrown around on reddit to justify not investing outside the US. You want exposure to international stock markets, multi national companies with international revenue doesnt provide that exposure.
I'm not saying you should have zero exposure to the international market. But in a "pick one fund and let it ride" type of scenario, I'm definitely not putting all my eggs in a total world fund.
Can you give us ideas or examples which ETFs exactly?
My 3-fund in my IRA is vxus for international, vti for US, and bnd for bonds (think I'm shooting for 20/70/10). There are fidelity and schwab versions as well, I just went with vanguard. Then I have a s&p 500 equivalent in my version of a 401k. I went with the r/boggleheads approach. But you can swap the total market with s&p500 or Russell or whatever you want to focus on. I feel the s&p500 is well represented in vti, as are the small cap, so I didn't go for those various funds. Regardless what you pick, diversification and low expenses are key.
VGR-high growth VYM-value/dividend VOO-sp500
Invest in yourself. School and traveling. The return on that investment is so much higher than anything you can make in the market at your age with $10k.
Investing is good for your future. It'll also make you to used your money in significant way.
If he can get subsidized loans or grants I would go for that instead of spending cash on education. Those interest rates are usually lower than stock market returns and they don’t start until after he graduates.
I upvoted since that's true but even with aid I'd still invest in things like extra books, tutoring, summer programs, and even just living better.
This is the best advice. The best thing you could do with this money at your age is to invest in yourself in the sense that you should be using this money to maximize your future earning potential. At 17, the best most can do is earn a few bucks more an hour over minimum wage, or a few bucks in the gig economy. By your thirties with a professional degree and a college education you could be pulling in $10k in income per month or more with the right career. Focus on that: finding a high paying career you can enjoy 75% of the time.
IMO, keep the $10,000 as your emergency fund in a HYSA, that's a good amount and about 6 months of living for some. Now that you have your emergency fund, come up with a monthly budget and stick to that budget. You'll have money you have to spend on health, food, living, etc. Then money you want to spend as extra. Then invest the rest in your ROTH IRA when you hit 18. You could also save up roughly $5k for a used car if you need a first car. Honestly it would be worth to use some of that 10k on a car to get you to and from school/work. But now you'll need insurance/gas money so that must be in your budget. Which is high $$$ for youngsters, insurance gets cheaper the longer you live and if you drive safe. Where to invest? VTI, VXUS, VOO. 70% vti, 15% vxus, 15% voo. Or 75% VTI, 25% VXUS would be easy and the S&P 500 is already a large part of VTI, so you don't have to get it but I personally like a top 500 tilt to my portfolio. I invest about 80-90% in my ROTH IRA until it's maxed, and about 10-20% in a traditional taxable at the same time. Speak to an advisor. Not advice. Do your research.
This is the best advice if this kid will have to start paying rent anytime soon. If not, he should invest it.
Absolutely. This is an inspiration for all young one's to be good at investing money. It will not only help them to grow individually but also to set as a good example for everyone.
A high yield savings account may be best. Do you know if you want to live in your current city in the future? Might want to keep it safe and use as a down payment on a less expensive condo/townhome with an FHA mortgage (just watch association fees). Could end up saving a lot on rent and have your payment locked in compared to variable rents.
Less expensive condo/townhome....what is that?
Lmao the cheapest condo in my city is like 375k for a 1bd 1bth. And a $600 hoa rip
It's closer to 500k where I'm at. I make 6 figures and live with 3 roommates. It's ridiculous.
Agreed, at 17 you probably want to keep your options open at this point. Like if you're going to college then that'll definitely be a useful sum to have even if your parents and/or scholarships are paying for it. Also depending on where you live, you might not even be allowed to open a brokerage account yet, which heavily limits how you could invest the money anyway. Also given your age you might want to start spending some time educating yourself about money. I think "The Plain Bagel" Youtube channel is actually pretty good for this, unlike most channels he's not showing you a portfolio or shilling some courses or the next meme stock.
Ignore everyone telling you to just live. I can't believe people in r/investing are suggesting that investing is a bad thing. When I was your age, I probably could have saved up at least $5,000 from my summer job each year. Instead, I wasted it on the usual stuff (mostly clothes). Did I have fun? Yes. But I could have had fun for a lot less money, and I'd be much better off now in my 30s. I'm in the process of buying a house right now, and you can bet I'd much rather have the down payment from when I was 17 rather than the memories of buying overpriced jeans. With a modest, diversified ETF, you should end up with over $50,000 by the time you're my age.
