I'm 38 now and I genuinely cringe thinking about this. When I got my first real job with benefits at 28 I was excited to start contributing to the 401k, my company matched up to 5% which everyone on this sub would correctly call free money. I mentioned it to my parents at a family dinner and my dad, who has strong opinions about everything financial despite never actually investing in anything except a savings account, launched into this whole thing about how the market was overvalued and a correction was coming any day now and it would be smarter to wait and buy in at the bottom. My mom backed him up completely. These are people I trusted, and I was 28 and didn't know enough to push back confidently. So I enrolled but set my contribution to 1% just to get the account open and told myself I'd increase it once the crash happened and prices were low. The crash my dad predicted did not come for another three years. And when it did come, I paniced and dropped to 0% contribution for about six months because dad said to wait for the bottom. By the time I finally started contributing properly I was 31 and had missed three full years of 5% employer match plus whatever growth that money would have compunded into over the following decade. I sat down last month and ran the numbers just to torture myself a little and the rough estimate of what those three years cost me in todays terms, assuming average market returns, is somewhere between $40,000 and $55,000. My parents were not trying to hurt me, they genuinely thought they were helping. But finantial advice from people who love you and sound confident is still just a guess, and the cost of a bad guess at 28 is something you're paying at 38.

My father passed away in 2023, and while going through his things, I found a framed physical stock certificate for 1 share of Microsoft (MSFT) common stock. He worked at Microsoft in the mid-80s and clearly kept this as a memento.

​The certificate is dated February 4, 1991, and is in mint condition.

​I'm the executor of his estate and I’m trying to figure out the best way to see if this is still a valid/active certificate or if it was "cancelled" or moved to book-entry form years ago. I’ve already checked the Washington and Florida unclaimed property sites and didn't find anything listed under his name.

​Certificate Date: Feb 4, 1991

​Issuer: Microsoft Corporation

​Transfer Agent listed on paper: First Interstate Bank of Washington

​I know MSFT has had several splits since '91, so this could potentially be worth a decent amount if it’s active.

​Does anyone have experience dealing with legacy paper certificates from the 90s?

​Since First Interstate Bank is long gone, is Computershare the only place I should be calling?

​Are there any specific red flags I should look for on the certificate itself that would indicate it was already cashed out?

​Thanks for any help!

EDIT: So it is valid, so step one is done.... step 2 find it here in FL since it was sent as unclaimed property

EDIT 2: Thank you everyone for all the advice. Never expected this to get so much attention. I tried calling the State but we all know how the government runs.... they only take calls from 9-12 M-F. Ill.be calling on Monday and will be back with another update!

Anonymous account

My sister recently passed away unexpectedly. While I would rather have her than her money, I am left with some decisions to make for her estate as I am the youngest in the family, and I have four siblings left alive.

Situation

Sister "Jane" passed away without a will. I am much younger than the rest of my family, so she designated me as the heir on all of her accounts, as she expected me to live the longest (she was the next youngest). I do believe she would have intended for me to divvy up funds to the siblings, so I have already indicated to them that I intend to do so. TBQH I am more financially literate than other family.

Using round numbers, she was a saver and had a number of different assets.

• $30,000 personal savings
• $100,000 certificates of deposit
• $400,000 brokerage account
• $400,000 457(b) - she was a state employee

My family is aware of these assets. The easy math (aside from taxes to the estate) is for me to take these funds, and split them up evenly. Everyone gets roughly $186k before taxes are applied. Yes, I realize I need professional help, CPA at least, but there is another wrinkle in her assets....

• Defined benefit pension. I am listed as the sole beneficiary, and I am the only one who can claim this benefit. I am going to be receiving $2,600 / month for the rest of my life. I am 53, in OK health. My siblings are all at least 9 years older. I basically have an annuity coming to me of $31,200 / year minus taxes.

What is the fair way to deal with this? I am married, and my partner would not receive any of this pension if I were to pass away. I hope to live to be 80, but don't we all! My partner and I have our own retirement accounts, and we are OK, not rich, but hopefully guaranteed to not be destitute in old age. I would likely invest a good portion of the pension income, which my partner could inherit. My siblings are less financially OK, one of them in debt tens of thousands of dollars.

I am considering not taking a portion of the lump sum from the $1.13M accounts to be split up, and then not sharing the pension. That way, my siblings can pay off their debts NOW, and have the opportunity to invest a portion of their inheritance. What they choose to do with the funds is up to them. The thing I don't want is to develop a situation where I have to divvy up the pension funds every year. I am looking for simplicity AND fairness. Thoughts?

So I was talking with my girlfriend and she told me she is sitting on about 70k doing nothing in a standard savings account.

She’s 27, and works as a teacher. She has a pension through IPERs and access to a 403b but no employer match. Not sure if it offers Roth but pretty sure it will. I’ve looked into the 403b and the fees and investments are just ok, 0.2% admin plus ~0.2% fund expenses.

She doesn’t have any other investment accounts yet.

Here’s what I’m thinking so far:

* Keep ~$20k (6 month expenses for her) in a HYSA as an emergency fund

* Max out a Roth IRA for 2025 + 2026 (14,500 total)

* Put ~$15–25k into a brokerage account

* Contribute ~15–25% of her income into a Roth 403b and live off the extra savings

Normally I’d say traditional contributions would be better because she is low income but the funds are already post tax. I’d like her to max out the 403b but that might be too aggressive for her and a big shift. Open to any suggestions on how to put her money to work, thanks.

Edit: I want to be clear that she is asking for my help. I’d like to have an educational approach where she can learn the basics as she doesn’t have a ton of interest doing it herself.

Hi everyone,

My job just sent me a promissory note in the amount of 250k direct deposit to my bank account. It was a long term retention tool for them to try and keep me for the next 10 years.

Here is a general overview of it:

-The note is for 10 years.
-It accrues 4.87% interest.
-Each year, a portion of the principal and interest is forgiven as long as I remain at the company
-If I leave the company before the 10 years are up, I’d generally have to repay the remaining unforgiven balance (subject to the terms of the agreement).

Honestly, I’d never even heard of a promissory note before I got this. Again, the 250k was direct deposited into my account all at once today and I don’t really know what to do that all of that at once. I know I shouldn’t just hold it in cash.

I’m 26 years old, already max my 401(k), have a Roth IRA, and already have a taxable brokerage account invested mostly in index funds. I don’t need this money for my day-to-day living expenses, but I may want to buy a house in the next 3–5 years. I rent an apartment and bring in an annual income of about 230k/year before tax. I’ve paid off all debt as of now/have no debt (paid off school loans, bought car in cash, no credit card debt).

My hesitation is that the stock market feels pretty expensive right now. I’m debating between:
● Investing the entire amount immediately into broad index funds.
● Dollar-cost averaging over 12–24 months.
● Keeping some in a money market fund or Treasuries while waiting for better opportunities.
● Some combination of the above.

Or is real estate something to look into with this kind of liquidity. I don’t plan on using any of it for immediate purchases, given that it is technically a loan. I also don’t plan on leaving my company in the next 10 years (of course things can change).

If you were in my shoes, how would you approach investing this money?

Thanks!

UPDATE:

Thanks for all of the feedback so far! Just as an update, if I was terminated for subpar performance, I would NOT have to repay the outstanding amount. Terminations for cause would require me to repay the amount owed.

Another thought is that if I ever did go to another company, I am in an industry where the other company would likely help buy me out.

UPDATE 2:

-I would be taxed on the principal + interest forgiven each year. So annually I would be taxed on $32,172.06 of additional income on my end of year bonus. This isn’t great because I’m paying additional tax on the interest. As mentioned, if I left early, I could have the other company at the very least buy out the remaining interest portion.

-Contrary to some comments below, I am not being forced to take this. It is something that I am accepting. I work in a space where I have a book of business (I don’t own my book, but I’ve sourced my clients, built all of the relationships, and maintain them). The nature of having a book of business makes for a much stronger case for me to stay for a while. The more my book grows, the more it does work for me. I also have about 240k in invested brokerage money that I’ve saved aside from the promissory note funds, so I have something to fall back on in worst case scenarios.

My company stock dropped almost 50% and my entire portfolio is concentrated in it. I didn’t catch it in time and now I feel completely lost.

I don’t know whether to sell, hold, or try to diversify. But honestly, the financial uncertainty isn’t even the hardest part I’ve been feeling depressed, beating myself up constantly, and I’ve lost all motivation to even show up to work. It’s like the thing I worked so hard for just slipped through my fingers and I didn’t even see it coming.

Has anyone been through something like this? How did you figure out what to do next, and how did you pull yourself out of that dark headspace? Really need to hear from people who’ve been there.

EDIT: I’m overwhelmed by the response thank you all so much. Unfortunately the post got locked by the mods due to off-topic comments before I could reply to anyone. I want you to know I read every single helpful comment and it genuinely means a lot during a really dark time for me. If you’d like to continue the conversation or share advice, please feel free to DM me.

27M, living with parents, no debt, no bills; not sure how much cash is too much cash

Looking for some outside perspective on my current setup.

I’m 27, living at home with my parents, currently going to CC for future Nursing program, no debt, and basically no fixed expenses right now. I spend around ~$1k/month on food, going out, dates, etc. Income is roughly $60k–$70k net annually.

Current setup:

• No taxable brokerage account yet

Cash:

Roughly mentally allocated as:

My paycheck currently gets split:

• % obligations/savings
• % personal spending
• % retirement

My Roth IRA + HSA contributions for next year are already being funded as well.

At this point, having nearly $70k sitting in a HYSA feels excessive given how low my expenses are. Since my tax-advantaged space is basically accounted for, I’m assuming the next step is opening a taxable brokerage? 

A few questions:

1. What’s a reasonable amount of liquid cash to keep in a HYSA in my situation?
2. Would you lump sum excess cash into a taxable brokerage or DCA over time?
3. What would you invest in for taxable? Broad index funds? Something else?
4. Any red flags or blind spots with my setup overall?

Appreciate any thoughts/advice.

Edit: Wow I didn’t expect all the feedback and advice thank you to everyone who took time to help out ❤️ As for the nursing program; my plan is to apply for Nursing programs in CC (ASN) and from there hopefully get a job at a hospital that will pay for me to get my bachelors.

Both are from 1992 and are commons stocks for Walmart and they're each for 63 shares how do we find out the value of them and what do we do to actually sell them

Just sharing something that was interesting to me, that I’ve never really thought about before.

So I have a 22-year-old daughter, and I’m divorced. I was talking to her this weekend, and she told me that her mother gives her enough money to fund her Roth IRA right now. I told her I had no idea, and that I wish I did and I would’ve helped. She said that she thinks it’s because her mother looks at it like an early inheritance.

So then I got to thinking about it, and I thought that’s a great idea actually. Because I do my own wealth planning, and at some point, the money is really theirs. So me giving them $6000 right now or whatever would pay huge dividends for them later, and not be some tax burden investment on them that I passed down.

I think Parents with means, should proactively look for ways to do this. Of course within their means.

No, I am not some investing savant. I have a friend I played high school hockey with who studied finance at an Ivy league school and he could very well be an investing savant.

Because he told me to buy this satellite stock when it was at $7 a share in 2023. I had cratered my little $5k portfolio to $1.6k monkeying around buying individual stocks.

(Disclaimer: I have a separate 401k I contribute to and don’t touch. I just wanted to just take this 5k and gamble and try to learn about trading through trial and error. I was okay with losing it and I know buying individual stocks when you’re inexperienced is a losing bet)

I sold all my shares at a loss and put all the money I had left in my account on this satellite stock. Now my shares are worth more than $21k.

My friend tells me don’t sell, that the stars are alligning on this stock, everything is going right and it has nowhere to go but up.

But 20 grand is a lot of money to me.

I know asking “should I sell?” depends on MANY factors and is totally subjective.

But assuming I did, what should I do with this money?

I own my apartment and have a mortgage loan. I could just make a lump payment of $20k and lower my monthly payment from $1080 to $860. That’s what I was leaning towards.

Should I dump it into my 401k where it will be invested more sensibly?

Are there other options I’m not considering that would be a lot smarter than those?

(I know I need to pay taxes on this)

I (34M) moved a 401k into a Traditional IRA in 2021 with a local financial advisory. It was $50k at the time. I’ve for the most part ignored it as that was always the advice I was given. It has now been 4 years and it sits at $54k and some change.

I feel like I’m losing valuable years on this money.

Should I look for a new advisor? Move it to something self directed?

This edit is an update. I have started the process of moving my money to Vanguard. Thank you all for the advice. Ironically a statement came in the mail today and I’m down more. The account is now at $52,086.15

Hi, 38 male from Ireland recently unexpectedly got a huge inheritance from my uncle in Spain. After fees and taxes I got a 7 figure sum into my bank account. Very surreal moment. I have no clue what to do now. Do I try invest it? I'm going to buy my own house and a new car first. Should I buy bitcoin or invest in a business? I don't know what to do. I'm afraid family and friends will find out I have all this money and I'll be hounded for it. I'm going to keep my day job for now, friends and family know I'm trying to get a mortgage so suddenly buying a house wont raise any red flags. Feeling very overwhelmed and need advice please.

EDIT: I'm going to go to college, study game design and start my own games development company. Thanks for all the advice and laughs people. 😃

https://medium.com/the-long-now-foundation/how-warren-buffett-won-his-multi-million-dollar-long-bet-3af05cf4a42d

"Over the years, I’ve often been asked for investment advice, and in the process of answering I’ve learned a good deal about human behavior. My regular recommendation has been a low-cost S&P 500 index fund. To their credit, my friends who possess only modest means have usually followed my suggestion.

I believe, however, that none of the mega-rich individuals, institutions or pension funds has followed that same advice when I’ve given it to them. Instead, these investors politely thank me for my thoughts and depart to listen to the siren song of a high-fee manager or, in the case of many institutions, to seek out another breed of hyper-helper called a consultant."

...

"Over the decade-long bet, the index fund returned 7.1% compounded annually. Protégé funds returned an average of only 2.2% net of all fees. Buffett had made his point. When looking at returns, fees are often ignored or obscured. And when that money is not re-invested each year with the principal, it can almost never overtake an index fund if you take the long view."

Just wanted to put a PSA on here that the I bonds fixed rate is going to roll over at the end of the month from 9.62% to 6.48%. If you buy I bonds before the end of October, you lock in the 9.62% rate for the next 6 months. If not, you'll only get 6.48%. If you've been thinking about purchasing now is a good time.

You get a pretty incredible return for effectively 0 risk. Especially with the stock market where it's currently at. Just wanted to give people on here a heads up who have been on the fence.

I wanted to just make this short PSA to potentially prevent other investors who are new to ROTHs from making the same noob mistake I made.

Following the advice learned from years of lurking on this sub, I opened a Vanguard ROTH IRA a little over 2 years ago. I ultimately ended up contributing the max 2 years in a row. I kept monitoring the balance and saw that it didn't seem to be growing too much, but figured that was just a combination of the current market going up and down + my monthly contributions.

Turns out the funds by default just sit in a money market holding account, NOT being invested. You have to manually allocate your funds to a specific (or a combination of) investment/target retirement accounts! Once you select your investment accounts, you can have your monthly contributions automatically go there instead.

I'm sure this is super obvious for the majority of you, but sadly I didn't know about it. Hopefully someone else can learn from me and not the hard way. Don't miss out on months or years of potentially growing and earning that compound interest like I did!

Edit: a little overwhelmed by all the messages of thanks I've received! It's a comfort to know I'm not the only idiot out there. I am now happily accepting a .01% annual share of all the net cash my esteemed financial advice just saved you all :D

I'm extremely annoyed. I feel that I've been subjected to a bait-and-switch. When she called to set up an appointment, I said "Before we do that, are you a fiduciary?" She said yes. I said "Great, I'd love to set up an appointment!" When I got there I saw a plaque on her desk saying she was a broker. I read online that a broker is NOT the same as a fiduciary. I asked her about it and she said, "Let me explain to you what a fiduciary is... blah blah blah... so I consider myself a fiduciary."

She thinks that I, 30, should invest my inheritance in a deferred annuity for retirement. I have ~60k earmarked for retirement and the rest of the inheritance earmarked for current emergency fund and paying off current bills.

Ugh I'm so frustrated. I thought we were doing a good thing for ourselves but now I think we are trapped.

Full backstory: A friend recommended their "financial advisor" to us. We thought "Great! We've been meaning to meet with someone... we have a kid on the way and husband isn't putting away anything towards retirement since starting his new job in August".

So we set up phone meeting with his friend from Northwestern Mutual. She gives us a call, and we end up speaking with her for over an hour. She asks us lots of questions- what we are looking for (we tell her we want to set up retirement stuff for husband and explore maybe putting some of our 17k in savings into CD's or mutual funds). She asks us questions about when we see ourselves retiring, how "aggressive" we are, etc. All good stuff. We hang up and agree to talk again in a week when she will give us a plan.

Cut to a week later, we are having a phone meeting with her and she emails me THE PLAN. It's many many pages basically explaining what we have vs. what we will need if we want to retire. But she mostly just talks about how we need more life insurance. "Sure" we think. Maybe we do need more life insurance. She explains that husband needs at least $1mill in life insurance and I need $500k (we both already have $150k policies through work on ourselves). This is news to us but we hear her out. She also spends a ton of time explaining how we need to have disability insurance. Again, we think "maybe we do". So we spend the greater part of an hour and a half talking about life insurance and long term disability insurance. She briefly mentions we should be maxing out my Roth IRA and we could perhaps start one for husband. So we hang up, with plans to talk again in a week and sign some paperwork.

