<p>I’m a fan of mutual funds. At large MF places, like Vanguard, Fidelity, they have target funds where they put your money into a range of investments that stay balanced for your age. They work really well when you begin to invest;</p>
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If this is a problem then another option is for the parents to just hang on to the money for a while until it wouldn’t be an issue.</p>
<p>Fin aid isn’t an issue. We didn’t get any :P. </p>
<p>Would there be a high inflationary risk over just a four-year period?</p>
<p>Parking in San Francisco is both a pain and expensive. Most neighborhoods have street sweeping, and there is never enough on street parking. You never need a car in the city.</p>
<p>your inflation risk is double edged. Now, rates are relatively low. Lock up your money for a longer term…and you risk that as inflation rates rise so does the interest rates. Opportunity costs. In addition, the earning power is less in the future. Play around with an excel spreadsheet looking at the various interest rates and returns. Just had a brainstorm…You could lend the money to someone!! Offer them better rates than they could get at a bank, and get a better rate than you could see from a CD or money market account.</p>
<p>Lots of variables involved with any kind of investment. Even Yoda has trouble seeing the future sometimes.</p>
<p>If I had to guess, I would suggest that longer term interest rates (if you are looking 2 - 4 years from now) will be relatively stable to perhaps slightly lower. Any other 4 people on here will tell you that they will be stable to higher, much higher or much lower. But you could get a mix of short and longer maturity CD’s. Stock picking is a crapshoot. Want one of the low cost total market type mutual funds? What do you think the market will do over the next 4 years? </p>
<p>Try to take a finance and economics class early in your college career.</p>