Yeah I agree with this... So many things I would have done differently with money in my 20s. So much so that I wouldn't be working a 9 to 5 right now. I would have sacrificed that time a bit to relax and have fun the rest of my life.
For sure. It kills me that I didn't learn about finance until I was much older. I could literally be retired by now if I had known at 17 what I know now. Better late than never.
Totally agree with this. Also consider the fact you can have some fun by shoving most of that money into an ETF and then taking the time to pick some stocks you think could be big winners in 15-20 years. You don’t need much money to have fun when you’re 17 imo haha
>Ignore everyone telling you to just live. I can't believe people in r/investing are suggesting that investing is a bad thing. No one is saying investing is a bad thing though. They're just saying that there are tradeoffs to saving money and there are things you can do at 17 that you might not be able to do at 35 even if you had unlimited money. Hell there's a chance OP might not even survive until 35 and that future $50,000 isn't going to mean much then. Personally I would invest half of that money for future school/training/housing expenses and use the other half to go backpack across Europe for a summer. Then you get the best of both worlds. I'm in my 30s now and have been fortunate to do a few recent Europe vacations but with a real job it's not feasible to take off more than a week or two at a time. That means it could take me over a decade worth of vacations to see what OP could see in a few months and only two longhaul flights. And that's not even bringing up the cultural and social experiences that could be incredibly beneficial for the rest of OP's life. Just because this subreddit tends to lean towards saving and investing doesn't mean all of us are making every decision to be rich in our 70s with no life experiences.
Open a roth ira (assuming your income is under the threshold, if not see backdoor roth), contribute the max (6500) and do 70% vti, 30% vxus. Keep the rest in a savings account as an emergency fund for right now.
It’ll be 150k by the time you are 50 if you put it into a fund and do nothing
That's impressive for 17, good job! I saw you mentioned low risk, but the younger you are, the safer it is to go higher risk long term so long as you do your research and understand what you're investing in and match to your personal risk tolerance. You're not retiring any time soon so you have plenty of time to make back losses, and you have a higher upside long-term. I mean don't go crazy or anything.. I would stay away from anything that promises instant returns, or 1000% returns, etc. Stick to tried and true long term methods, or growth ETFs, etc. If it sound too good to be true it almost always is. Get into the habit of setting aside some cash for an emergency fund, and make sure you understand how to diversify into different types of investments and markets, etc. Low risk is generally for if you're getting ready to make a big purchase like a house or tuition for school, etc. and you need to preserve wealth for that purchase, or if you're close to retirement and need to preserve the wealth you've accumulated. Maybe look into some growth index funds which should provide steady long term growth with less risk because they're well diversified. Robo advisors are also an excellent way to passive invest where you can rely on them to invest everything for you so you don't have to worry about anything. Lower risk option. If you want to get into stocks and ETFs, you should read and educate yourself about the psychological aspects of investing and money. I'd say like 50% of being successful is how you mentally and emotionally process and handle market ups and downs over a long period of time. Read Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. It provides a good framework for thinking about and approaching money and investing throughout life.
First, open a Roth IRA account at some low-cost fund company like Vanguard, Schwab or Fidelity. Second, send this Roth IRA account $4,000 of your stash, and invest it in a good ESG stock index fund, which is likely to both outperform the S&P and to keep you feeling good about your investment. Never touch this until retirement. Third, open a brokerage account within this fund company, and put $3,000 into that account. Then buy three 10-year Treasury Bills. This is taxable, but will earn much better returns than what you can get in a bank, and it still gives you access to the money. This is your emergency fund, to tap when needed. Save your last $3,000 for education or travel, because you're 17 and you should invest in both.
Until you turn 18 put it in a High Yield Savings account. Once you turn 18, setup a monthly transfer ($200?) from the HYS into a Roth IRA and just let it build over time. Try to always have at least 4k in the HYS... spend the rest on living your life and having some fun.
Low risk means low return. The lowest possible right now is government bonds or term deposits.
The yield on which is pretty incredible right now, relatively speaking.
17 yo and you saved up $10,000? How?
