1. Look at your cash reserves, do you have enough cash to live for 3 months without income? It is not wise to invest money in stocks when you don't have the funds for an emergency or if you are relying on your parents for emergency money.
2. Have you paid off all of your student loans? According to The Wall Street Journal. student loan debt is now more than credit card debt.
3. Have you saved up enough cash to get you through one tuition payment? It would be a shame if you say yes to questions one and two, invest money in stocks and fall short of your next tuition payment and be forced to take out student loans.
You often heard your parents say blanket statements such as "you should be investing in your education right now" or "your focus should be on school." I'm going to bring this one level higher, you should be investing in your future right now. That means that the best investments for college students are most likely books like The Tipping Point By Malcom Gladwell or a book on the financial crisis like On the brink By Hank Paulson, House of Cards By William D Cohan or Too Big to Fail By Andrew Ross Sorkin.
These books will be a real investment now, because they will give you the tools to deal with the problems our would is going to face in the future by looking at the leaders who solved our problems in the past.
