<prompt> Human: Basically, both of my parents passed away when I was about 13 years old. My father was sick, and passed from a heart condition, and my mother later took her own life. I lived with my grandmother in Florida for a while, but after moving in with my aunt and uncle my new home was Canada. Im 18 and Im in my first year of college living on res no real place to stay right now other than friends couches. I have about 250,000 in total savings from all the money that my parents left for me. I have a sister who is about 25, and she lives in the U.S. I could definitely live with my sister if I had to, but staying in Canada would be preferred. I have a pretty solid summer job at a cool camp, and my school is in a city about a two hour drive from said camp. Im trying to get a car soon as well to help with work in the summer, and other errands. I guess my question is just how should I invest my savings? How can I survive the rest of my life using this money? I need some advice.  <response>: While 250k sounds like a very large amount of money, youll soon find out its actually not. Dont get me wrong, its not a small amount either and will definitely make your life a lot more comfortable. This is what I would do:As you are in college right now, you should find out how much this will cost you tuition living expenses. Then calculate how much income you will have from your summer job and maybe another job to do during the year. So lets say that for the next 4 years, your total expenses will be 120k and your income would be 50k, this means that you need an additional amount of 70k which will come from the 250k.Not all expenses can be planned and very often its the unplanned costs that are the highest. As a student, 5k-10k of readily available emergency fund will make sure that you can get through most emergencies.Getting a car is fine as well. Put aside 5k or so for this. You wont get a Lamborghini for this, but you can find a decent and reliable car for 5k.So this means that on the short term, you will need 70k 10k 5k 85k readily available funds. With readily available, I mean that those funds should not be invested in the stock market as the stock market, while a very good investment on the long term, should not be used for short term investments. A savings account with a relatively high interest rate is perfect for this. The goal of this 85k is simply to get a degree without any debt. Entering the labor force with a good degree and no debt is a huge deal. The rest of the 250k, 165k, you will not need on the short term. Use this money to get some low costs index funds. The risk is low for them but dont expect any high returns either. The longer you leave this money there the better, but it could be used to purchase a home by the time youre 30 depending on the stock market, of course.250k doesnt mean youll get to live life on easy mode, but you wont be living it on hard mode either if you take the right decisions. Good luck! 