Basics of finance is this Starting off, you can guarantee a minimum of 2% return on your money in the absolute safest investments. All of your money should go

Basics of finance is this Starting off, you can guarantee a minimum of 2% return on your money in the absolute safest investments. All of your money should go to those, something like a money market account or a high yield savings account, just to prepare for investment. Basically don't keep most of your money in a checking account that gives you next to no interest. Secondly, the biggest drain on any investment is going to be taxes. You should learn about how you are taxed, how roth and traditional iras work in terms of taxation, how capital gains tax works, as well as all taxation related to real estate (it still remains a pretty advantageous investment in terms of taxes but most people don't understand the concept of APR). Generally, you should be able to be comfortable computing the taxes manually on any sort of transaction, whether its your salary or investment - if you can do that, you are well read on it. Outside of these constant things, economy fluctuates quite a bit, and future is impossible to predict, so there is no "right" investment. For example, this happened to a friend of mine - got job during the end of the pandemic in 2022, started getting salary, invested all of it into safe index funds. 2023 happens, all index funds take a dive, he gets laid off, and has to pull out funds at a loss to cover expenses between jobs. He would have made out better had he kept everything in a savings account. So there isn't a right investment choice to make just out of the market, everything depends on your situation, your risk tolerance, your backup plan availability, e.t.c. For example, if you are ok with living super cheaply and you have no big financial responsibilities, you can take on a lot more risk which can pay of bigger. Meanwhile, someone with kids who need money for college cannot. So figure what those are for you, and then its pretty easy to run what if models for any sort of scenario, whether its buying a house, to playing the stock market. Also, equally important, you get one life to live. You are young, you have energy. When you are old, you will have more responsibilities, less energy, and your genetics could cause you to start having more health issues. Do all the stuff that you want to do in life now, even if it costs money that you feel like you should be saving, and you will be 100% glad that you did it. It is much easier to settle down into a "boring" life later in life where you hold down a job and accumulate savings over time then it is to experience regret of never doing the things when you had the opportunity.