What Should I Do With 30k?

[robert]

I was recently asked:

So, I will be 18 soon and will have access to my savings which are currently in low risk investments and total about 30k. I want this money working harder for me.

Here is my situation, I will be a senior in high school when I turn 18 and will be heading off to college next summer. So, it might not be best for me to start a brick and mortar business with the money yet. Should I put it into higher risk stocks or maybe put it as a down payment for a mortgage and get into the real estate market? I'm very knowledgeable with websites and could probably put some of the money into a nice website and use quite a bit for affiliate marketing which sounds pleasing to me.

What should I do? What would you do?

First of all, are all the taxes current on the money?

if you're knowledgeable about websites, I would say that you should take a little bit of it 5k or so and play around with some ideas.

The remaining 25k in my opinion should be used towards real estate. Either buying yourself a home or buying an investment property. If you are going off to college, a home for yourself might not be the smartest thing right now. You can flip houses for immediate returns or you can buy rental properties for a little cash flow and some equity. In your position I personally would buy a rental property, just because you will be pre-occupied with school and other stuff that 18 year olds do.

But that brings up a problem. You are 18, no credit history. If you have had a good paying job for the last 2 years, that will help, but you'll still run into a problem. I would at least look into it though.

A better option might be to just take the money and put it into some moderate investments, and hopefully make some money; until you have enough credit history, credit score, and income to be able to purchase a house.

[JenniferRaynor]

Thank you for the info!