Investing As A College Student


College is the time to meet new people and party. This is something I have definitely been doing but I have also been saving for life after college. My first year of college has flown by in a blink in the eye and by the end of my college experience, I want to see more progress in my life than moving from parties to kickbacks to the club or a huge circle of friends to a smaller close-knit one. Since starting college in August 2019, I decided I wanted to start investing which has been extremely motivating for me to save money.

Let me give you guys a quick timeline of how my August went.
August 10- I turned 18
August 20- I deposited $220.95 into Robinhood
August 26- I brought 1 share of AAPL at $210.43

*I still own 1 share of AAPL, but I hope to buy at least 3 more shares to hold for a few years. As of 1-12-2020 AAPL is worth $310.74. Which means that I have profited +$100.31 !!*

I think that a lot of people especially college students have the belief that you cannot make money in the stock market if you do not own thousands of dollars which is a lie. It only cost me $210.43 to buy stock in AAPL and the money spent on the stock has been worth it. If you are a college student and have an emergency fund of at least $1000 and are continuing to save money start investing. No, you do not have to through $1000 into your investing account but you can buy stock for $100-$200 and see a higher return yield then if you would have kept your money in your bank account.

I'm not breaking down my September-Early December timeline, because those were tragic days. Please note that I was extremely interested in making quick money through the stock market and Robinhood app through options trading which is clearly not for me. However, I wanted to be honest in this post to say I know what it is like to want to see instant returns on your money but I believe that people especially young should be into longterm investing. 2020 just started and I would love to see how my stocks have progressed in 2030.

My investing goals are to buy into dividend stocks to bring in an extra 72$ each year which isn't much but for the year 2020 that is my biggest investing goal. Hopefully, I can increase the amount I make each year from my dividend stocks. I will not be touching option trades or penny stocks, I have definitely learned my lesson from them. 

Now, in no way am I an experienced investor but I am learning. So, I will be posting below some of the stocks in my portfolio currently and I'm hoping to add 5 more stocks from different companies over the year. I'm not mentioning the stocks until I actually buy them. 

I own:
1 share of AAPL- brought at $210.43 
1 share of BBY- brought at $82.29
1 share of SHOP- brought at $365.00
1 share of LOW- brought at $116.59
2 shares of NRZ- brought at $32.31

My account on the year is up +13.74% which is decent but I think it could have been higher if I wasn't losing so much money through option trades.


So, another thing that I do to grow my money is utilizing the certificate of deposits through my bank. A certificate of deposit is basically a risk-free savings account that offers a higher interest rate. Also, a certificate of deposit makes you set aside your money for a certain amount of time where they may charge you if you take out your money before that pre-set time is up.

I have two certificate accounts one for 9 months and the other for 1 year. I like certificates because unlike an investment you cannot lose money and I wasn't really using the money in my savings anyways so putting it into short term certificates is allowing me to gain more interest from not touching rather than receive a dollar or two at the end of the month from my regular savings.

To sum up the article, I invest through the stock market using Robinhood and I am growing my savings account through bank certificates. I think that if you have the money to buy a stock or two in the stock market you should, especially as a college student we have time to grow our money and figure out the best way to do that. You should also look into your bank account certificate rates to see how they will benefit you.



If you have any tips for a beginner investor or any comments/questions please comment below.

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