Small investing for spending money?
First thing to know about investing is that you make money by taking risks. That means the possibility of losing money as well as making it.  There are low risk investments that pretty much always pay out but they don't earn much. Making $200 a month on $10,000 is about 26% per year.  That's vastly more than you are going to earn on low risk assets. If you want that kind of return, you can invest in a diversified portfolio of equities through an equity index fund.  Some years you may make 26% or more.  Other years you may make nothing or lose that much or more.  On average you may earn maybe 7%-10% hopefully. Overall, investing is a game of making money over long horizons.  It's very useful for putting away your $10k now and having hopefully more than that when it comes time to buy a house or retire or something some years into the future.  You have to accept that you might also end up with less than $10K in the end, but you are more likely to make money than to use it. What you describe doesn't seem like a possible situation.  In developed markets, you can't reliably expect anything close to the return you desire from assets that are unlikely to lose you money.  It might be time to re-evaluate your financial goals.  Do you want spending money now, or do you want to invest for use down the road? "Congrats on saving the money but unfortunately, you're looking for a 24% annual rate of return and that's not ""reasonable"" to expect.  $200 per month, is $2,400 per year.  $2,400/$10,000 is 24%. In a 1% savings account with spending of $200 per month spending you'll have about $7,882 at the end of the year.  You'll earn about $90 of interest over the course of the year.  I'm sure other people will have more specific opinions about the best way to deploy that money.  I'd open a brokerage account (not an IRA, just a regular plain vanilla brokerage account), break off $5,000 and put it in to a low fee no commission S&P index fund; which CAN lose value.  Put the rest in a savings account/checking account and just spend wisely." "The existing answers are good, I justed wanted to provide a simpler answer to your question: Would I be able to invest this in a reasonable way that it would provide me with say $200 spending money per month over the school year? No. There is no way to invest $10,000 to reliably get $200 every month.  Any way that you invest it that has even the possibility of getting that much will have a significant possibility of losing a lot of money.  If you want to get ""free"" spending money out without risk of losing money, you're unlikely to be able to find an investment that will give you more than a couple dollars per month." Just to offer another alternative, consider Certificates of Deposit (CDs) at an FDIC insured bank or credit union for small or short-term investments. If you don't need access to the money, as stated, and are not willing to take much risk, you could put money into a number of CDs instead of investing it in stocks, or just letting it sit in a regular savings/checking account. You are essentially lending money to the bank for a guaranteed length of time (anywhere from 3 to 60 months), and therefore they can give you a better rate of return than a savings account (which is basically lending it to them with the condition that you could ask for it all back at any time). Your rate of return in CDs is lower a typical stock investment, but carries no risk at all. CD rates typically increase with the length of the CD. For example, my credit union currently offers a 2.3% APY on a 5-year CD, but only 0.75% for 12 month CDs, and a mere 0.1% APY on regular savings/checking accounts. Putting your full $10K deposit into one or more CDs would yield $230 a year instead of a mere $10 in their savings account. If you go this route with some or all of your principal, note that withdrawing the money from a CD before the end of the deposit term will mean forfeiting the interest earned. Some banks may let you withdraw just a portion of a CD, but typically not. Work around this by splitting your funds into multiple CDs, and possibly different term lengths as well, to give you more flexibility in accessing the funds. Personally, I have a rolling emergency fund (~6 months living expenses, separate from all investments and day-to-day income/expenses) split evenly among 5 CDs, each with a 5-year deposit term (for the highest rate) with evenly staggered maturity dates. In any given year, I could close one of these CDs to cover an emergency and lose only a few months of interest on just 20% of my emergency fund, instead of several years interest on all of it. If I needed more funds, I could withdraw more of the CDs as needed, in order of youngest deposit age to minimize the interest loss - although that loss would probably be the least of my worries by then, if I'm dipping deeply into these funds I'll be needing them pretty badly.  Initially I created the CDs with a very small amount and differing term lengths (1 year increments from 1-5 years) and then as each matured, I rolled it back into a 5 year CD. Now every year when one matures, I add a little more principal (to account for increased living expenses), and roll everything back in for another 5 years. Minimal thought and effort, no risk, much higher return than savings, fairly liquid (accessible) in an emergency, and great peace of mind. Plus it ensures I don't blow the money on something else, and that I have something to fall back on if all my other investments completely tanked, or I had massive medical bills, or lost my job, etc.
