Investment options for f1 visa students in USA
There's no limitation on what you can invest in, including trading stocks (as long as trading is not a business activity, like day-trading or investing for others). You just need to make sure you have a tax ID (either ITIN or SSN) and pay taxes on all the gains and dividends. Also, consider your home country tax laws, since you're still tax resident in your home country (most likely).
As non-EU citizen who went to university in England and also doing an MBA in Spain, I can assure you they are not hard to get. It literally is filling out a form.  I went to university in England because of England's strong university status and I went to university in Spain because I wanted to improve my Spanish.  I'm sure a small percentage of people will maybe go to a different country due to having to fill out a visa application (maybe. We don't know if U.K. will allow visa-free studies for EU), but we don't have any way to measure the *possible* impact (if it even happens) right now.  If visas were such a hurdle then why do so many students from around the world come to the USA and Canada to study? They do it because US and Canada have some of the best universities in the world and students want to improve their English - all factors that British universities still have.  I get it. You don't like Brexit. But just try and look at it objectively. Its not H1-B visa, its the L1 Visa. L1 Visa have no minimum wage and people working on L1 can get Green Card faster. Some guys I know make around 40k/year in Silicon Valley @ Apple.   H1-B scare is little bit overhyped in comparison to L1 visa. Anyway, people dont do their research and believe only these news channel say. H1-B is really helping US, atleast 60-65% are useful. Even if you a person is hired by H1-B, company has to invest more in HR and lawyer fees as a company by itself would not be able to apply. L1 Visa on other hand has no limit on salary so you can keep a worker at a drastically low rate which would for sure increase your profits. There are no year limit on L1. While H1-B have a max limit of 6 years. (Source: my collegues and USCIS website). Let me know if anything is wrong here .. still researching on this.. Thanks. Just to clarify I am looking for a more value-neutral answer in terms of things like Sharpe ratios. I think it's an oversimplification to say that on average you lose money because of put options - even if they expire uselessly 90% of the time, they still have some expected payoff that kicks in 10% of the time, and if the price is less than the expected payoff you will earn money in the long term by investing in put options (I am sure you know this as a PhD student I just wanted to get it out there.)I guess more formally my question would be are there studies on whether options prices correspond well to the diversification benefits they offer from an MPT point of view. I will not pay any taxes in the Us, since I am not working for an US   company What you will or will not pay is up to you of course, but you definitely should pay taxes in the US, as you're working in the US. Since you mentioned being from Japan, I'll also suggest checking whether you're allowed to perform any work in the US under the conditions of your visa. If you're a F1/J1 student - you'll be breaking the immigration law and may be deported. You might be liable for taxes in Germany, as well, and also in Japan. I'll have to edit this to allow people who downvoted the answer without knowing the legal requirements to change their vote. F1 student cannot be a contractor without a valid EAD. Period. There's no doubt about it and legal requirements are pretty clear. Anyone who claims that you wouldn't be breaking the terms of your visa is wrong. Note, I'm neither a lawyer nor a tax professional, for definite advice talk to a professional. We don't have a good answer for how to start investing in poland.  We do have good answers for the more general case, which should also work in Poland.  E.g. Best way to start investing, for a young person just starting their career? This answer provides a checklist of things to do.  Let's see how you're doing:   Match on work pension plan. You don't mention this.  May not apply in Poland, but ask around in case it does.  Given your income, you should be doing this if it's available.   Emergency savings. You have plenty.  Either six months of spending or six months of income.  Make sure that you maintain this.  Don't let us talk you into putting all your money in better long term investments.   High interest debt. You don't have any.  Keep up the good work.   Avoid PMI on mortgage. As I understand it, you don't have a mortgage.  If you did, you should probably pay it off.  Not sure if PMI is an issue in Poland.   Roth IRA. Not sure if this is an issue in Poland.  A personal retirement account in the US.   Additional 401k. A reminder to max out whatever your work pension plan allows.  The name here is specific to the United States.  You should be doing this in whatever form is available.   After that, I disagree with the options.  I also disagree with the order a bit, but the basic idea is sound:  one time opportunities; emergency savings; eliminate debt; maximize retirement savings.  Check with a tax accountant so as not to make easily avoidable tax mistakes.   You can use some of the additional money for things like real estate or a business.  Try to keep under 20% for each.  But if you don't want to worry about that kind of stuff, it's not that important.  There's a certain amount of effort to maintain either of those options.  If you don't want to put in the effort to do that, it makes sense not to do this.   If you have additional money split the bulk of it between stock and bond index funds.  You want to maintain a mix between about 70/30 and 75/25 stocks to bonds.  The index funds should be based on broad indexes.  They probably should be European wide for the most part, although for stocks you might put 10% or so in a Polish fund and another 15% in a true international fund.   Think over your retirement plans.  Where do you want to live?  In your current apartment?  In a different apartment in the same city?  In one of the places where you inherited property?  Somewhere else entirely?  Also, do you like to vacation in that same place?   Consider buying a place in the appropriate location now (or keeping the one you have if it's one of the inherited properties).  You can always rent it out until then.  Many realtors are willing to handle the details for you.   If the place that you want to retire also works for vacations, consider short term rentals of a place that you buy.  Then you can reserve your vacation times while having rentals pay for maintenance the rest of the year.   As to the stuff that you have now:   Look that over and see if you want any of it.  