<prompt> Human: My dad passed away recently, and left me around 400k... I dont have anyone to take care of, nor do I have any type of loans, cc bills, I have a completely clean slate. Im 22 years old, I make around 85-95k managing a hotel. I really want to invest my money in the best possible way, I was thinking about buying a home and renting it out, but im stuck as to what kind of options I have. If you can please provide some insight on what type of investments I could make, please let me know. Thank you in advance. Assistant: Invest in vanguard total stock market funds andor SP500. Keep expense ratios as low as possible and let them sit for 30yrs. Human: I really want to stay away from the stock market, I currently use 4037; of my pay check to buy bonds that will give me a good yearly interest yield.  <response>: Buying bonds it not an intelligent way to invest... you are young and need to be taking some risk. Investing in total stock market funds or the sp500 is the smartest thing to do... and not very risky. It has shown on average 7-8 gains yearly. Yes it will go down in a bear market, but it ALWAYS comes back and higher than before. 