For reference, I’m an 18 year old female about to start college. I knew my grandparents were setting aside some money for me but I had no idea how much. To keep my college costs down I’ve chosen a public in-state school and have secured a full-tuition merit scholarship due to a high GPA. That considered, my college costs will be about 18,000 USD per year. My parents want me to live on campus so I have to have the meal plan etc etc... I’d like to be more frugal but that’s beside the point. I plan on working a few lunch shifts a week (I have a year of food service experience and currently work as a server) for personal money but since my scholarship saves about 10,000 USD a year we’ve determined it’s best for me to focus on my studies. My parents are in a financially rough spot right now so they’ll only be able to help with a little but they hope to be able to contribute more moving forward.
So, uh. What the hell do I do with this check? Just deposit it in my regular personal savings (which is now just a little shy of 1,500 USD)? I worry that I’ll be taxed as if I’ve had an annual income of like 50,000 USD when that’s not at all the case. Is there a smart way to handle this money in a way that’ll protect me and the money?
And what do I do with it anyway? I’ll need to use a good bit of it for this year’s college expenses, but what about the rest? Should I invest? Just let it sit in the bank?
TL;DR I’ve never had such an insane amount of money in my life before and I don’t want to do something stupid. How can I best handle this?
Submitted June 13, 2018 at 09:10PM by justacleverthrowaway https://ift.tt/2JLWsgq
