<prompt> Human: Hey yall, Im 17 and have 0 grasp on finances so please bear with me. Ive applied to my state schools UCs and will most likely receive next to no financial aid as my parents make 120,000 a year. Theyd be paying around 25K a year and the rest would be covered by loans and scholarships hopefully. I can also go to community college for next to nothing for 2 years and transfer. I was wondering if it would be at all a good idea for me to take the money they would be paying and invest it and make a small return on it while I go to CC. I dont actually know how to go about this, but I wanted to know if it was a good idea, and If my parents are cool with it, Im sure the wiki will help me quite a bit. Any suggestions on how to go about this and if its a worthwhile endeavor?  <response>: I would think parents paying for college to start with would be appreciated so much to start with. How in the world any kid would think on top of that they could take any extra money from them to invest is unbelievable. Btw 25k a year is a heck of a lot for them to pay out of pocket when they are only making 120k. Why should you get to invest any school savings instead of them? They are a lot closer to retirement then you are. 