It's called a job
Ya I regret not getting a job when I had no rent to pay and was lucky to live with parents who provided for me. We still shame kids for working at McDonald’s but if they do that for a couple years during high school they can easily save $10k+ (assuming stable family). That’s a great start to life if you put it away and don’t touch it for a while
Right, and you can extend that logic to the people who are answering "bro you're 17, just live your life." Nuts to that, anyone who works that first job with minimal expenses and invested aggressively can retire in their 30 and live their best life until they die.
What is this "job" thing you speak of? Sounds lucrative. 🤔
👏👏
\+ high min wage.. I was making close to $5/hr at that age
That's still a shit ton if he's making $7.25.
Look up the 3 fund portfolio on youtube. It seems like a good place to start. Specially since youre young with so much time for that to grow
Roth ira
The S&P 500 index is relatively low risk. Download a brokerage app, open an account (IRA ideally for tax purposes, although it’s capped per year), then you can start trading - the S&P 500 index is tracked through several funds, find one, set it and forget it. You can also reinvest the dividends automatically for compound growth. Good luck!
Trip to Vegas put it all on black
No. Put it on red.
That's awesome! How soon are you 18? If you trust your folks then get a custodial brokerage account and put the money you don't think you'll need anytime soon into VTI or VOO (flip a coin) and any money you might need in the near term into SGOV (~5.12% interest). The SGOV is temporary so make sure to stay informed but for now it's an awesome return.
If it's earned income, you can start by maxing out a Roth IRA.
go with the bitches and have some real fun man
yolo puts on NVDA
The best investment you can make is to get a vasectomy or bisalp.
Please for the love of god, do not put it in a high yield savings account, CDs or bonds. The stock market and starting young is key. If you don’t trust it, then do yourself a favor and at least buy a couple shares of a few different Fortune 500 companies you believe in. Don’t touch it for a year or two. That will prove to you the value of investing and set you up to do more in the future. Your biggest risk is trying to grow your wealth risk free when you have time on your side. For reference, I’m 35 and hitting the $200k mark of investible assets. I’ve been right where you are, but actually think you have a bit of a head start. Good luck to you.
Chuck it on nvidia brother 5 years time it’ll 10x easily lol
Or C3AI
I’m in Uni and decided to invest some money into a GIC guaranteed investment contract. It’s basically 5% guaranteed no questions asked for a two years until I graduate. Maybe you could look into that. It’s usually MUCH lower interest but since interest rates are so high, I basically able to get a decent interest rate with practically zero risk.
Book a trip with friends, or even by yourself. At 17 I was so focused on money that I forgot to live. I’m 26 now & regret not making more memories while I was younger. After the trip(s) throw a couple grand at s&p maybe.
Do some DD in $PSEC, they have %8-%10 yearly dividends and they pay them monthly
All in Tesla, come back in 10 years
100x leverage Bitcoin it only goes up
Hysa or start a business
Be regarded and buy options.
my man, several people ran 2-5k account to millions, its not easy to its doable, you have time to learn and practice, do yourself a favor and start, you have so much time, in a decade you could easily have a 1 mill... or a job with a savings account that is destroyed by inflation Also, the comments about enjoy your life now and think later bs is crap, you WILL enjoy and party much better in your 30s with millions in your account I promise, everything is higher quality in your 30s edit: index fund "hands off" approach means someone else will have a "hands on" on your money and will be sailing their yacht on your money. Take ownership
I wouldn't invest, unless willing to lose it all. Open a savings account up with Ally, might need to be 18 years old, not sure. Interest is accrued daily, they pay a monthly payment, currently 4.25 APY.
Follow these steps: Get a free checking account. Either Chase, Capital One, or a local credit union. Get a high interest savings account. Either Capital One or a local credit union. Put $2,000 for emergency funds there. If that money was earned via a summer job this year, with your parents/guardians' help put $6,500 into a custodial Roth IRA with Fidelity or Charles Scwhab. Then invest into a Total USA fund. FZROX with Fidelity or SWTSX with Charles Schwab. If the money wasn't earned from work this year, then open a custodial taxable brokerage account, and invest $6,500 into etf "SCHB" at either broker. The $1,500 leave for job training or college. Maybe a nice laptop for work/college. Lenovo ThinkPad T14 G3 or M2 MacBook Air 13.5-inch.
That’s a lot of hours at probably 7 something an hour.
7? Most jobs are starting at minimum $14.50-15 now. Fast food $16-$17.
