Where to park money while saving for a car
Bond aren't necessarily any safer than the stock market.  Ultimately, there is no such thing as a low risk mutual fund. You want something that will allow you get at your money relatively quickly. In other words, CDs (since you you can pick a definite time period for your money to be tied up), money market account or just a plain old savings account. Basically, you want to match inflation and have easy access to the money.  Any other returns on top of that are gravy, but don't fret too much about it. See also: Where can I park my rainy-day / emergency fund? Savings accounts don’t generate much interest. Where should I park my rainy-day / emergency fund? "As you're saving up for an expenditure instead of investing for the long run, I would stay away from any sort of ""parking facility"" where you run the risk of not having the principal protected. The riskier investments that would potentially generate a bigger return also carry a bigger downside, ie you might not be able to get the money back that you put in. I'd shop around for a CD or a MMA/regular savings account with a half-decent interest rate. And yes, I'm aware that the return you might get is probably still less than inflation." Nothing's generating a whole lot of interest right now.  But more liquid and stable is better (cash or cash-like). But a related question:  Why a new car?  You can knock thousands of dollars off of the price of a comparable vehicle by buying one that's one or two years old.  Your new vehicle loses thousands of dollars in value the moment it goes off the lot. "I would split the savings as you may need some of it quickly for an emergency. At least 1/2 should be very liquid, such as cash or MMA/Checking.  From there, look at longer term CDs, from 30 day to 180 day, depending upon your situation.  Don't be surprised if by the time you've saved the money up, your desire for the car will have waned.  How many years will it take to save up enough?  2? 5? 10?  You may want to review your current work position instead, so you'll make more and hopefully save more towards what you do want. Important: Be prepared for the speed bumps of life. My landlord sold the house I was renting out from under me, as I was on a month-to-month contract.  I had to have a full second deposit at the ready to put down when renting elsewhere, as well as the moving expenses. Luckily, I had done what my tax attorney had said, which is ""Create a cushion of liquid assets which can cover at least three months of your entire outgoing expenses.""   The Mormon philosophy is to carry at least one year's worth of supplies (food, water, materials) at all times in your home, for any contingency. Not Mormon, not religious, but willing to listen to others' opinions. As always, YMMV.  Your Mileage May Vary."
If you buy a new car, the odds that it will require repairs are fairly low, and if it does, they should be covered by the warranty. If you buy a used car, there is a fair chance that it will need some sort of repairs, and there probably is no warranty. But think about how much repairs are likely to cost. A new car these days costs like $25,000 or more. You can find reasonably decent used cars for a few thousand dollars. Say you bought a used car for $2,000. Is it likely that it will need $23,000 in repairs? No way. Even if you had to make thousands of dollars worth of repairs to the used car, it would almost certainly be cheaper than buying a new car. I've bought three used vehicles in the last few years, one for me, one for my son, and one for my daughter. I paid, let's see, I think between $4,000 and $6,000 each. We've had my son's car for about 9 months and to date had $40 in repairs. My daughter's car turned out to have a bunch of problems; I ended up putting maybe another $2,000 into it. But now she's got a car she's very happy with that cost me maybe $6,000 between purchase and repairs, still way less than a new car. My pickup had big time problems, including needing a new transmission and a new engine. I've put, hmm, maybe $7,000 into it. It's definitely debatable if it was worth replacing the engine. But even at all that, if I had bought that truck new it would have cost over $30,000. Presumably if I bought new I would have had a nicer vehicle and I could have gotten exactly the options I wanted, so I'm not entirely happy with how this one turned out, but I still saved money by buying used. Here's what I do when I buy a used car: I go into it expecting that there will be repairs. Depending on the age and condition of the car, I plan on about $1000 within the first few months, probably another $1000 stretched out over the next year or so. I plan for this both financially and emotionally. By financially I mean that I have money set aside for repairs or have available credit or one way or another have planned for it in my budget. By emotionally I mean, I have told myself that I expect there to be problems, so I don't get all upset when there are and start screaming and crying about how I was ripped off. When you buy a used car, take it for granted that there will be problems, but you're still saving money over buying new. Sure, it's painful when the repair bills hit. But if you buy a new car, you'll have a monthly loan payment EVERY MONTH. Oh, and if you have a little mechanical aptitude and can do at least some of the maintenance yourself, the savings are bigger. Bear in mind that while you are saving money, you are paying for it in uncertainty and aggravation. With a new car, you can be reasonably confidant that it will indeed start and get you to work each day. With a used car, there's a much bigger chance that it won't start or will leave you stranded. $2,000 is definitely the low end, and you say that that would leave you no reserve for repairs. I don't know where you live or what used cars prices are like in your area. Where I live, in Michigan, you can get a pretty decent used car for about $5,000. If I were you I'd at least look into whether I could get a loan for $4,000 or $5,000 to maybe get a better used car. Of course that all depends on how much money you will be making and what your other expenses are. When you're a little richer and better established, then if a shiny new car is important to you, you can do that. Me, I'm 56 years old, I've bought new cars and I've bought used cars and I've concluded that having a fancy new car just isn't something that I care about, so these days I buy used. "If you're making big money at 18, you should be saving every penny you can in tax-advantaged retirement accounts. (If your employer offers it, see if you can do a Roth 401(k), as odds are good you'll be in a higher tax bracket at retirement than you are now and you will benefit from the Roth structure. Otherwise, use a regular 401(k). IRAs are also an option, but you can put more money into a 401(k) than you can into an IRA.) If you do this for a decade or two while you're young, you'll be very well set on the road to retirement. Moreover, since you think ""I've got the money, why not?"" this will actually keep the money from you so you can do a better job of avoiding that question. Your next concern will be post-tax money. You're going to be splitting this between three basic sorts of places: just plain spending it, saving/investing it in bank accounts and stock markets, or purchasing some other form of capital which will save you money or provide you with some useful capability that's worth money (e.g. owning a condo/house will help you save on rent - and you don't have to pay income taxes on that savings!) 18 is generally a little young to be setting down and buying a house, though, so you should probably look at saving money for a while instead. Open an account at Vanguard or a similar institution and buy some simple index funds. (The index funds have lower turnover, which is probably better for your unsheltered accounts, and you don't need to spend a bunch of money on mutual fund expense ratios, or spend a lot of time making a second career out of stock-picking). If you save a lot of your money for retirement now, you won't have to save as much later, and will have more income to spend on a house, so it'll all work out. Whatever you do, you shouldn't blow a bunch of money on a really fancy new car. You might consider a pretty-nice slightly-used car, but the first year of car ownership is distressingly close to just throwing your money away, and fancy cars only make it that much worse. You should also try to have some fun and interesting experiences while you're still young. It's okay to spend some money on them. Don't waste money flying first-class or spend tooo much money dining out, but fun/interesting/different experiences will serve you well throughout your life. (By contrast, routine luxury may not be worth it.)" Of course. Where else are the rich gong to park their money? The Dow is going nowhere but up. I was saying this when the Dow was in the 16s and everybody else was calling 'get out'. If I had shit to invest I'd probably be able to buy a new car. "Two reasons: Many people make lots of financial decisions (and other kinds of decisions) without actually running any numbers to see what is best (or even possible).  They just go with their gut and buy things they feel like buying, without making a thoroughgoing attempt to assess the impact on their finances.  I share your bafflement at this, but it is true. A sobering example that has stuck with me can be found in this Los Angeles Times story from a few years ago, which describes a family spending $1000 more than their income every month, while defaulting on their mortgage and dipping into their 7-year-old daughter's savings account to cover the bills --- but still spending $275 a month on ""beauty products and services"" and $200 a month on pet expenses. Even to the extent that people do take finances into account, finances are not the only thing they take into account.  For many people, driving a car that is new, looks nice and fresh, has the latest features, etc., is something they are willing to pay money for.  Your question ""why don't people view a car solely as a means of transportation"" is not a financial question but a psychological one.  The answer to ""why do people buy new cars"" is ""because people do not view cars solely as a means of transportation"". I recently bought a used car, and while looking around at different ones I visited a car lot.  When the dealer heard which car I was interested in, he said, ""So, I guess you're looking for a transportation car.""  I thought to myself, ""Duh.  Is there any other kind?""  But the fact that someone can say something like that indicates that there are many people who are looking for something other than a ""transportation car""." "You probably want to think about pools of money separately if they have separate time horizons or are otherwise not interchangeable. A classic example is your emergency fund (which has a potentially-immediate time horizon) vs. your retirement savings. The emergency fund would be all in cash or very short-term bonds, and would not count in your retirement asset allocation. Since the emergency fund usually has a capped value (a certain amount of money you want to have for emergencies) rather than a percentage of net worth value, this especially makes sense; you have to treat the emergency fund separately or you'd have to keep changing your asset allocation percentages as your net worth rises (hopefully) with respect to the capped emergency amount. Similarly, say you are saving for a car in 3 years; you'd probably invest that money very conservatively. Also, it could not go in tax-deferred retirement accounts, and when you buy the car the account will go to zero. So probably worth treating this separately. On the other hand, say you have some savings in tax-deferred retirement accounts and some in taxable accounts, but in both cases you're expecting to use the money for retirement. In that case, you have the same time horizon and goals, and it can pay to think about the taxable and nontaxable accounts as a whole. In particular you can use ""asset location"" (put less-tax-efficient assets in tax-deferred accounts). In this case maybe you would end up with mostly bonds in the tax-deferred accounts and mostly equities in the taxable accounts, for tax reasons; the asset allocation would only make sense considering all the accounts, since the taxable account would be too equity-heavy and the tax-deferred one too bond-heavy. There can be practical reasons to treat each account separately, too, though. For example if your broker has a convenient automatic rebalancing tool on their website, it probably only works within an account. Treating each account by itself would let you use the automatic rebalancing feature on the website, while a more complicated asset location strategy where you rebalance across multiple accounts might be too hard and in practice you wouldn't get around to it. Getting around to rebalancing could be more important than tax-motivated asset location. You