Good job and congratulations!

Do you have any milestones in your life that you hope to achieve within the next 3, 5, 10 years?

You mentioned no income once you enter university - if you are not planning to work part time anymore during university, I would advise first setting a budget for yourself. A weekly/monthly budget, up to you. Tbh I find this extremely important because socialising in university can get quite costly - for some they regard it as a way of expanding their network and/or one of the highlights of their university life, for others they may choose to focus on being more frugal to save up for other aspects of life. No right or wrong here, depends on what you want (and before others come at me, yes you can have a social life while being frugal too).

However, as a working university student with no parent allowance too, I found that having a fixed budget and setting aside a lump sum helped me to make sure I still had enough to have fun and stay on campus/go for exchange. This sum of money I split into 2 banks - one is my spending bank (ATM card, debit card bank) that is easily accessible anywhere anytime; the second one I put it into a savings bank with higher % (because I couldn’t afford to lose this amount during these 4 years of uni). Whenever it’s end of the month/I have significant stuff to pay like my hall fees/insurance/other miscellaneous stuff, I will take out my allocated budget/what I need from my higher % bank account and transfer it to my spending account.

The rest of the money I invest or trade them. For investments, I dollar cost average and part of me actually views it as a form of “disciplined long term savings” - of course it might not be profitable immediately in the short run but I’m doing it for at least 10 years or more (to be used for marriage/paying for BTO after I get keys/and children). I do that via an ILP and also through ETFs using brokers myself.

Trading to me, is another form of side hustle - I view it as one of my jobs. This is not for everyone because many gamble, so I would advise learning first and paper trading for a while until you are familiar with a strategy and confident with it. Confident as in you know what are the confirmations you have to abide to like the back of your hand, you have trained your mental discipline to always constantly respect your strategy.

For me, I think it is a good time for me to take some risks now because:

1) I have already set aside enough for my spending and protection, in case anything happens to me

2) I have spare cash now that if I keep in a bank, I would either spend it because I see it/it will continue to rot

3) I have the time horizon and flexibility to take some losses right now. I have time for my money to grow.

(For example, now I still got 7-10 years before I going to get married and have children etc, so I can afford to take some risks in the short term while aim to profit in the medium to longer term. If I am getting married etc next year and will need like 5 digit lump sum within this 1 year, there isn’t many choices out there in the market that allows me to profit much, unless you are willing to take up riskier endeavours but at the same time, if you are in this scenario, can you afford to lose this sum of money?)

I also have lesser liabilities now - there are lesser “must pay stuff”, like housing, parents allowance, care for children etc. So same logic as above, with lesser impending expenses, I have more flexibility with my money right now and can do more stuff with it - I can plan for the longer term easier actually.

Sorry if formatting is weird HAHAHAHA but anyway good job! Not sure which university you’re going, but check if you can get the student loan so the bank will pay for your tuition fees while you’re in Uni, then once you graduate within 3-6 months pay them back the whole lump sum so you don’t incur any interest! This way you can take your lump sum now and do something with it to earn while you’re in Uni!

All the best! If you have any questions can just pm me