I'm turning 18 this year. My mom is a millennial

Well... Thank you for making us feel old... Very good

Could have been worse: "I'm turning 18 this year. My mom is gen-Z."

We have a few years before we see that post.
- What will be after Z i wonder. Will it start over from the A? Will it be a number? Or a hashtag?
I'm not old! I'm only... 43... no, 42... I think

There really is a relevant XKCD for everything. I'm literally touring my local college next week.

When I was 22, I wanted to get into the stock market. I found a website that gave you $200,000 in fake money to "invest", and showed you how much you would make or lose over the time you "owned" the stock until you "sold" it. I lost $62,000 in the first week.

All I'm saying is do your research and invest wisely. Or just do whatever Warren Buffet does.

How did you do in your second week?
- They lost 138,000 dollars.
What was the website?
- This was 20 years ago. I have no idea what site it was. I just googled "stock market simulator" and went to the first one that looked legitimate. Of course it was a little easier in 2003...
You only "lose" money if you sell low. Dont do that. Our economy somehow relies on infinite grow, so make the most of it. Most stocks recover from crashes sooner or later.

Investment is a side income, it's almost impossible to make it a main income cause so much of it is out of your control. Some low risk ETFs and bonds are the way to build your portfolio.

The best way to get wealthier is to get a higher paying job, if you can't comfortably live and still save at least $500 a month you need to increase your income before investing will become viable.

While I agree with most of what you said, solely focusing on a high paying job is a guaranteed way to create an unhappy life.

Building financial discipline and learning how to save is one of the most critically underrated skills in creating personal wealth. You wouldn't believe the amount of high income individuals that struggle to live BELOW their means and can't build their net worth.

At some point, it's more about how much your save, than how much you make.
- Agreed, a higher paying job only helps up to a point. Being able to save money is the key factor in building wealth. You can't do it without a good paying job so that's a must but it doesn't mean you need to try for a job with 150k+ salary, especially if you hate the job and end up spending a bunch of your money on things that make you happy.
  
  After the point where you are saving over 1k a month the most important thing is learning as much as you can about financial literacy and creating a diverse portfolio of assets.

Save up a sum of money. Open a fidelity investment account. Fidelity does not have a minimum balance account requirement. Learn a bit about no fee index funds. These are low price per share but offer the benefit of investing in the whole stock market. Things like Fidelity ZERO Total Market Index Fund or Fidelity ZERO International Index Fund. These types of funds give you a broad investment profile with low price and reduced risk. Continue to add money to your investment account on a regular schedule. Do NOT take money from the account to buy luxuries. The benefit you have at age 18 of being in the market is time. Any amount of money you have in the market for an extra 10 years will grow leaps and bounds more than you would be able to afford to put in directly. You can also look to set up a Roth IRA for your retirement as well. You can put up to $6,500 per year into a Roth IRA account and invest it. Do this early and often and let the money grow and future you will be living a comfortable life. I am not a fiduciary and talk to your family before you listen to an internet stranger, but this is what I do/did and my retirement should be fairly comfortable. Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for the advice! I'll make sure to look into it.

In this economy?! Stonks may be your best bet. Signed: a dissatisfied millennial

I wish you the best in your future endeavors.

Stonks

Might as well open a Roth IRA and start contributing to an index fund like VTI or VOO.

Long term stable growth and tax beneficial. The earlier you start saving for retirement the better, compound growth is very powerful.