<prompt> Human: My mother died last year and as a result I inherited a fairly big sum of money. I am still in highschool and I would like productively use itinvest it to make more money. I dont really have any idea what I am doing. Thank you so much.  <response>: You should check out the windfall section on here:In general, I wouldnt touch it. I would save it for college. That will be the larger expense that you will have to soon pay for and you will want the money when it comes. Yes you could invest in landscaping like the other guy on here said back in the 70s that is how my dad made money for college but any investment is a risky investment. When I started college in 2014, I took all my money out of the stock market About 7.5K because I was scared that if the market took a dive I would have none of it and that amount could pay my rent for a year. Looking back at it now, I found that if I kept my money where it was in an index fund, that 7.5K would have been 10K considering I only just started withdrawing it my Senior year. Even though I took it out, I am glad I did because the alternative was to possibly not have any of it at all. It depends on what you plan to use the money for and how much of a risk you are willing to take.Index funds are a great low-risk, long-term investment. You could also look at stocks that pay high dividend rates just google it, there like 10 that pay amazing dividends. But with any of it, if the economy or a company goes down, you lose that money for whatever you were saving it for. You should definitely invest in the long-run. But if your long-run is 2 years away for college. I would only invest a small portion of it and just dont touch the rest. Yes, it would be cool to have a new car. It is a lot more fun to not have to work 25hrsweek while studying. 