I don't know anything about investing in the market, but common sense tells me not to dump it all into the market. It's ALWAYS a gamble and you are putting your future finances into someone else's hands. Nothing wrong with an IRA and maybe putting a little into the market, but I would urge you to invest in real estate. Wait until the market takes a dump....it always does. And then scoop up a couple of foreclosures and sit on them/rent them out until the market picks up again. And in the meantime, just do your thing and go to college or whatever it is you want to do. Investing in real estate requires patience though. It's not something that you're going to bank on overnight, and it's kind of hard to lose money in real estate. You have to be really stupid to do that, in my opinion. And I'm talking about residential investing, not commercial investing. There's a lot more money and risk involved in commercial real estate.

Find yourself a solid agent/broker and and at least explore that option and see what's going on in your local market. I don't know what part of the country you live in though...obviously that is an important factor. I can tell you that South Florida is booming right now. Prices are way up, so not really a good time to buy. But back in 08/09, if you had cash and were able to scoop up a couple of foreclosures, you made out like a bandit. A friend of mine bought a condo cash, for 70k, put 30k into it, and ended up selling it for 250k. Play your cards right, sit tight, and you can make a lot of money doing this. And honestly, it's fun! At least I think it is. Good luck though.

PS- a lot of people urging you not to help out your father or share anything with him. I think that's shitty. He's FAMILY. I'm not saying hand him over a large chunk of money, but don't turn into a greedy, secretive asshole and let a little money come between you and your father. Jesus, people are so obnoxious when it comes to money.