could also take a keep-it-simple attitude: as long as your asset allocation is pretty balanced (say 40% bonds) and includes a cash allocation that would cover emergencies, you could just put all your money in one big portfolio, and think of it as a whole. If you have an emergency, withdraw from the cash allocation and then rebuild it over time; if you have a major purchase, you could redeem some bonds and then rebuild the bond portion over time. (When I say ""over time"" I'm thinking you might start putting new contributions into the now-underallocated assets, or you might dollar-cost-average back into them by selling bits of the now-overallocated assets.) Anyway there's no absolute rule, it depends on what's simple enough to be manageable for you in practice, and what separate shorter-horizon investing goals you have in addition to retirement. You can always make things complex but remember that a simple plan that happens in real life is better than a complex plan you don't keep up with in practice (or a complex plan that takes away from activities you'd enjoy more)." You're asking for opinions here, which is kindof against the rules, but I'll give it a try. 1) Does emergency funds and saving money(eg.Money plan to buy a       house) should be in same Saving Account? 2) or should each specific saving plan set up in particular Saving Account? No, it doesn't. It's a matter of convenience. I personally find it more convinient to have different stashes for different purposes, but it means extra overhead of keeping an eye on one more account. Fortunately, with on-line access, mint.com and spreadsheets, it's not that big of an overhead. 3) If saved in same Saving Account, how could I manage easily which       percentage is planned for which? Excel spreadsheet comes to mind. Banks may have some tools too, for example Wells Fargo (where I'll be closing my account soon), has a nice on-line goals manager that allows you to keep track of your savings per assigned goals (they allow one goal per savings account, but you can have multiple accounts for multiple goals, and it will show the goals and progress pretty nicely). 4) If not saved in same Saving Account, the interest earned would be smaller because they all clutter across multiple Saving Accounts? In some banks interest rates are tiered. But in most on-line savings accounts they're not, and you get the same high rate from the first $1 deposited. So if in the bank where you keep the money they only pay a decent rate if you deposit some big lump of money - just open an account elsewhere. Places to check: American Express FSB, ING Direct, E*Trade savings, Capital One, Ally, and many more. First of all, I am sorry for your loss. At this time, worrying about money is probably the least of your concerns. It might be tempting to try to pay off all your debts at once, and while that would be satisfying, it would be a poor investment of your inheritance. When you have debt, you have to think about how much that debt is costing you to keep open. Since you have 0%APR on your student loan, it does not make sense to pay any more than the minimum payments. You may want to look into getting a personal loan to pay off your other personal debts. The interest rates for a loan will probably be much less than what you are paying currently. This will allow you to put a payment plan together that is affordable. You can also use your inheritance as collateral for the loan. Getting a loan will most likely give you a better credit rating as well. You may also be tempted to get a brand new sports car, but that would also not be a good idea at all. You should shop for a vehicle based on your current income, and not your savings. I believe you can get the same rates for an auto loan for a car up to 3 years old as a brand new car. It would be worth your while to shop for a quality used car from a reputable dealer. If it is a certified used car, you can usually carry the rest of the new car warranty. The biggest return on investment you have now is your employer sponsored 401(k) account. Find out how long it takes for you to become fully vested. Being vested means that you can leave your job and keep all of your employer contributions. If possible, max out, or at least contribute as much as you can afford to that fund to get employee matching. You should also stick with your job until you become fully vested. The money you have in retirement accounts does you no good when you are young. There is a significant penalty for early withdrawal, and that age is currently 59 1/2. Doing the math, it would be around 2052 when you would be able to have access to that money. You should hold onto a certain amount of your money and keep it in a higher interest rate savings account, or a money market account. You say that your living situation will change in the next year as well. Take full advantage of living as cheaply as you can. Don't make any unnecessary purchases, try to brown bag it to lunch instead of eating out, etc. Save as much as you can and put it into a savings account. You can use that money to put a down payment on a house, or for the security and first month's rent. Try not to spend any money from your savings, and try to support yourself as best as you can from your income. Make a budget for yourself and figure out how much you can spend every month. Don't factor in your savings into it. Your savings should be treated as an emergency fund. Since you have just completed school, and this is your first big job out of college, your income will most likely improve with time. It might make sense to job hop a few times to find the right position. You are much more likely to get a higher salary by changing jobs and employers than you are staying in the same one for your entire career. This generally is true, even if you are promoted at the by the same employer. If you do leave your current job, you would lose what your employer contributed if you are not vested. Even if that happened, you would still keep the portion that you contributed. most of the people who lurk in money.se will probably tell you to spend as little as possible on a car, but that is a really personal decision. since you live with your parents, you can probably afford to waste a lot of money on a car. on the other hand, you already have a large income so you don't really have the normal graduate excuses for deferring student loans and retirement savings. for the sake of other people in a less comfortable position, here is a more general algorithm for making the decision: