Young Student Looking for 1 on 1 Investment Advice...takers?

[Trojans33]

First, let me start off by saying a couple of things. My name is Clay. I live in Indianapolis, but will be moving to Cincinnati in the fall to attend Xavier University where I will be studying Business Admin. and Finance. I am very 'financially literate' as one might put it, so please, spare me the 'you are 18-years-old crap, and straight-shoot me.

NOW that my soapbox is over, there is something else that should be said: I live and breathe entrepreneurship. It is something that has been in my blood since I was a kid, from lemonade stands to garage sales and everything inbetween. I have worked for 'the man' my entire high school career, ending at the once great Circuit City where I made great money, and now I have come to find myself wanting more.

My question, or reach-out, rather, goes a little along the lines of this:

What would be the best route for a kid my age to begin growing my wealth? I have accumulated much more money than most kids my age, and I know the next step is making it grow into even more. I have avid interest in the stock market, and have researched it, know alot about it, but the thought of picking wrong stocks or funds frightens me a tad, or at least enough to prevent me from going over to Scottrade and opening up an account.

Beyond watching stocks, I am very interested in buying a home in Cincinnati once I begin school there. With now being arguably the best time EVER to purchase a home, and with congress looking at a possible $15,000 tax CREDIT to first-time home buyers, it would only make since to buy a home, and rent it out to my classmates, at least until I graduate and head off to get my MBA.

Any personal experiences, ideas, or definate positions I should take would be greatly appriciated. Anyone who feels the need to become a personal mentor to myself and guide me down the right path would be appriciated even more.

Let's see what the good YE people have to say.

-C

[zlad]

Hey, im 18 myself and I live and breath entrepreneurship as well. Its funny that you mentioned lemonade stands.. because just yesterday I was talking to a friend about my dreams and I told them about when I was a kid I had my lemonade stand and used to make killer profits for that age haha.

I do have some advice and thats to do exactly what Im doing. Im going into 2nd year university at Wilfrid Laurier (thats in Canada just out of Toronto). Im only planning to take 3 courses first semester and the reason being.. and my advice to you is..

Start a web based business.

Start a website that can generate a lot of traffic, and then use google adsense or some other affiliate marketing companies like linkshare.

I suggest you look up Markus Frind for some inspiration.

If you ever wanna hook up some ideas or anything feel free to msg me or add me on facebook and such.

goodluck!

zlad.

[TVL]

I agree with zlad. web based businesses are best. I am below 18 and there is definitely money to be made there. learn some HTML, which is not hard, and you could do anything.

[BALLERMODE]

Stay away from the stock market as much as possible. If you want, maybe throw $500 or $1000 in an account to dabble with. (I don't know how much you have saved) in an account (Zecco does 10 free trades a month, as long as you do 25 trades at $4.50/trade and e*trade was doing 100 free trades for a while- not sure if they still are)

The real estate game isn't a bad idea depending on the area. I couldn't believe how cheap I've seen some houses go for. Not too long ago, I saw a decent 2 bedroom house with a garage (mind you, it was in the sticks) go for $30,000. Take your tax credit into consideration, and you might as well call it a FREE house with residual income.

I will warn you, though, as a former real estate investor, it's not all easy work. Collecting rent and keeping up with repairs can become a pain in the ass (even on a brand new piece of property) and believe it or not, if tenants decide to stop paying- they have rights to stay in the place for a pretty long time.

I guess everything really revolves around how much you have an what kind of risk you are willing to take with how much you want to invest.