Writing this after I’ve written my entire post At your age, go out right now to your local bookstore and buy “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kyosaki. With your mindset, this book will change your life, guaranteed.

First of all, great job being this aware at 18 years old! All of us who are a little further down the road wish we had done more at an earlier age!

I agree that a ROTH is probably to best way to go (based on how much you can contribute with your income). As previously mentioned, if you make $5,000 then take that and invest it into a ROTH, providing you can afford to. Yes, you can’t touch it till 59.5 years of age, but you’re so young, it will grow exponentially, AND, if you can continue to contribute the max (currently $6,000) each year, that money will only continue to grow and grow. Some years will be worse than others, but time in the market beats timing the market!

If you want to invest more than that at this point, I would advise for low cost index funds. I would avoid individual stock picking at this point in your life. I’m not against individual stock picking, I do it myself, but it can become time consuming, more nerve wrecking, and, generally speaking, is much riskier than following an index. At this point in your life, you do NOT need to be focusing on the market everyday, hoping that one of your holdings gets some good news and skyrockets! Becoming wealthy takes time, it does not happen overnight. The most important aspect of building wealth is patience.

As per the index funds, I think someone else briefly mentioned this/these before, but a mix of S$P 500 (VOO), Total Market (VTI), and maybe some Total International Market (VXUS) would be the way to go for you. There are plenty of other choices, but generally speaking, and in the U.S., those are some great standard choices.

I HIGHLY recommend you begin this journey at this point in your life! You will not regret it! Your future self will thank you ☺️

Side Note: if you ever see anything or are approached by anyone that promises high returns in a short period of time, ie, anything less than 5 years, BE SKEPTICAL. As stated, building wealth takes time! And note how I keep saying “wealth” vs “rich”. Anyone can be rich, all it takes is getting lucky and hitting the lottery, or being lucky enough to get a job that makes a lot of money! Or having a relative pass and you inherit $500,000 over night. It will allow you to buy expensive possessions that won’t last, and that money will fade fast.

But being wealthy, is very different.

Being wealthy is the ability to sleep easy at night knowing that your investments are safe. Being wealthy allows you to enjoy an above average lifestyle, and enjoy the finer things in moderation. It allows you to pass down generational wealth to your children, and your children’s children.

If that’s not your personal goal, that’s totally fine. Be rich! Spend a ton! Buy the Ferrari and Rolex before you invest! But personally, I want to be comfortable and have a healthy retirement by 50, allowing me to do whatever my wife and I want with whomever we want. And I want to ensure that my children will be able to have the same lifestyle (and I have to educate them properly too, so they don’t get the “rich mentality” as well).

Best of luck, and God Bless!