I'm 17 and Make $1,500. What Should I Do With It?
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[Music] sterling is in raleigh north carolina hi sterling welcome to the ramsey show hey thank you for taking my call sure what's up hey so i am 17 um i have a one thousand dollar car uh i have five thousand dollars in a roth ira and i'm putting 500 in a month right now um i make about 1500 a month and i'm still doing full-time high school uh i've got free college and i've been through financial peace university and i'm trying to figure out what i need to do with my money and if i need to open an index fund or how i should be setting aside money for a house i think you should run for president oh my gosh young man you're on you're on fire what are you doing to make all this money uh so i started out as a painter when i was 15.
my dad helped me get the job and then right now i'm working as a hvac cleaner so i help a guy clean air ducts and dryer vents yeah nice my husband did that through college sterling yeah yeah yeah that's hard work it's nasty work too but you're not afraid of hard work get get her done man i'm proud of you very well done so uh you're heading off to school is that is that the plan what's the plan when you graduate yes sir so i'm a junior right now i'm playing on dual enrolling some this next year um and hopefully i'll get some college hours in and then once i graduate high school i'm planning on hopefully i'm thinking about majoring in business and then maybe going to trade school at some point after i that that's my plan so far i think you got a great plan very cool very cool so your question is what to do with all this money yes sir should i be saving it up for a house should i be putting this in an index fund because i'm already maxing out my roth ira how's college paid for uh so my dad actually works at a college right now so i get a free tuition and he's got like half the books i need okay all right i would i would not try to get too fancy i'm just gonna park it as an insurance policy to make sure that if something goes sideways on the free part of the college you can still finish um and yes so worst case scenario is you have i don't know 30 or 40 or 50 000 when you graduate oh darn and then you just have to figure out buying a house at that point but if you've got that in a good mutual fund just do something like an index fund i think that'd be just fine but the big deal here is sometimes uh some of our our our plans get derailed and i i always want it's more important for you as especially sharp and as much of an ambition and much of a go-getter as you are to complete school and to complete it debt-free that is more valuable than any amount of money you will ever make on a mutual fund in terms of the actual math in other words you will be more valuable by many times more than this money will make in a mutual fund so the investment is my secondary concern my primary concern is you and making sure that if if something blew up over there with your dad or whatever then you can still finish school and if you and if it doesn't if the plan goes exactly as you got it laid out you're still going to have a pile of money for you know your first to get into your first job in your first house and that kind of thing yeah because i'd love the obviously the motivation of investing in all that sterling you're you're doing it right the earlier the better but also kind of with the caveat that between 17 and 22 years old there's a lot of transition there's a lot of change you have no clue kind of what life is going to bring you and so you're not going to not become wealthy if you start really kind of hardcore investing at 22 versus 17 if that makes sense so having that cash available like you're saying dave i think is so smart because again whether you go to college and then you're like okay i want to move to a different state i'm going to need cash to be able to move who knows maybe you meet a girl and you're like i want to propose and you're going to get a ring like there's just so much transition that can happen in that time and so giving yourself the ability to have margin with cash to be able to kind of move and go at the pace you want is worth it and then once you kind of settle down after college and figure out where you're going to live your big your first job and all of that then go hardcore into the investing because that's where you're going to be which is freaking amazing that you're going to be on baby steps four five and six i'm not sure who parents who sterling's dad and mom are but i think they are they get the award okay yes but i wanted to ask him too there is something though that there is something in certain people that they just have this drive and i see that in my kids like you have kind of that you know you have kids that they just have this natural motivation their natural wiring is they love making anybody naturally cleansed air ducts to go and work though no that works i don't think his parents are making him do that is what i'm saying like there's something in sterling in in and in people and it's like they just have that drive so i'm just applauding him he's doing an amazing thing i'm not i'm not taking anything away from you and your parents for sure have done an incredible job teaching you and showing you so it is um it's all of it which is awesome great job actually have fun too sterling have fun have fun you're 17.
you're good you're gonna be good have fun
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