<prompt> Human: I have my finances budgeted, I currently only pay 60 dollars a month to pay my phone bill. I also pay for my own gas which seems to be a money sucker, but for now Im stuck with that. Anyway, I sometimes have some money left over after Ive had my fun. Its not much, but its about 10-20 dollars. Is there anywhere else I can put this little extra cash other than my savings? Somewhere where I can see it grow a little more than just a savings account? Edit 1: I am going to college, and I do have money saved up for it. I also will be working during it to cover the cost. Im not a tight ass either, I do spend money on fun stuff, like eating out. I already put away a good percentage into my savings. This paycheck I put in about 38. I would just like to put some money away that I cant immediately access that will grow. I didnt expect this much response! Theres a lot to read so Im slowly taking it in over the school day. Ill probably read more after work to see what I ultimately decide. Keep the info and opinions coming! Theres never too much!Edit 2: I leave for work and you guys get my post locked. :l Id like to thank everyone that contributed in any way they could. I learned a lot from your answers and Im excited to try some of these out. For anyone thats interested, Im going to continue to put money into my savings account. I said this once, and Ill say it again. Im not a tight ass, I spend money and have fun with it. I dont want you guys thinking Im a no life. To anyone that suggested a bike, thank you! I am buying one this summer for college, but currently thats not an option. I live 7 miles by highway from where I go to school and work. I will try to play some invest stuff right now. With the idea of Im young and can mess up. If loose some money now, it wont haunt me in a year or so. I do understand that high risks can me high rewards. When I start earning more money, Ill come back to this post and read up on some of the bigger investments and stuff like that. Also, I will read Richest Man in Babylon, it looks interesting. Once again, thank you to everyone! Good luck on your finances :Assistant: Devils advocate time.Everyone here will tell you to invest, and save for retirement. I will tell you to go enjoy being 17. Go take a date to the movies, go to six flags, go water skiing, go make some mistakes with your money. Youre at a time in your life with minimal responsibility, and you need to exploit that for wisdom that you will cherish for a life time.Sure you can turn that 10 into 2,000 40 years from now by sticking it in some investment, but that 10 today could have been spent on that movie ticket with that special someone.These adventures will teach you invaluable lessons, worry about the investments when you start making some serious amounts of money.Human: I dont want you guys to think Im a no life. I have a girlfriend and am actually going to prom next week! I do have fun with my money, I tend to spend it on things I dont need, but at my age I can do that and forget about it. Trust me, I buy a lot of things I dont need. I was more looking for a something that I can put just a little bit of extra in to have some sum saved up over time.  <response>: The only relavent piece of advice I can give to you is instead of buying cheap buy quality things you will use. Read up on the Vimes Boots theory. Personally I didnt know it when I was a teenager I just liked to research my purchases to get the most bang for my buck, but it does actually work. I still have my 2000 full suspension mountain bike from the early 2000s which is on its last legs now, at 200 a year for a upper mid end bike from back then I think it was a good deal rather than buying Walmart specials, I still have my 40 MP3 player plus the 50 MicroSD card that I with it and love that thing for going to the gym and such. I still have my 1000 snowboard setup from around the same time too and it still rocks to this day, I havent needed up update it and I grew into the skill level it was designed for.Point is, if you need to make a purchase and three days later are going to forget about it, then do your research and spend a little more within reason try to get a buy it for life product.Other than that, its not a hard and fast rule but you could try to pay yourself 10 of your paycheques by setting up an automatic deposit into a long term investment vehicle or financial vehicle or whatever the term is, basically a fancy name for some sort of financial instrumentscheme that you can grow it, whether its mutual funds, bonds, or whatever.But realize this, when taking on risk, are you OK that if you put 10,000 into a blend of whatever stocks or a high risk mutual fund that tomorrow it may only be worth 5,000? Over a long term greater than 10 years you should be able to weather the storm but you need to be OK with taking on a certain level of risk to get a certain reward, whether thats hardcore equity growth or a more balanced portfolio or something more conservative where the manager puts 50 into bonds and safe investments and the other 50 into a blend of lower risk industries and medium risk industries.Also, I know this is off topic but it might help you save a bit of money on gas. This might sound weird but there is a psychological way to make your car slightly more fuel efficient because you said its a gas guzzler. It kind of works depending on you at the end of the day.If the car is your personal car, go to Walmart and get the Turtle Wax Black Box detailing kit even if your car isnt black, or a comparable product if you have a bigger selection in the US, should run you about 25-30-ish and a claybar kit while youre at it should be about 12-15. Spend a couple hours on the weekend detailing the whole thing inside and out take out any garbage, vacuum it, etc. Make the car look good and like new. Next time you go to drive it you should subconsciously drive slower and somewhat treat your car better like a new car because the environment is clean, new feeling, and driving will be a slightly more pleasurable experience. It may not work for everyone but for a majority of the population it does. I did this experiment on my girlfriend without telling her exactly what I was up to. I just told her I was going to clean her car for whatever reason. I noticed that typically she would get around 300-ish miles to the tank before and after detailing her car and making it feel like new the next tank she managed to get 330-ish miles to that tank so from like 25 MPG to 27 MPG, not too bad for literally not doing anything other than cleaning the car. 