What are my options to make my money work for me?
As stated in the comments, Index Funds are the way to go. Stocks have the best return on investment, if you can stomach the volatility, and the diversification index funds bring you is unbeatable, while keeping costs low.  You don't need an Individual Savings Account (UK), 401(k) (US) or similar, though they would be helpful to boost investment performance. These are tax advantaged accounts; without them you will have to pay taxes on your investment gains. However, there's still a lot to gain from investing, specially if the alternative is to place them in the vault or similar. Bear in mind that inflation makes your money shrink in real terms. Even a small interest is better than no interest.  By best I mean that is safe (regulated by the financial authorities, so your money is safe and insured up to a certain amount) and has reasonable fees (keeping costs low is a must in any scenario).  The two main concerns when designing your portfolio are diversification and low TER (Total Expense Ratio). As when we chose broker, our concern is to be as safe as we possibly can (diversification helps with this) and to keep costs at the bare minimum.  Some issues might restrict your election or make others seem better. Depending on the country you live and the one of the fund, you might have to pay more taxes on gains/dividends. e.g. The US keeps some of them if your country doesn't have a special treaty with them. Look for W-8Ben and tax withholding for more information.  Vanguard and Blackrock offer nice index funds. Morningstar might be a good place for gathering information. Don't trust blindly the 'rating'. Some values are 'not rated' and kick ass the 4 star ones. Again: seek low TER. Not a big fan of this point, but I'm bound to mention it. It can be actually helpful for sorting out tax related issues, which might decide the kind of index fund you pick, and if you find this topic somewhat daunting. You start with a good chunk of money, so it might make even more sense in your scenario to hire someone knowledgeable and trustworthy. I hope this helps to get you started. Best of luck.
Not a financial adviser, but I think there is some amount of debt that's ok.  So I wouldn't suggest someone should go $200k into debt for a BA in English, but if you went somewhat into debt, say $30k, for a major with good job prospects and a high salary, it will probably be a good decision.  Which is exactly what I did, and it worked out very well for me.  I would advise students to apply to lots of schools with different entry requirements and tuition rates, just to see what their financial aid packages are like.  Very often if a $50k a year school really wants you, they'll give you some scholarships to make it more affordable.  If they don't give you enough, then you may just need to go to a cheaper school.   edit: also, if your family isn't wealthy (like mine) you'll often qualify for federal loans.  My loans from 2012 are at 3.5% interest, and my financial adviser is telling me to make the minimum payments so I can put more money in stocks. I received an allowance growing up.  There were stipulations on what I had to do with it that helped instill the values my parents wanted - in their case they were hoping to teach me to give money to my church, so I had a mandatory amount that I had to give when I received the allowance.  To this day I still give money to the church, so I guess it stuck. The allowance was tied to my doing some basic chores around the house - but loosely.  It wasn't a reward for doing those chores, but it would be taken away if I didn't do them.  Before I was of a legal working age I could do larger unusual tasks around the house for more money.   The relationship between chores and some form of allowance is, I think, tricky.  I don't think kids should be taught that the only reason to work is to earn money.  They won't earn money for keeping their future homes clean or by volunteering at the local food bank, but these are both good things to do.  At the same time it is good to teach that work has a reward and that lack of work means lack of a reward. My parents set up a savings account for me quite early.  Largely what went in there was birthday cash from relatives (a great thing to talk to any family members who might give your kids gifts about) and the income from my once-yearly sale of baked goods at a craft fair.  These were bigger amounts of money that I could take pride in depositing, and keeping them in a bank helped prevent me from spending them willy-nilly. I also got a credit card at the age of 16 (only allowed in some states in the US, not sure about internationally).  My parents oversaw my spending habits with it and made sure I always paid in full and on time.  The money I spent was tied to my summer work in high school and college.  I thought it was extremely valuable to learn how to manage a credit card before college when the card companies often seem to prey on young customers. "I'm hazy on this part:  &gt;  I say, ""Jeez, I'd love to, but I really need all the cash I can get for every deer right now: my kid is out-growing shoes like crazy.  Tell you what: if you can write me a promise to pay twelve Loddars in October, I can give that to the shoe-maker."" You groan about the ""interest rate"" but agree. &gt; &gt;Did a lightbulb just go off? **You and I have once again created *Money***. Twelve loddars now exist in the town economy that *have not been printed by the central bank*. Counting all the money trading hands in the village, there are now (a) all the loddars that have ever been printed, *plus* (b) *twelve more* that you have promised to produce.   If we switch out of story mode and into real world mode (I'm the apple guy equivalent), you are a bank that just made me a loan? You've given me $10 and charged me $2 interest? And you've gone and spent that promise of $12 on something? Why are you able to spend that promise? I would have thought you'd just not be able to buy anything for now because you're making a short term sacrifice of giving out your stuff and being without it in order to get more from me later than you could have right now. I'm guessing this is something to do with fractional reserve but I was never clear on that.  &gt; ... Now, what happens if another wildfire hits your orchard? Those twelve loddars are destroyed, they are gone, the shoe-maker is twelve loddars poorer, without spending it and without anyone else getting twelve loddars richer.   Why do I not still owe you $12? My value engine is gone, but wouldn't you keep my debt on the books and still hold me to it? Wouldn't I have to pick myself up, work somewhere else for a wage or make and sell something else, and pay you money I made over time until the $12 (or more with more interest) was paid off? And has any new money really been created if I work for that money, get it from someone else, and then pay it to you? There's no new money there yet that I can see. Seems like you created new money when somebody else agreed to let you buy things with the promise I wrote you. That sounds like new money. But if my orchard is destroyed and for reasons I'm not clear on (see above), the $12 of value I could have gotten out of it is destroyed, but you already spent the new money, how are you out anything? Seems like you're still up $2. I feel like there is either one too many pieces on the board or one too few and I can't get my head around it. I feel like I have one foot still in the ELI5 example and not all the way out in the real world." "I speak from a position of experience, My BS and MS are both in Comp Sci. I know very little about loans or finances. That is very unfortunate as you are obviously an intelligent human being.  Perhaps this is a good time to pause your formal education and get educated in personal finance.  To me, it is that important. I study computer science, and am thus confident that I will be able to find work after I finish school. This kind of attitude can lead to trouble.  You will likely have a high salary, but that does not always translate into prosperity.  Personal finance is more about behavior then mathematics.  I currently work with people that have high salaries in a low cost of living area.  Some have lost homes due to foreclosure some are very limited in their options because of high student loan balances.  Some are millionaires without hitting the IPO/startup lotto.  The difference is behavior. It's possible that someone in my family will be able to cosign and help me out with this loan. This is indicative of lack of knowledge and poor financial behavior.  This kind of thing can lead to strained relationships to the point where people don't talk to each other.  Never co-sign for anyone, and if you value the relationship with a person never ask them to co-sign. I'll be working as a TA again for a $1000 stipend. Yikes!  Why in the world would you work for 1K when you need 4K?  You should find a way to earn 6K this semester so you can save some and put some toward the loans you already acquired.  Accepting this kind of situation ""raises red flags"" on your attitude towards personal finance.  And yes it is possible, you can earn that waiting tables and if you can find a part time programming gig you can make a lot more then that.  Consider working as a TA and wait tables until you find that first programming gig. I am just about done with my undergraduate degree, and will be starting graduate school at the same university next semester. To me this is a recipe for failure in most cases.  You have expended all your financing options to date and are planning to go backwards even more.  Why not get out of school with your BS, and go to work?  You can save up some of your MS tuition and most companies will provide tuition reimbursement.   Computer Science/Software Engineering can be a fickle market.  Right now things are going crazy and times are really good.  However that was not always the case during my career and unlikely for yours.  For example, Just this year I bypassed my highest rate of pay that occurred in 2003.  I was out of work most of 2004, and for part of 2005 I actually made less then when I was working while in college.  In 2009 my company cut our salaries by 5%, but the net cost to me was more like a 27% cut.  In 2001 I worked as a contractor for a company that had a 10% reduction in full time employees, yet they kept us contractors working.   Recently I talked with a recruiter about a position doing J2EE, which is what I am doing now.  It required a high level security clearance which is not an easy thing to get.  The rub was that it was located in a higher cost of living area and only paid about 70% of what I am making now.  They required more and paid less, but such is the market.  You need to learn about these things! Good luck." My employer matches 6% of my salary, dollar for dollar. So you have a great benefit. The self-directed side has no fees but $10 trades. No option trading. Yours basically allows you to invest your own funds, but not the match. It's a restriction, agreed, but a good plan. Myself I am in a similar position. I've had a few good conversations about this with people in the financial services industry.  It all depends how much time you want to spend on yielding your profits and how much risk you would like to take. High time and high risk obviously means higher expected gain, but also has a high chance of creating a loss. Option 1: You could buy a home now and take out a mortgage with a high down payment (thus lower interest rates) and rent it out. By the time you are ready to have your own house, you can decide to either take out a mortgage on your second house and make money off your first house, and keep renting it out. Or you could move in there yourself.  If you use an asset-back mortgage (i'm not sure if that is the term, but a mortgage where in the worst case you give your home back to the bank), you generally carry least risk. If you keep doing this you can have 2 houses paid off if everything goes well. Option 2:  You could also invest in stocks. This all depends on the risk you want to take and the time you want to put in it.  Option 3:  You could also put the money in a savings account. Some banks will give you better interest rates if you lock the money for a set amount of years.  Option 4:  You could buy a foreclosure and try to flip it, though this is very risky and requires a lot of time. Also, it is important to also have some sort of emergency fund, so whatever you do, don't spend all your money.  Save some for a rainy day :-) Hope it helps.. Here are some options: Park your money in a bank that works best for you. What is your investing goal? And what do you mean by investing? Do you necessarily mean investing in the stock market or are you just looking to grow your money? Also, will you be able to add to that amount on a regular basis going forward? If you are just looking for a way to get $100 into the stock market, your best option may be DRIP investing. (DRIP stands for Dividend Re-Investment Plan.) The idea is that you buy shares in a company (typically directly from the company) and then the money from the dividends are automatically used to buy additional fractional shares. Most DRIP plans also allow you to invest additional on a monthly basis (even fractional shares). The advantages of this approach for you is that many DRIP plans have small upfront requirements. I just looked up Coca-cola's and they have a $500 minimum, but they will reduce the requirement to $50 if you continue investing $50/month. The fees for DRIP plans also generally fairly small which is going to be important to you as if you take a traditional broker approach too large a percentage of your money will be going to commissions. Other stock DRIP plans may have lower monthly requirements, but don't make your decision on which stock to buy based on who has the lowest minimum: you only want a stock that is going to grow in value. They primary disadvantages of this approach is that you will be investing in a only a single stock (I don't believe that can get started with a mutual fund or ETF with $100), you will be fairly committed to that stock, and you will be taking a long term investing approach. The Motley Fool investing website also has some information on DRIP plans : http://www.fool.com/DRIPPort/HowToInvestDRIPs.htm . It's a fairly old article, but I imagine that many of the links still work and the principles still apply If you are looking for a more medium term or balanced investment, I would advise just opening an online savings account. If you can grow that to $500 or $1,000 you will have more options available to you. Even though savings accounts don't pay significant interest right now, they can still help you grow your money by helping you segregate your money and make regular deposits into savings.