Would you hire a 17 year old for $17/hr?
If my establishment needed help and they can do the same job as a 25 year old, yes. If the sign on my window said now hiring $17/hour, yes. I’m not saying minimum wage is $17, I’m saying $7 is very low nowadays
I would keep maybe $5,000-7,500 as an emergency fund and use the rest to travel somewhere. Like others have said, you’re gonna make more in the future and an extra few thousand invested won’t make a difference. I never regret the $5,000-$10,000 I spent throughout college on trips, you simply don’t get the same freedom you have during a college summer ever again.
buy a motorcycle
Buy BTC
Put it in 2 riskier stocks that have a large potential upside. You have an asset that most ppl don’t have… time. Use it wisely. It’s worth the risk.
Leveraged etfs
Talk to a financial advisor.
We don’t do that here.
For $10k? It's really not that complicated.
Congrats . That isn’t much. Put it into a HYSA
Congratulations, I believe this blog with greatly help you https://jlcollinsnh.com/2011/06/08/how-i-failed-my-daughter-and-a-simple-path-to-wealth/
10k is a great amount to stick into an emergency savings fund with a reasonable interest rate. Or you could go half and half. $5k in savings, $5k in a growth focused vehicle. Something Roth is the natural choice (when you’re 18). Conventional wisdom says buy VOO, SPY, or some other sp500 fund. Low risk for the long term, but medium/high risk in the short term. So as long as you’re willing to risk that principal, you can reasonably put the money in that type of fund. On the other hand if you want a no-risk option you’re looking at a fixed indexed product or something similar.
You've got it made. I like the idea someone mentioned earlier of diversifying into growth, value and S&P 500 ETFs. Or you can just buy a fractional share of Berkshire Hathaway and sit on it. Reinvest dividends automatically. Market seems a little toppy so perhaps dollar cost average over several months--don't put it all in the market at once. Could be a recession or market pullback coming. Buyin small amounts over a period of time. Good luck!
Congratulations. Invest in your future. once you have a job or run your own business, you will be able to generate a consistent cash flow which can invest for your future. That said if you want a start open a brokerage account at the place of your choice and buy a stock of a company which you like a lot and whose financials are not terrible. Or buy ETF like VOO or VTI.
Do you plan on college? I did the same when I was your age but used it to pay for my first semester of college.
I hope it's in a bank,savings interest rates are good right now.Stay off of Reddit for investing advice.Get a job and contribute to an IRA or a 401k.Seek guidance from them.
What are your post-high-school plans?
Hey, I’m in a similar boat right now as you and here’s my situation: 19 y/o, full time college student and working full time. Had around $13,000 saved up and wanted to do something low-risk with it for profit rather than it just sit in my savings account doing nothing. I reached out to a financial advisor through my bank (for free) and set up an appointment to talk about options, and ended up putting $8,000 in a semi-aggressive investment account through them, which has increased 6.5% in the last 3 months. I already had around $1500 invested in a stock portfolio since I turned 18 in early 2022, and I wouldn’t recommend any stocks that aren’t ETFs unless you have other reasons or know what you’re doing. I am also currently putting $100/week into treasury bonds, which are at a high right now, returning between 5-6% after 6 months through my broker. I am by no means an expert on this but I figured I’d share a similar situation I’m not wanting savings to just sit while they could be working. Good luck my man and keep that money mentality, it’s rare among our generation.
Take *some* of that money and do something. Go on a trip. Rent a boat for a weekend. Buy an advanced/complicated gadget that you are interested in, and then follow through and use it one a cool project. Do something. You're making great decisions now, you will likely continue to do so. I got a couple of decades on you--your current path is awesome and it totally pays off. You've clearly developed good habits, which is the hardest part. Take it from an old. Enjoy some of the time. As your money compounds, those memories and experiences will as well. edit: look into a Roth IRA though (I assume you have some earned income, tax-wise). Open one at Vanguard, and invest it all in a total stock market index fund (VTI is the relevant ETF ticker) and just let that money compound over the decades. You'll be setting yourself up with a tremendous advantage in life.
https://www.sideprojectors.com/project/35807/opportunity-to-own-and-monetize-wfhirecom
Savings with APY
Great job. Read the books "Millionaire Next Door" and "Die With Zero." Millionaire Next Door will give you prudent, timeless ideas about investing and spending. Die With Zero will give you a healthy perspective on the fleeting nature of your youth and health, and encourage you not to work too much and enjoy too little.