I encourage using it as a buffer.  After h.s. I had a thousand or so dollars saved up in my savings account.  After college it was maybe 5 thousand and it's remained roughly like that ever since. I figure any modest emergency or spending splurge may cost, at most, a couple thousand bucks.  I'm talking about a new couch, a car accident, hospital bill, vacation to wherever, etc.  It's nice to have an idea of a buffer.  Financial advisors say to have a buffer of about 3 months of salary.  This is in case of unemployment and such.  It was smart for me. I wouldn't try to spend money to make money at this point.  It's not enough money to try to see a significant gain unless you're lucky.  I tried Sharebuilder a while ago with $200 to see what stocks were like.  They gave you several free trades to see how you liked it.  At first I was shuffling stuff a little too much and once the fees start kicking in it's 7 bucks here, 7 bucks there- eventually I realized you have to invest enough to offset the transfer fees and the fact that you have your money tied up in something going up and down all the time.  But yeah.  Start with a buffer and scale it up as your lifestyle changes.  Anything beyond your buffer is spending money, investing money, fun money. "I agree with all that was said here, but I have to add something. Another point I will add is ""stimulus: while you still can."" At some point you can no longer take on more debt even if you wanted to. If global and domestic investors think you are going to be a risky investment then they cut you off. The people who argue that Greece shouldn't be implementing austerity don't seem to understand the situation they are in. Far fewer wanted to lend money to them even before they started their ""haircut"" shanigans. People think the government should spend more, but how are they supposed to do that if no one wants to lend more money? They also criticize Germany and co. for insisting on austerity. What they sometimes seem to forget is that Germany doesn't have an infinite supply of money to bail out Greece. They have their own bills to pay and any politician who was dumping ever larger amounts of money into Greece would be looking at being voted out or even assassinated if they let things get too bad for the German people (I am being a little hyperbole here to make a point, but I honestly feel it is a very real possibility in this kind of economic climate). At this point there is no reason to discuss whether Greece should choose to spend more money, because that choice is no longer even available to them.  We are not as bad off as Greece right now. We should spend more money but we need results. We need to identify the structural problems ailing our economy and get them fixed with the money we have. Direct spending isn't always a great idea if it is done in a nonsensical way. People defending the bike paths and other shit argue that all spending is good in a depression. I am not against bike paths and roads, because they can certainly create jobs and generate value to the economy. But every dollar you spend on them is one dollar that can't be spent on the biggest problems (assuming of course that kind of infrastructure isn't one of those).  After spending trillions of dollars on spending, our GDP is still growing at only 2%. It was increasing about 3.5% every year from 1947-2012. Our jobs creation rate is still less than half the 250,000 jobs a month we created in the last 10-20 years (can't remember the exact number). We definitely need to spend differently to address the problems and get people back to work. As curtiscarlson said, we need middle class jobs. We particularly need those among America's youth so they can move out of their parents' houses and buy their own, which could really help the housing economy and create jobs for the lower class in turn and get us out of this depression. My thoughts are that we should use stimulus in new new industries such as those in high tech. I intentionally stated that very broadly, because we have many millenials who need to get to work.  Investing in different high growth industries could create jobs for people in any number of occupations. But if we don't do that while people still want to lend us money then we are going to be fucked in a few years when we are out of options and land in the same position as Greece.  edit:let me clarify the infrastructure thing. There was a town that spent millions rebuilding a sidewalk that was five years old that no one in the community wanted. Everyone there thought it was a nonsensical way of spending tax dollars and would have thought that money could have been better spent in another community that really needed problems resolved. Wouldn't it have made more sense to spend money somewhere where it was needed? then you could have created jobs AND created lasting value to an economy by fixing a structural problem that was holding the economy back. Why don't our politicians realize this?" "Congratulations!  It sounds like you're off to a good start.  Establishing credit history and starting a Roth IRA now and getting some investment in at this point is likely to save you a great deal later on.  A good way to diversify investments in a Roth IRA is to use ETFs, especially index funds, which bundle a whole bunch of diverse investments together into one symbol that you can get into with a single transaction fee (""commission"").  