My name is Alec, and I am 19 years old.

I graduated from school in 2021. I’ve been working part time for almost two years now. I was making around 20k per year doing what I was doing.

I come from a single mom who works her hardest to make sure there is food on the table. I am thankful enough to be where I am and I am thankful for the position I am in.

I live without paying rent. I was able to buy my own car with the help of mom, and aside from my phone bill and my car insurance, I don’t have too many expenses.

I start a new job on Monday at a new company, and while it’s not an insane amount, it’s more money that I am used to, I am going to be making around 50k / year now.

My goal here is to be able to make a plan for myself. I want to be “successful”. I don’t care about being the wealthiest, but I want to be comfortable. I would like to move out in the future. I want to retire early. I want to be happy and financially “free”. I just don’t know where to start.

I want to make a saving plans for myself, I want to learn about investing, I want to learn about LLC’s and about taxes and loans. I’d love to learn about how all these things work, so that I can come up with something for myself.

Does anyone here have any tips and suggestions on where I could start learning? What I should learn first?

Also, if you took the time to read my post, thank you.

Netizen’s comments

Congratulations! You are thinking of this before most of your peers have even got the idea. Keep thinking about this, it will be a journey and you’ll need to return to it over and over to ensure you’re on the right track.

Specifically speaking, you’re asking about investment. Investment is spending something of value to receive something of greater value in the future, plus some risk.

You have three kinds of investing available to you:

Investing your money – Take cash you earn and put it into long term investments such as using and investment account to purchase a low-fee index fund.

Investing your time – Earning extra money on side jobs, small things you can sell, growing things to sell, etc.

Investing in yourself – Getting a college degree, or certifications

At your age and life stage, investing in yourself will probably give the biggest return

Your job/career is the single largest decider of your wealth in the long run. Investing in yourself unlocks higher wages that makes everything else so much easier. Picking numbers out of the air…in terms of the money flow possible in your life and being able to get what you want…75% of it is your wages from your job. 15% is your housing costs. 10% is everything else. All the real suffering people do to save money happens in that 10%…and I guess in school to get the degree if you don’t enjoy learning.

You use this investing in yourself to get wages which you invest as money. Money investments then earn money, and that is the key to retirement. When you realize that money earns more money, saving becomes obvious…but you need that high wage to make the saving add up.

TLDR – I recommend picking a couple of high paying careers you 1) might like 2) can get hired to do easily, and 3) would be intellectually well suited for…then figure out the education or certifications you need to get there and how to get that as cheaply as possible.