New graduate.
Ages 18 to 24.

What to do right now if you’re under 18 or have no earned income

Most financial content skips this life stage entirely. If you’re 17, in school, or between jobs with no earned income yet, here’s the honest answer: you cannot invest in a Roth IRA without earned income, and that’s fine. The most valuable move right now is free.

1. Understand how the system works. Read The Problem With Fiat Currency and How Money Is Actually Made. These cost $0 and compound forever. Most adults still don’t understand this.
2. Learn the order of operations before you have money. The priority stack will make your first paycheck worth 2–3x what it would be if you were learning as you earn.
3. If you get a summer job or first part-time gig, even $3,000 of earned income, open a Roth IRA and contribute some of it. Even $500 contributed at 17 compounds into roughly $50,000 by 67 at 10% returns. don't trust, verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: Roth IRA contribution is limited to the lesser of $7,500 or your earned income for the year (2026).Verify at: IRS.gov ↗IRS limits and earned-income rules update annually. Verify for current tax year..
4. Parent / grandparent can gift up to $7,500/year. If you earn $2,000 at a summer job and a family member wants to help, they can match up to the contribution limit (subject to gift-tax rules they should already know about).
5. Do not feel behind because you don’t have a portfolio yet. At 17, every year of understanding how money actually works is worth more than an extra year of a middle-aged person contributing to a 401(k).

When you land your first job with real income, come back here and start at Priority 1 below.

Priority order for your first job

Every paycheck flows through the same six buckets. Order matters more than amount. Hit the higher-priority buckets before the lower-priority ones, even if it means the lower ones stay empty for a year.

1. Kill any credit-card balance above 7% APR.
2. Build a $1,000 starter emergency fund.
3. Contribute enough to your 401(k) to get the full employer match.
4. Open and fund a Roth IRA. Target $7,500 per year.
5. Start a small Bitcoin DCA once the above four are running.
6. Finish the 3-to-6-month emergency fund in a high-yield savings account.

See the full version at Order of Operations.

Kill any high-rate student debt first

If you have private student loans above 7%, they are just expensive consumer debt with a degree attached. Pay them down aggressively before you start investing beyond the 401(k) match.

Federal loans below 5% are a different animal. Pay the minimum, keep your options open for forgiveness programs, and invest the difference. The full math is at Student Loan Strategy.

$1,000 starter emergency fund

One blown tire, one ER co-pay, one laptop failure - small emergencies ruin budgets and send people to credit cards at 24% APR. A thousand dollars in a high-yield savings account at 4% buys you the ability to say no to that cycle.

401(k) to the employer match

If your employer matches 5% of your salary, and you contribute 5%, you just got a 100% instant return on that money. Nothing else in personal finance offers that. Skipping the match is voluntarily declining a raise.

Contribute enough to capture the full match, no more, no less, until you have also funded your Roth IRA. The Roth is more flexible. You can pull contributions out tax-free in an emergency.

Open a Roth IRA today - time is your biggest asset

A Roth IRA is the single most powerful account available to a 22-year-old. