I Just turned 18 what should I start doing now to get on the right tract to have a successful future?

Question

Other than going to college which I plan to do.

Answer 1

Pay your bills on time.

Start investing at least $50 a month into a ROTH IRA for retirement.

Don't spend your money on foolish things.

Play the stock market, put money into a high yielding savings account for emergencies.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

Start the journey to answering this question:
What do you what to do?
Get specific! A big part of it is choosing a major but every major has potentially hundreds of careers! Begin researching possible careers. Call up successful people with those careers (really go for the top honchos) and ask them how they got there.
Since you're 18, keep it low stress. You don't have to decide right now. But be persistent. Then when you graduate college you'll have a pretty clear idea of where to go.

Answer 3

Well this is a great topic, and If I could do it all over again I would do the following:
Secure full time employment, even if its just through a temp service. Theyre annoying, but be on the lookout for a better job.
Then Immediately, start your own business, and use quixtar.com to power it, take meticulous notes of what was bought and sold (the IRS is gonna need this), also keep track of your utilities, miles driven, and business supplies bought and used, (all these things are tax-deductable) Then while your working, simply find a few coustomers to supply with things they were going to buy anyways from somewhere else.
Then see if any one you know would like to have thier own business on the side, and show them how to make money useing the site, and save money from items they can purchase from thier own business. This called franchiseing. once you find one, help that person to franchise himself, and those he/she have found to do the same.
Many people have been able to accumulate enormous amounts of money this way, because of the compensation plan offered through this business model.
As your working your day job, put 10% back into a saveings account, and see how many grants you can get for school. Once you get into school, see how many more people you can find to network your business, and on weekends you can consontrate on studying durring the day, and helping others with thier business at night.
Every month you should get a check from the dropshipper, and this check should be put into an account (preferably one that accumulates interest). This will be your business account, and shouldn't be touched, until the end of the year, after taxes. With the tax deductions, you will come out ahead, and that will be extra into the account.
I suggest a franchise of 6 to start, however you will want to expand this to 15-21, than help the ones to expand thier own.
At 6, you can go really far. I figure you can make at the minimum, $160.00/ month - $2,138.00/ month, depending on how much time and effort you decide to put into this , either way, your makeing mony on top of your day-job.
Now, in order to make even more, I would suggest useing the deals, hot buys, and auctions options to purchase items that are no longer in production, or items that are being sold through the dropshippers auction site to put up on E- Bay, thereby createing multiple income streams. Of course the moneys will be socked back into your business account.
Now that you have a stable business, its time to expand on it. So you go to liquidation.com, and use your business account to purchase several lots of shelf-pulled clothes. this will cost about $400.00 - $750.00, than the return from putting it on E- Bay is roughly $900.00 - $1200.00. Remember to record this for the end of year income tax (still useing the quixtar.com also, because this is giveing you alot of your deductions) Keep doing this over and over, allthe while, your buying all your items for below retail, and selling for retail, and continue franchiseing out the business.
By the time you graduate school, your set. Your an Independant Business Owner, and don't need to find a job, because you have built your own.

Answer 4

Many people have told you to keep an eye on your credit situation. While that is good advice, it is not unique to 18 yr olds. If you have an earned income there are 4 things you should do.

1. Live below your means.
2. Fund a ROTH IRA.
3. Fund a ROTH IRA.
4. Fund a ROTH IRA.

Answer 5

LISTEN TO YOUR PARENTS! Do not charge credit cards, be responsible with your finances, did I mention listen to your parents? I'm 36 and wish my parents would have taken me by the hand and taught me more then what they did! Stay away from the urge to get into debt! Stay away from BAD BOYS/GIRLS! School is the right direction as long as you finish it. If your parents are not financially smart find someone that can teach you how to save, start 401k, whole life insurance policies at your age is one of the best investments because they build cash value and in 10-15 years will pay the premium and then you won't have to be money out of pocket when you are paying back student loans, which is a good thing. It will be hard to be poor now but in 10-15 years from now you will be glad you were eating beanie weanies now. Trust me, it pays off in the long run! I started late in life but it DOES pay off financially!!!

Answer 6

Take GREAT care of your credit. Build your credit and don't mess it up. The best way to build is to get a credit card, use it to pay for everything, and then turn around and pay it off every single month. Don't get in over your head in debt and take excellent care of that credit. If I could go back and change any single thing, that's what it would be.

Answer 7

get a credit card and use it just for building credit history.A good credit score means you will pay less for auto insurance and less security deposit is required when renting an apartment and when you go and purchase a house and or condo the interest rate on loan will be lower because you have shown the ability too handle credit in an effective manner.Keep credit card debt low.

Answer 8

Starting right now and for the next 30 years save 10% of whatever you make every year and invest it in a good quality diversified fund.

Answer 9

Put money into a Roth IRA, max it out every year if possible.

Invest. Either buy some mutual funds if you don't want to do the research on individual stock (morningstar.com has a good rating system), or buy stock in good companies with good fundamentals.

Answer 10

maintain good credit. don't get too many credit cards, pay them off in full and never ever be late with any bills. believe me, a few years of doing this and you will be far ahead of most people your age.

credit checks are becoming commonplace in job screenings too, so all the more reason to keep your credit scores high.