So just to give some context I am an 18 year old college freshman and started my own bank accounts late November 2025. Currently I have my checking account with Capital One and I do both my savings as well as investing with Sofi (High APY+ I love their UI). I have a part time job where I make minimum wage, so I'm not exactly talking about significant amounts of money, just a few thousands. I live with my parents still so my only expenses turn out to about $60 a month + whatever I spent on food or entertainment.
I think I just feel a little lost especially hearing from different sources across the web as well as not fully understanding my own investment goals yet. Right now the main thing I'd like to save/invest for is my first car, as well as money for travel because I love to travel and I'd like to see as much of the world as possible while I have my youth. Longer term, I wouldn't mind having that safety net which long term investment could provide for me. More specifically, I also might use some savings sometime down the line to help finance a short film project since I am a film major and early on self financing is one of the only ways really you can get your stuff off the ground. As well, (sorry I keep adding stuff) I'm in community college right now and may transfer so it would be nice to have some money to help my parents out in case I do in a few years. So I guess my horizon would be in the 5-10 year range but I also wouldn't mind holding for decades to see that return later on in life.
So I have most of my money in savings right now where I currently have a 4% APY with Sofi because of the 0.7% boost to new Sofi+ subscribers (eligible deposit). I have a decent amount of my money in stocks however, with a good portion of it (around 60%) in VOO. I also have NVDA, IREN (I hope the bubble doesn't burst), and TTWO (GTA 6 lol). As well, I also started off with one of those Robo invest accounts Sofi has but I have a lot less money in there (1/5 the amount of self-investment) is it worth it to even continue that one? It currently has a 0.25% advisory fee and I'm getting modest ROI though a bit lower than the self directed one. It's on moderately aggressive and I've been debating setting it to aggressive. Right now I just kind of feel like I don't know what I'm doing I see a lot of people online saying "VOO and chill" but I'm just wondering whether that's the best option specifically considering my horizon such as wanting a car by this year. I just kind of look at the funny line that goes up and down and say "that looks good!" lmao. But seriously I just don't know if I'm doing this right and whether I should diversify more or go for riskier stocks or I'm not sure what. I'd say my risk tolerance is pretty good, I don't get super scared when I see a slight downturn but of course I feel a bit of a twinge of panic when that happens. But still, I think I might have diamond hands haha.
Also a few things I was wondering about would it be good to buy Gold right now I've seen videos that it's kind of skyrocketing due to increased mistrust in USD. Along those lines, would it be smart to continue buying VOO as it only represents American S&P 500? I know the US market won't crumble overnight or anything I'm just wondering if it would be smart to look into international ETF's and stocks. Also, I find dividends slightly interesting is it worth looking at dividends and dividend investing for some passive income?
Any help is greatly appreciated.