best ways to invest for a college student
 

So I'm looking for a good way to invest money (long term, like retirement). I work part time so a 401(k) is a no go (unless I can get one from someone other than my employer which I heard was a possibility), so I'm looking for something where I can set up automatic withdrawals from my checking account every month with a large return percentage. What are my best options? My loose goals are to retire from 50-65 with about 1.5 million in the bank. Sorry this isn't in a sticky thread, but I'm not quite sure who to ask about it :) that's how nOOby I am :)

Oh, and on a side note, does anyone know about government grants to buy your own home? I would be interested in purchasing about a year, maybe a year and a half.

Be very carefull about the stock market. After 9-11 much of my college money was gone, just be very aware of that risk because anything can happen.

I don't know what your criteria is for 'large' return. But my experience is that there are no large returns going on right now!

Your bank should have a wide array of savings options. We currently have money that automatically deducts out of our checking into savings, from there into an IRA.

You can also look into money market accounts and CD's.

But perhaps the best savings will come from paying down the principal on your unsubsidized loans and you will be golden if you can actually pay down your subsidized loans before the rates kick in upon graduation.

You need to look long-term, no matter how painful your losses are in the short-term. The market has rebounded fairly well since then, if you kept your money in.

There are a lot of theories about young kids (under 20) chipping into a roth IRA for a couple years, and then ignoring it. Do the math on $4-5,000 compounding at 8-10% annually, with no taxes due. Over 40 years. It's fairly large, which is why if you start early, becoming a millionaire is not really that difficult. I don't know if I'd do that, though, since Social Security was originally promised to be tax-free as well when it was "sold" in the 30's.

I have kept my money in, and I'm getting no where near 10% return. Are you seriously getting that high of a return?

In fact, my money hovers at or below the principal amount--and has been for the past three years.


Here's a handy calculator I searched out:

http://www.moneychimp.com/calculator...calculator.htm

I don't know if you meant 5K contributed annually, but if you just invested 5K in one shot, got the highest return quoted (10%), and let it sit there for 40 years, you would wind up with slightly over 226K--a far cry from being a millionaire. Not even enough to place a down payment on a house in 40 years, actually. You would probably be better off investing the 5K on a down payment toward a house today, would be my limited opinion.


Keep in mind that if he was talking about contributing 5K annually, that's nearly $500 per month. If you have that left over and you are around 20 years old, you don't need my financial advice :)

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I've mentioned this before in another forum, but I would highly recommend picking up a copy of the book "You have more than You Think" by David and Tom Gardner (the Motley Fool guys).

It is an excellent book with lots of ideas for long-term (and short-term) investments.

I kept my money in, but even my fairly conservative mutual fund is still down by almost 50%.


I'd love to know where I could get 8-10% annually.

Real estate is the best investment you can make. Especially in the long term

Index funds, in decending order of weight: S&P, NYSE, NASDAQ, Russell, then AMEX. Add a few commodity indexes in there, and you should be fine. An IRA is only as good as its administrator, incidentally. Just my two centavos, for what they're worth...

breast implants and webcam, you cant make better money as a student, or so i hear from a class mate of mine.

That 8 - 10% is not probably not a one year annual rate, but probably a long term return (think 30 years). Historically speaking, rates of return like that are very easy to obtain if you position yourself correctly.

Keep in mind that our markets are "boom/bust" cycle. You'll usually have a booming market followed by a bust followed by a boom followed by a bust... In then end the market keeps trending upward.

BAHAHA. Actually, the thought crossed my mind. It's not really a long term investment though.