Once you’re all settled into your new college life and have a good handle on all of your classes, you might want to start looking into ways to make money. Investing while you’re in college is a great way to prepare yourself financially for the future. If you start while you’re still in college, then you’ll be able to learn the ins and the outs of investment from a young age – to put you ahead of the game of those who started when they were older.

You don’t need a lot of cash to start investing – you can do it cheaply, as long as you do the research and are smart about your endeavors. Even though you’ll deal with some losses, they won’t be as major since you’re not going to hand over a ton of cash from the get-go. This is exactly how to invest when you’re still in college.  

Get a Robo-Advisor

This is a great way to get low-cost financial advice. You’ll have access to financial advisors and financial tools. They’ll pick your investments from algorithms based on your portfolio. Some of the best online brokers are Wealthfront, Betterment, Facet Wealth, and Personal Capital.

Get an Online-Broker

One of the best ways to start investing cheaply is to get an online broker, where you choose which assets to invest in. These don’t have to be costly, and you can use places like Charles Schwab to get going. Not only that, but they will provide you with the necessary tools to teach you about investing. You can even check out free online brokers such as Robinhood, where it’s free to trade on the platform in places such as stocks and ETFs.

Buy an Index Fund

The advantage of buying into an index fund is similar to buying the market – you’ll also get a market return for your investment. An index fund is a mutual fund that tracks the financial market index and will provide you with the appropriate exposure for investing, like the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. You can check out the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF or the Schwab S&P 500 Index Fund to get you started.  

Check Out an Investing App

Since our phones are more or less an extension of ourselves nowadays, turning to a mobile investing app is one of the best ways you can start investing. You can buy individual stocks in the app and pay a small monthly fee to use the app. Some of the best investing apps are Robinhood (which has no fee), Acorns, Stash (very good if you’re just starting out), and Wealthfront.

Investing while you’re still in college can be a ton of fun. With these tools, you’ll find it’s straightforward and simple to start investing. You don’t need a lot of money or time to get started and can slowly work your way up as you learn the ropes about investing – without any major losses. By getting a Robo-Advisor, an online broker, buying into an index fund, or checking out investing apps, you’ll find that there are many different ways you can start investing based on your own personal preferences.