I just combined 2 bank accounts and now have 20,000 in my checking

>>1704680
open a forex account and trade

>>1704680
Your mom sounds like she's telling you to more generally just invest it to grow your money over time. My advice here is to first educate yourself on what it entails to invest in a company, what companies are safe bets for the future, etc. (just google the shit, really, there's so many books on this that all have good info) then the next recommended step (provided you're trying to save for retirement that is) is to put it in a Roth IRA account and pick who to invest in. obviously research the benefits of doing this, what a Roth IRA does for you, if you're eligible for it, if your bank allows it, and if not or you wanna do it with a brokerage, what brokerage to look into. Look into big name, respectable and highly rated ones like Charles Schwab or TD Ameritrade. Then, final step, just decide which stocks to invest in based on your prior research, preferably blue chip companies that have no reason to suddenly make drastic moves downward in the future like Google or Coca-cola, Pepsico, Amazon, Tesla (for now), Verizon, etc. Look also into low-risk index funds, like with vanguard's index funds, or potentially the S&P 500, which makes up the top 500 companies in the world and boots companies off if they no longer make the list, and basically a guaranteed money printer at this point in time for a period over 10 years or more.

First and foremost just do your own research into what you should do with it, because nobody has better say in your investments than yourself.

If I want a kid one day, if I put down 30 dollars a month for 18 years the kid could go to college right?

>>1704680
She means put your good boy points into a savings account so you can get one percent interest anon!! in less than 100 years you'll double your money

File: 9366429.jpg (56KB, 600x899px) Image search: [Google]

56KB, 600x899px

How is your 3-6 month savings buffer?

Do you still have any debts?

>>1704923
My parents made well over six figures for years, but we're too stupid to start a college savings plan and left me stuck with the bill.

Put what you can into a dedicated college savings plan.

>>1704923
30*12*18=6048
Assuming an average yearly inflation of 3.22% and the average savings account has an APY of 0.06% (from google), all in the US, your effective decrease in real value is 3.16% per year
6048*(1.00-0.0316)^18= $3393.11
Just over 3K worth in present day currency
You would have
So probably not

>investing in the Dow Jones at the end of a business cycle

unless you plan on leaving this money in for a very long time, and don't need it in the next decade or so, then this is a great way to lose a load of money

wait for the next crash, then buy at/near the bottom.

on a related note, I just moved $10,000 from my checking into a CD. I was tired of getting 0% interest on all the cash in my checking account, so I figured a CD would give a better return. But when reading the fine print I find it only has a return of 0.2% APY. After a whole year stowed away in a CD I'd only earn $20 in interest, and a CD means I can't take the money out in the mean time.

Is there a better place i can park my cash in a riskless investment, which can earn more than 0.2% APY?

>>1705402
If the real GDP is still increasing (albeit slowly) and the inflation is over 3%, you should be able to find something over 3% with relatively little risk

>>1705402
>riskless investment

Nothing is zero risk.

>>1705406
I'd read that CDs usually pay around the rate of inflation. Not the ones from my bank, apparently. What's another investment that is certain won't go down? Government bonds or bond funds? Money markets? I don't really know much about the various products.

>>1705402
>Riskless investment

Free lunch does not exist. You get paid for taking risks. But AOTBE I'd leave it in a savings account and instead max out my 401K or IRA, at least at the level of the employer match or to the level allowed.

Your best investment is paying down debt. Beyond that it's investments in yourself.

>>1705413

Bonds never go down if you carry them to maturity. If you sell them before you're only going to get the market price. Bonds tanked over the past month, and they're going to continue to underperform so long as the Fed remains on a tightening cycle.

>>1705402
A better investment would be to stop buying dumb shit and shop at a cheap grocery store. You'd save more money at your income level than any relatively safe investment could.

>>1705402
just looked and it's actually 0.02% per year. So, I get a whole $2 on my $10,000 investment after an entire year.

>>1705417
my employer doesn't provide any matching or any benefits at all actually. I'm paid well but I have to pay my own health insurance, etc. Is investing in a 401K right now really a smart idea? Like >>1705395 I believe we're at the end of a cycle and there will be a drop in 2017. I'm waiting for prices to fall before buying into stocks. I don't want to buy in right at the top of the market.

>>1705424
Thanks for that clarification. I'd read about crashing bond prices and that increasing interest rates (assuming that happens) will drive them down further. So, that's looking like a bad option atm.

>>1705431
I live quite frugally and save as much of my paycheck that I can. That said, I live in San Jose so rent takes a disproportionate chunk of my salary.

So, is there anywhere to park cash that returns better than 0.02% APY, and has no or very little risk? Or should I just keep it in the bank?

>>1705402
High Yield Savings Acct. Goldman Sachs has the best rates right now I think, but Ally and Barclay's are pretty good too. Pretty sure they also offer better CD rates than what you got.

>>1705435

Consider the potential loss of 1-2% annually the cost of never having to use credit cards in an emergency or if you get laid off. See it as a test of your will to not spend it.

>>1705440
Not a bad idea. Online brokerages and banks (eg Discover, State Farm, etc) are paying about 1% more than the local bank. At least it will be liquid and you won't have to pay a fee to get to it.

>>1705440
Thanks, I'll look into some other options when the term of my CD is up. I see VirtualBank for instance offers 0.93% on a 6-month CD, 45 times what I'm earning now. I only went with my bank because it was easiest.