You also might check if there are any other family members that might be interested.  E.g. cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.  If not, you can probably sell it to a professional company that handles estate sales.  Make sure that they clear out any junk along with the valuable stuff.   Consider keeping furniture for now.  Sometimes it can help sell a property.   You might check if you want to drive either of them.  If not, the same applies, check family first.  Otherwise, someone will buy them, perhaps on consignment (they sell for a commission rather than buying and reselling).   There's no hurry to sell these.  Think over whether you might want them.   Consider if they hold any sentimental value to you or someone else.  If not, sell them.  If there's any difficulty finding a buyer, consider renting them out.  You can also rent them out if you want time to make a decision.  Don't leave them empty too long.  There's maintenance that may need done, e.g. heat to keep water from freezing in the pipes.   That's easy, just invest that.   I wouldn't get in too much of a hurry to donate to charity.  You can always do that later.  And try to donate anonymously if you can.  Donating often leads to spam, where they try to get you to donate more. There are two types of 529 programs.  One where you put money aside each month. The one offered by your state may give you a tax break on you deposits. You can pick the one from any state, if you like their options better. During the next 18 years the focus the investment changes from risky to less risky to no risk. This happens automatically. The money can be used for tuition, room, board, books, fees. The 2nd type of 529 is also offered by a state but it is geared for a big lump sum payment when the child is young. This will cover full tuition and fees (not room and board, or books) at a state school. The deal is not as great if they child wants to go out of state, or you move, or they want to go to a private school. You don't lose everything, but you will have to make up the shortfall at the last minute. There are provisions for scholarship money. If you kid goes to West Point you haven't wasted the money in the 529. The money in either plan is ignored while calculating financial aid. Other options such as the Coverdell Education Savings account also exist. But they don't have the options and state tax breaks. Accounts in the child's name can impact the amount of financial aid offered, plus they could decide to spend the money on a car. The automatic investment shift for most of the state 529 plans does cover your question of how much risk to take. There are also ways to transfer the money to other siblings if one decides not to go to college. Keep in mind that the funds don't have to be spent as soon as they turn 18, they can wait a few years before enrolling in college. Your first step should be to visit with the financial aid office of the university that you are considering attending, perhaps even before filling out the FAFSA. You may be eligible for grants, scholarships, and subsidized loans, as well as unsubsidized loans. You should pursue the first two options first, and then when you know how much remains to be financed, we can evaluate which of your investments you might liquidate if further financing is needed. There are a range of views on debt on this board. I take a very cautious approach to going in to debt. I worked full-time and took night classes to finish my degree without debt, but depending on your program that might not be an option. It seems that you also have a healthy relationship with debt considering the shape of your savings and finances as outlined above. Apart from the above information about how much money could be obtained and at what interest rates, the other missing information is your current salary, and your expected salary range after completing the program. With all of that information I could make specific recommendations, but at this point, my only recommendation is to avoid liquidating any retirement accounts in your effort to invest in yourself if at all possible. "The statement ""Finance is something all adults need to deal with but almost nobody learns in school."" hurts me. However I have to disagree, as a finance student, I feel like everyone around me is sound in finance and competition in the finance market is so stiff that I have a hard time even finding a paid internship right now. I think its all about perspective from your circumstances, but back to the question. Personally, I feel that there is no one-size-fits-all financial planning rules. It is very subjective and is absolutely up to an individual regarding his financial goals.  The number 1 rule I have of my own is - Do not ever spend what I do not have. Your reflected point is ""Always pay off your credit card at the end of each month."", to which I ask, why not spend out of your savings? plan your grocery monies, necessary monthly expenditures, before spending on your ""wants"" should you have any leftovers. That way, you would not even have to pay credit every month because you don't owe any. Secondly, when you can get the above in check, then you start thinking about saving for the rainy days (i.e. Emergency fund). This is absolutely according to each individual's circumstance and could be regarded as say - 6 months * monthly income. Start saving a portion of your monthly income until you have set up a strong emergency fund you think you will require. After you have done than, and only after, should you start thinking about investments. Personally, health > wealth any time you ask. I always advise my friends/family to secure a minimum health insurance before venturing into investments for returns. You can choose not to and start investing straight away, but should any adverse health conditions hit you, all your returns would be wiped out into paying for treatments unless you are earning disgusting amounts in investment returns. This risk increases when you are handling the bills of your family. When you stick your money into an index ETF, the most powerful tool as a retail investor would be dollar-cost-averaging and I strongly recommend you read up on it. Also, because I am not from the western part of the world, I do not have the cultural mindset that I have to move out and get into a world of debt to live on my own when I reached 18. I have to say I could not be more glad that the culture does not exist in Asian countries. I find that there is absolutely nothing wrong with living with your parents and I still am at age 24. The pressure that culture puts on teenagers is uncalled for and there are no obvious benefits to it, only unmanageable mortgage/rent payments arise from it with the entry level pay that a normal 18 year old could get."