As a small piece of advice, if there's inaccurate information on that credit card (e.g. balances due and payments made) showing up on your credit report, don't ask the credit bureaus to correct that data as long as the rest of the information shows generally good standing - they'll just remove the whole thing.   If you have the discipline to pay off your credit card balance in full every month, and view credit card purchases as electronically spending cash, you could consider applying for a credit card of your own to help build that credit history further.   Also, welcome to this site; feel free to check it out as you learn more. Planet Money might also have some interesting ways to learn about these topics.  Finally, don't forget to regularly let your parents know how much you appreciate all they're doing for you. :-)" Contributing the $150 to put you over the $3k mark is somewhat pointless. The reason is that, although you won't be accumulating any fees, you won't be able to use the money, either, because as soon as you take a distribution, you'll be back under $3k.  Instead, I would look at two things: First, are you considering all the ways you can spend this money? Doctor visits, dentist, prescriptions, eyeglasses, chiropractic, and more: there are lots of ways to spend this money, and if you can spend it all in a relatively short amount of time, your problem is solved. The full list of things you can spend it on is in IRS Publication 502.  Second, have you talked to a local credit union? Credit unions often offer an HSA account with only a small setup fee and no ongoing monthly fee or minimum balance. If you roll your current HSA money over into your new account, you can then take your time spending the money until it is gone.  If you are having trouble locating a good HSA, there is a large list at hsarates.com. Look for one that is available in your state (or nationwide) and has low/no fees. Your urge to invest is a good one. If you don’t invest your money, you're probably leaving about two thirds of it on the table. By the time you need the money (without knowing your exact future withdrawals, and taking national averages into consideration), investing would have grown it by three times.  As far as how much money you should invest...I invest everything I'm not going to use in the next month or two. My advisor is able to monitor my bank accounts and sweep any unused cash into investment accounts. Using AI, they're able to figure out exactly which days I'll be needing cash then put it back in my accounts before I need it. 1% of my portfolio is always kept in cash, for emergencies. With investing, there are lots of things to consider. You need to decide what to invest in - spread your money over many different asset classes - monitor market trends - have a plan for market ups and downs - regularly rebalance - maneuver the fun world of taxes.  Basically - asset management.  Vanguard mutual funds are an easy, affordable way to spread your money over many different assets, but they don't offer much when it comes to asset management. I'd suggest you find a flat fee advisor (no more than 1% of your managed assets) who listens to you, determines your goals, creates a plan based on upon, then executes it with no commission or execution costs. In this particular vein, robo advisors are the best bet. I don't want to come across like I'm selling something, however, I have had much satisfaction with online digital advisors. Hope this helps. "(Congrats on earning/saving $3K and not wanting to blow it all on immediate gratification!) I currently have it invested in sector mutual funds but with the rise and fall of the stock market, is this really the best way to prepare long-term? Long-term?  Yes! However... four years is not long term.  It is, in fact, borderline short term.  (When I was your age, that was incomprehensible too, but trust me: it's true.) The problem is that there's an inverse relationship between reward and risk: the higher the possible reward, the greater the risk that you'll lose a big chunk of it. I invest that middle-term money in a mix of junk high yield bond funds and ""high"" yield savings accounts at an online bank.  My preferences are HYG purchased at Fidelity (EDIT: because it's commission-free and I buy a few hundred dollars worth every month), and Ally Bank." This does not really fit your liquidity requirement but consider buying a one or two room apartment to rent out with part of your savings. You will get income from it and small apartments sell quickly if you do need the money. This will help offset the negative interest from the rest. One downside is that other people have the same idea at the moment and the real estate prices are inflated somewhat. When investing small amounts, you should consider the substantial toll that commissions will take on your investment. In your case, $800 placed in just one ETF will incur commissions of about $8 each way, or a total of 2% of your investment. I suggest you wait until you have at least $5000 to invest in stocks or ETFs. Since this is in a IRA, your options are limited, but perhaps you may qualify for a Vanguard mutual fund, which will not charge commissions and will have annual expenses only a trivial amount higher than the corresponding ETF. it should probably go in a mixed allocation fund, and since you are young, it should be a relatively aggressive one. Mutual funds will also allow you to contribute small amounts over time without incurring any extra fees.