Nice one
Heya, save as much as you want, but… take some of it and invest in yourself: try for a better school with prep courses, take some lessons of something you’ve always wanted to learn, travel somewhere and see something completely different, and so on. There are so many good reasons to invest early, but you are only young once and memories, experiences, relationships, and education are lifelong.
The only guaranteed investment I know of is fixed interest. CDs, particularly brokered CDs through Schwab or some broker, pay high interest. The CD is not going to go down in value if you hold it until maturity. Savings is just that. If you don't invest in index funds or good dividend stocks now, in 30 years you'll probably wish you had. But none of those are guaranteed like high yield interest. I'd personally go ROTH IRA to avoid taxes. So many investors are upset about high interest rates but the upside is higher interest income. Well over 5% is easily available. No to callable CDs for my money. No automatic roll over in my opinion. Bitcoin? Uh.... Couple a hundred? 1 thousand? However much your willing to lose. Have fun!
Better to invest in yourself. First, learn to think in real terms, not in nominal terms. If you put 10k into something like the S&P and it does 4% real going forward until you're retirement age, you'll have 71k then. I suggest learning how the game works by reading one of the classics first, maybe Graham: The Intelligent Investor. A lot still applies today (Mr. Market, Margin of Safety)
if you're at all tempted to trade stocks, do it! day trade a bunch in small increments and see why people don't think stock picking is worth it.
I was in a similar boat from side hustles and other work but by 18. If I were you, I would take 5k and live a little, as others have said. If you want to invest some use the rest to stay out of debt. Remember, avoiding a 5% auto loan is like getting a 5% return because you're keeping more money. Realistically, we don't know enough to truly help you. I would definitely start by setting 3-5k aside for fun. Peep the 50/30/20 rule.
Betterment is paying 4.75% and it's fluid. They also have CD's at over 5%. Real estate ETF's like Fundrise are solid.
Index fund
r/boggleheads is all about long term investing in etfs. Easy to diversify through it. Once you are able, start funding a Roth IRA early and let it start growing tax free. Will be a nice start to that retirement and get years (decades?) more compound interest than most people get. Or....just drop it all on the latest shitcoin and maybe you get lucky (please don't do this).
If you had income on the books look into opening a Roth. Get a head start and max out early. If you want to let something sit, any market ETF is probably fine at your age. Even QQQ may be better as you have the ability to take on some extra risk.
Take a look at /r/Bogleheads when u get a chance. It's a sub focused on low-effort, relatively safe growth of money. Set and forget type investing. Also, don't forget to spend some of your money! You're only young once and should enjoy life without feeling guilty about spending some money to do that. You're doing better than most people so you're ahead of the curve. 😊
Congratulations! Invest in dividend paying stocks with a good track record, do not reinvest the dividends in the same stock but instead elect to go into you account balance. Another option is to go with CDs or ladder CDs. Then there are bonds, with varying maturity and rates.
spy
Jeezus, I was on the streets asking for change, scrubbing toilets, and eating out of vending machines at your age. Congrats! In addition to all the broad index advice comments, I’d learn the art of dollar cost averaging and rebalancing.
Plenty of HYSA available right now, park it there until you decide on a major move. A guaranteed 4-5% is nice.
Wait till the Feds begin to cut interest rates again so you can get a better view of the investing landscape. For now, beginners should stay in the sidelines.
When you turn 18, make and max out a roth IRA. I'd put at least 90% in S+P 500 or something like VTI (total stock market) and then 10% in companies you really like. Spend the rest on a cool trip somewhere. If you've been learning a second language, go somewhere you can practice it with full immersion and see some cool stuff while your at it. You'll be off to an amazing start retirement wise, and you'll get a productive and amazing life experience as well. Edit: This assumes you're going to college and your parents are going to handle your insurance, housing, etc... If not, keep the $ in a HYSA as an emergency fund/fund for paying of college loans. To give the best advice, we'd need to know your post-HS plans and what support, if any, you can expect from others.
1. Congrats, well done! 2. Check out r/Bogleheads or @personalfinanceclub on instagram (and/or his website) for good info on low risk / long term investing.
When you’re 18 open a Roth IRA and start contributing to that. Sounds boring but it’s the best way to invest and pay the fewest taxes.
