All the recommendations for low cost mutual funds are good, but I recently found Motif Investing (http://motifinvesting.com) - it's a really interesting way of investing in stocks, based on very specific sectors. For example, "cloud computing" or "beer". These types of investments would be difficult to do cheaply with any current mutual find or ETF. It's not something to put all your money into, but it's an alternative and possibly interesting way to invest (I am not affiliated with them in any way).
I would also offer a recommendation against an expensive car. Take it from someone who bought a really nice sports car - the novelty wears off relatively fast, and after that, you're just left paying hefty maintenance fees. Remember a car is to take you from point A to point B.
> Take it from someone who bought a really nice sports car - the novelty wears off relatively fast, and after that, you're just left paying hefty maintenance fees. Remember a car is to take you from point A to point B.
Sports cars are for motorsports. Take her to the track! I'm not exaggerating when I say track days are the most fun I've had in my life.
A nice middle ground might be a motorcycle. I had a 600 sportbike for a few years, and it was funny riding an $8k machine (at the time) that could outperform most sports cars on anything other than a straight-line top speed test.
But you only want a motorcycle if you have good restraint. Sportbikes are so capable, it is easy to maim or kill yourself if you don't know how to hold back. They are just really capable bikes in the low rpms, and then they are high-end racing machines in the high rpms.
I got my motorcycle in my late 20's, after spending a lot of my life riding a bicycle. I don't think it would have been good for me to have a motorcycle in my late teens/ early twenties.
I drive cars on the track in excess of 120 MPH, and I would never hop on a motorcycle to drive around the block. The fatality statistics are horrifying. Worse, you have to trust not only yourself but everyone else on the road not to send your unprotected body through a car radiator.
Good luck to you if that's your thing, but the price of failure is just too high for my tastes.
I would also offer a recommendation against an expensive car. Take it from someone who bought a really nice sports car - the novelty wears off relatively fast, and after that, you're just left paying hefty maintenance fees. Remember a car is to take you from point A to point B.