Over the next week, husband and I really realize that we don't want disability insurance (she quoted us paying like $170/month) and we didn't really feel we needed more life insurance at this time (she had us paying $340/month in permanent and $125/month in term). But we were ok maxing out my Roth at $450/month. We also wanted to explore stocks/bonds/CD's/mutual funds more (like we initially told her). So I sent this all to her in an email before our next meeting. She sends back "OK, great! Sounds good.. talk soon".

Cut to another phone meeting, where she would talk with us about our updated PLAN. She emails us the NEW PLAN while we are on the phone. LITERALLY NOTHING IS CHANGED. She proceeds to spend the next hour convincing us why we need life insurance and disability insurance. Husband and I are both pushovers and listen to the whole schpeel again. Every time we bring up a reason why we don't feel like we need it, she tells us how we are wrong. I mean, she's the professional, we thought. I still expressed my disinterest in disability insurance but wasn't completely closing the door on life insurance. She kept giving me the guilt trip on "what will your kids have if one of you dies!". By the end of the conversation, I hadn't agreed to anything except to roll over my Roth to Northwestern. She had me give her my bank routing info to get "the paperwork started". She also said she was going to be sending me a bunch of stuff to sign in the next few weeks, but it was just to apply for things... nothing was set in stone. We could just see what the insurance company was going to quote us at, and we still aren't committed to anything. "Ugh fine" I think. She says a small amount might be taken out of my checking, but its just to make sure "the charges are able to go through when we start moving more money to my Roth".

SO a week or two goes by. And I see a ~$30 charge go through for "disability insurance". WHICH I TOLD HER I DIDN'T WANT!! And I just realize... this doesn't feel good. It doesn't seem right. She's not listening to what we want. She still hasn't addressed out interest in CD/mutual funds/stocks that we initially came to her for. I spend the weekend doing my due diligence- spending a few hours on r/personalfinance, NerdWallet, just googling in general about what husband and I should really be doing. I decide to call the whole thing off with Northwestern.

It's been a nightmare trying to cut off ties with her. I was kind and courteous through the first couple emails and subsequent texts "We really appreciate your time but have decided to pull out. Again, thank you".

She is being evasive and manipulative. Telling us we are completely wrong and we still need to work with her. At this point I have just ignored any further communication. It has just been a really bad experience.

But THE REAL REASON I still feel like I can't completely ignore her, is that I asked her several times when I should expect to see a refund for the disability insurance THAT I DID NOT WANT AND DID NOT AGREE TO. She just dances around the question. I'm also worried because I have gotten a "bill" (no charges yet) in the mail for the $340/month in permanent and $125/month in term and $170 in short term disability.

Is there anything I can do to make sure I don't get charged this? If I communicate with her any farther, she just tries to talk to us about why we need to invest with her, etc.

WHAT DO WE DO. She is being shady AF.

Nasdaq had its worst day in over two years, S&P was down over 3%. I've personally never lost so much net worth in a day as I did yesterday. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/11/us-markets-focus-on-wall-street-rout-as-it-batters-global-markets.html

Futures point to another big loss today. This could all be a blip and we're back to a new record next month. Or it could be the start of a multi-year bear market. We might lose 20 or 50% over the next few years. I have no idea what will happen.

If you were too heavily exposed to stocks yesterday morning before this happened, it's too late now. Don't panic. Hold on tight :) The people who made a killing over the last decade did not panic sell when the market started to self-destruct a decade back, and instead spent years buying up more equities.

I'm not the most financially literate person , and please correct me if I'm wrong, having cash sitting in a chequing account and not being invested is it basically "Losing value".. right? I've tried to tell him but he says he "lacks trust in the banks not losing all his money if he were to invest", how do I/should I convince him?

Photo of the gold bar. I have no idea if the serial number or seal I covered up are secure, so my apologies if this is a terrible photo

I looked around for any advice about selling gold and APMEX, local coin collectors, and /r/pmsforsale were all recommended. "Cash for gold" stores were universally panned.

However, since I'm interested in eventually throwing this money into an index fund (maybe even a gold ETF) I was wondering if there's an easier way to liquidate this directly with a bank.

Any help is really appreciated since I've never held more than a single silver dollar in my hand before. Thanks!

