<prompt> Human: Current Situation:Me, 20-something graduate student. 2 Years left of degree, gratefully debt-free but with more expenses than income predicted in the next 2 years as I finish this degree 27kyear tuition, 36kyear living expenses, 7k incomeCurrent financial situation: Without going into too much detail, I have about 1600 shares of XOM cash value as of closing firday: Roughly 121,500. I realize that this isnt necessarily a wise financial strategy, but these were basically dumped into my lap by fate and Im very grateful! They are housed in a brokerage account in a large bank. I made a plan of how I will spend this money and have about 15k leftover at the end, barring any truly unfortunate emergencies. As of right now Im unsure of the best way to proceed, though. Ive read through the sidebar about investing and windfalls Including I have X, what do I do with it?, and I know that its better to treat large sums of money as a stream of future income rather than money that can be spent right away, but I also have living and education expenses and its more important to me that Im able to pay for my degree. Im not buying anything crazy or luxurious, I just have the basic plans for how Ill live for the next 2 years. That being said: What is the best course of action in this situation? Some specific questions:1. Should I move from the large bank to an E-trade account in order to avoid fees? My only worry is that I know almost nothing about investing, and although I read the sidebar about investing I still feel uncertain about managing my own investments.2. Is it better to keep my stock in XOM or diversify? I know that if I just had 120k in cash it would be significantly better to invest diversely, but I already have 1600 shares of XOM and I fear that the transaction fees would make it so that it wouldnt be worth it to diversify my portfolio at this time. 3. Should I just sell all my stock as soon as possible? I know XOM is kind of on a downswing right now its been harrowing to watch over the past couple of weeks so I fear losing more money, but I also fear that if I just sold it all right now it could go back up and Id lose money that way too.Thanks in advance for any advice!  <response>: If you plan to use the money in the next two years, you should not leave it invested in stock. Even if you were to reduce risk by diversifying your portfolio, the market remains volatile and your short term plans may force you to sell stock at inopportune times. I understand your fear of losing out on potential gains, but avoiding debt also means avoiding interest payments! Depending on the anticipated interest rate, the unpaid interest could easily approach or exceed stock market gains. You may want to invest a portion of it in bonds or a bond fund, but with such a short horizon, it would not be wrong to simply put it in a savings account. Secondly, lowering any fees is very important, but mostly when investing long term or when making many trades. This is because fees are generally percentage based, and seemingly small differences thus compound over time. Similarly, you can seriously hemorrhage money through trading fees by making many trades. However, the cost of a single sell order is fairly minor tens of dollars at most in the grand scheme of things, and is unavoidable if you want to get your risk exposure in line with your short-term goals for this money. Of course, if you wanted to invest the 15k left over for a longer term, it would be preferable to transfer that portion to a cheaper account. 