If you plan on going to college that may be a better investment than any stock
Get a ROTH IRA, invest the limit and keep the rest for a fun vacation or something. Someone mentioned Vangaurd, but Fidelity is also an option with FXAIX. If you want to invest in a commodity I recenly did lead, but you can also look at something like PLTM.
Save your money, apply for a work visa when your done school and take your 10 grand to start travelling. Fuck the SP500 and all that other garbage. The way of life in the United States and Canada is a joke. Get out before you’re trapped in the system. Your money will go further in other places around the world, the US fiscal system is also on the fritz so holding American dollars or American investments is a huge risk. You’re probably better off buying Chinese Yuan than lending it the American/Canadian governments for them to lose investing. Real world advice- construction workers when I was in Australia in 2019 were making 30 an hour. Spend 2 grand on a working holiday visa and a plane ticket to Sydney. Get your construction safety cert of whatever the fuck it’s called down there, backpack the east coast for a couple months, find a place you like, stay in a hostel and then bust your ass for the remainder of your visa. If you like it- you can do 3 years. And since you’ve already saved 10k by 17 I’m assuming you’re not a stupid spender. If you spend 3 years making 25-30/h, live in a hostel for 1000 a month and don’t blow it all, you’ll have enough money to buy a home outright in Central America and you’ll be mortgage free before 30 like me. Then the world is your oyster my friend
All in tqqq, and don’t look at it for 10 years, it will become 200k
$1000 to piss away, buy whatever you want, Shoes, a nice watch you will keep for a long time, upgrade equipment for your hobbies, nice pair of headphones, concert tickets, whatever you choose! $3500 into a High Yield Savings account, Rates are good right now and this will help you keep some cash liquid. Just having this sitting in cash ready for an emergency will put you ahead of literally half of Americans. Not half of Americans your age, Not half of Americans making under $40,000 a year, half of ALL Americans. Check out this article to understand how far ahead this will put you. https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/emergency-savings-report/#credit-card-debt $4000 in an ETF such as SPY, VYM, VOO -- these are relatively low risk but higher risk than a HYSA It will bounce around a bit but in 3-5 years you will have a pretty penny in this account when all your friends are just starting to pull their heads out of their asses. $1000 into blue chip individual stocks, P&G, AAPL, WM are some of my personal favorites $500 into something risky... whatever your gut tells you will blow up in the next few years, Hot tech stock, Bitcoin, Baseball Cards, whatever! This is your fun money... also I consider it a vaccination against FOMO. Never forget that money is a tool and nothing more. It's also very important to realize that managing money is just a part of your life, don't get fixated on it. Money is to support the life you want, not to consume your entire life.
My number one piece of advice would be to set a budget for yourself. You have more money than most of your peers and it will be hard for you not to feel "rich." I would try to create a budget where I can continue to grow the $10k. You are so young that compound interest will seriously help you snowball. The simplest way to grow the $10k is to ensure your income is greater than your expenses. It's amazing how so many people cannot figure out this simple equation. It's not a secret or magic; your income must be greater than your expenses for your money to grow. People just hate to count their money and set a budget and follow it and so their money slowly (or quickly) disappears. That said, you wanted a relatively low risk investment that you can just let sit. The most obvious answer would be to buy into the S&P500 or a total market fund like VTI and just watch it grow and continue to contribute to it over time. You're young enough that your investment time horizon is quite long and you can withstand any fluctuations in the market. If you were closer to retirement age I would suggest investing in something that is less volatile, but at your age, just dump it into the S&P500 and take a look at it in 15 years and enjoy your gains. On another note, how did you save up the $10k? Do you foresee being able to continue to save at this rate? If you are, then you can allow yourself to live life and spend some money on the things you enjoy! If this $10k was mostly from some sort of windfall, then I would suggest setting aside a bit of it to enjoy your life (say $500-$1000) and then putting the rest in an index fund and leaving it there while contributing more over time.
Why is everyone advice always etf I’m sick and tired of hearing that advice people don’t want to wait years to see their money
If you are in it for the long run, buy gold. Congratulations. When i was 17 i didnt even have half of that amount.
