<prompt> Human: I recently gained 12,000 and have no idea what to do with it. Im a 20 year old, I have a job that pays 10.50 an hour and I typically work 30-35 hours a week. My only bills besides gas and food are 500 in rent and 150 for my car, so I dont plan on spending this money to live. I would like to invest or save this money for a couple years but I have no clue what to do. Any advice would be great.  <response>: op please consider putting aside 3 to 6 months of expenses in a money market account for yourself. Assuming you have no debt you shouldnt invest anything if you have tons of debt, please remember that. Any debt whatsoever constrains your income and freeing that up is essential for building yourself up long term, dont let the debt monster kick your ass.After that is achieved that being 3 to 6 months of expenses and no debts Roth IRA like others have stated, and if thats maxed debate a HSA health savings account for yourself, if you forsee a problem down the road. A HSA is a good way to turn your expenses youre going to be paying anyway into something you can instead write off. The entire amount you put into the HSA is just like an IRA in fuction you can invest it, let it sit, lower your taxes by putting money in there but you can also draw upon it right away for qualified medical expenses. Teeth, Eye, General doctor, chiropractor. While it does NOT allow you to pay for your medical insurance premiums it does allow you to pay for your deductible. Literally all costs everyone has to pay anyway, instead become a knock against your taxible income instead of your after tax income.For instance, lets say you make 18k a year using your 10 x 35 x 52 18,200 lets say you somehow incure 1000 in medical bills, after your normal write offs, lets say you decided to put 2000 in the account, you can put the money into the account and literally take it out a day later to pay for the medical expenses. So you setup the account, put int the 2k, take out the 1k a week later and now your income has been reduced from 18k to 16k for the year already. The money is still yours, you have full control of it, if you dont spend it this year, it rolls forwards endlessly. So while the money is sitting there, you can direct it into various investments, mutual funds, stocks, whatever. Id however try to be very conservative until you are comfortable with playing with that money if you dont knowunderstand the market. The HSA allows a single person to take 3,400 into the account per year, if youre married 6,750 this year. Again, you keep all of it, just make sure before you setup an account somewhere they tell you all FEES, do not get feed to death.So to sum up.1. Make sure zero debts store cards, credit cards, student loans, cars, whatever, pay em off,2. Have 3 to 6 months expenses rent, gas, food, utilities, etc into a money market you DO NOT touch unless there is an emergency, example: I want a burger and fries and payday is 4 days away NO. My TRANSMISSION just let go and I gotta get this car fixed or Ill lose my job YES!3. Fully fund ROTH IRA 5,5004. Fund HSA to a decent degree with your level Id say try 2k in there to start you can always max it out at the end of the year to get more tax benefits. Hope it helps! 