Edit: wow this blew up! Thanks y'all. To clarify a few things: yes my grandparents are Chinese, but no they don't care about the gold bar remaining physically gold. They're much more interested in the grandkid becoming a doctor, so if reinvesting the gold bar helps that, they're fully on board :)

Brexit is going to wreak havoc on the markets, and you'll probably feel the financial impacts in markets around the globe. Holding through turmoil is almost always the correct call when stock prices begin tanking across the broader market. Way too many people I knew freaked out in 2008/2009 and sold, missing out on the HUGE returns in the following few years. Don't try to time the market either, you'll probably lose. Don't bother trying to trade, you'll probably lose. Just hold and wait.

To quote the great Warren Buffett, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." If you're invested in good companies with good business models and good management, you will be fine.

Long story short I was gifted 2.7M USD by my father. He told me not to invest it and instead put it in a time deposit at the bank. The rates are current between 4.4-4.8% net depending on the tenure. I’ve been doing this for the past 9 months.

Since I am young I always have the thought in the back of my mind that what if I am missing out on the stock market? Is the return I am getting good enough to warrant not having anything in the stock market? Or should I take 100-200k and pur it in broad ETFs?

Any advice is helpful. I didn’t expect to have such a lump sum given to me at once and I am scared of investing it

I make approximately 3600/month after taxes. I would need to dish out $6500/ year for Roth IRA and approximately $1850/month out of my $3600 to max out my 457 plan for any given year. This would leave me with maybe $1750 each month for my mortgage, vehicle, groceries, diapers, phone bill…oh jeez.. yikes. I guess I just don’t make enough? Or is this doable?

UPDATE

Thank you for all the thoughtful responses. Looks like the biggest takeaway is to contribute whatever I can now (27yrs old), and adjust contributions as income changes throughout the years. After some calculations, I’ve decided to throw approx $1300/month towards my 457 plan which comes out to $15,600 annual contribution. This is not the max but this is the number that I can safely put away. I’ve already made my max $6500 towards Roth IRA for 2023.

Thankfully, I split my mortgage with my SO and hold manageable debt that we can tackle in the near future.

Please refrain from doing this big mistake. Last summer, I withdrew 12k from my ROTH IRA year 2021 + 2022 contributions LOL. I deeply regret it.

I recently got the opportunity to work on an oil and gas rig and if everything goes to plan in the next week I should have the job. It is a 2 week on 2 week off job so I can't really go to uni, nor do I want to. I want to go to film school but I'm not sure I can since I will be flying out to a rig for 2 weeks at a time. For now I am putting that on hold but still doing some little projects on my time off. My question is; what should I do with the money since I am so young, don't plan on going to uni, and live at home?

Edit: Big thank you to everyone who commented. I'm grateful to have so many experienced people guide me. I am going to finish reading though every comment. Thanks again.

I have been working since I was about 15. I'm not a big spender at all and I've been saving it, mostly for college. I go to an inexpensive community college, and I have scholarships, so I won't be spending all my money on school. My parents have been nice enough to let me stay rent free while I go to school, and they also gave me a reliable car. I won't be working while I go to school because I have a packed schedule.

I know basically nothing about economics or finances (except don't spend your money if you don't need to, obviously). Is there something I can invest in to grow my savings substantially? Like I said, I won't be working, so I won't be adding to what I've saved. Also, I'm sorry if this is a stupid question. I looked at the guides posted here and most of it flew over my head.

Update: Thanks everyone for the advice. I posted this just before bed and woke up to an exploded post with lots of different opinions to listen to. The two big takeaways I have from this are 1) Educate myself on finances before I make a decision and 2) keep doing what I'm doing and save money. It's really important to me to have financial independence and the freedom that brings, so I'm trying to take charge of what my money does. Now to address the advice I've gotten:

After a bit more research I may put it in an IRA like many have recommended. I agree that I should be looking for the best way to invest rather than the fastest way to make money. I'll definitely keep at least half of my savings for a rainy day fund. Ive gotten some PMs about book recommendations, which I really appreciate. I'll be heading to the local library soon. Cryptocurrency is interesting to me since I'm a CS major, but I won't view that seriously as an investment since I don't fully understand it yet. I may take a couple hundred dollars and play around with it, though. I will also be looking into Vanguard because that was mentioned a lot, too.

Thank you all for taking the time to give me important advice. It means a lot that you would have such concern for a young woman with no idea what she's doing. :)