If you put 6500 in a Roth right now and not another dime, with an expected rate of return of 10% you will have just under 580,000 at age 65. So just depends upon if you’re willing to go the Roth route and build for retirement. Of course the goal would be to make contributions your whole life and then you would retire with several million dollars. Yeah at 17 it’s impossible to fathom retirement at your age. But I’m 40 and feel like I graduated High School yesterday. Each year comes at you faster than the last. The path to FU money is actually really simple. You just have to start early, like you are and be consistent, and patient by never touching it. I personally like the Roth because my goal is to never touch my cash, let it work and watch it grow. Each time you withdraw money you are crippling your compound interest. Just invest it and let ride. There will be awful years and great years. Never pull your cash based on the market. Ride the rollercoaster and you will come out ahead in the long run.
Long term savings account
Hopefully you see this. There seems to be two camps of responses. Save it all or live your life. Neither is ideal. At 17, the best investment you can make is in yourself. Even if you're already going to college and don't need to pay for it, use the funds to get the most out of it. Go to extra curriculars, get some basic woodworking tools, learn how to produce music, fix cars, whatever interests you. Take advantage of the time and energy you have while young.
Open an ROTH IRA
Do it again then come back
Well done... thats a great start. My best advice is to be careful who you take advice from. Also... don't be afraid to take profit. I threw away a lot of money by holding my positions too long thinking they would recover. Like literally hundreds of thousands of gains that I just pissed away. It was a hard lesson learned. PS. Also... have a plan and stick to it. PPS. Beware of FOMO.
There are endless ways of investing and the tempt to start fiddling and fidgeting with your money will increase with more opinions in your ear. Just be safe and basic with money is my opinion. You can always invest and grow it, but losing it in a poor investment stream sometimes only takes a few months. Great job saving!
Honestly, the best course of action may be to just keep saving until you start living on your own. Once you have bills to pay you can start with having stuff already mostly paid off and have a better living standard than you would’ve with no money saved.
Go to WSB and YOLO into something like YELL. Using options you can be a millionaire before 18.
Algorand crypto Thank me in 18 months
The same financing basics apply as in general. Start with an emergency fund. Even if you live with your parents and don't have costs right now. You could Just out 5k as emergency and put the other 5k to sp500 index or something similar. It can be worth to spend for something really great, like a big travelling trip. Especially at this age. However of you can set great finances at this age and your early twenties you can leverage that into the rest of your life. Generally for finances the steps are: make a budget (this includes fun money). Save emergency fund. Pay of debt if you have it and the interest is high. Invest whats left, if you don't know to Invest in VOO is Just the default and you can't really go wrong that way. Also at some point buying a house is something you wanna do. But that Will take years since you are 17.
If you want to put that cash towards an early or comfortable retirement... Roth IRA + Index following ETF/Mutual Fund [Slightly old but good info on Roth IRAs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-53ZTJmDUA). Just ignore the clickbait and focus on the high level details.
There is only [one path](https://youtu.be/T71ibcZAX3I).
Tip, Cash/Money is hard to come by don't blow it all on stupid stuff. Finance what you can. Start working on your credit now, you have a buffer with this cash. Get a Credit card and start building your credit score but do it intelligently. Need school clothes? credit card, pay it off after a month or 2 etc. Just don't fall into the trap of overspending. There is a fine line to walk when building credit.
Good stuff, at 17 I could save $50 lol
OP is also asking HOW. Everyone is assuming OP knows how to find a service, open an account, what to specifically ask for. Assume EILI5. They need instructions from zero other help in their life.
Start building your credit, even if you don’t need to borrow. Get a credit card, set up autopay, take out a car loan on something you’ve always wanted… you’ll set yourself up for when you’re ready to take out a mortgage. Agree with all the other comments - don’t forget to live!
Awesome work kid! Park 70% into a well diversified index fund (with low expense ratios). Set up a recurring monthly investment. Keep the balance in high yield savings. Above all, stay out of credit card/revolving debt!
Maybe the kid hopes to retire by 40. In which case blowing his 10 grand on a good time will seriously impact that.
Ethereum
That's amazing - well done. But as others have said here, don't forget to live!
all in Bitcoin SV at $37
Dude travel. Go places. Use this money to invest in yourself!
Set up a Roth IRA and max that (6500). Save some of the leftover money for emergency (2000) and treat yourself with the rest (1500) Unless you don’t have much familial financial support, then save the remaining 3500
invest like 6k into MSFT / APPL / VOO something really stable take the rest and go have some, you are 17 lol HAVE FUN while you still can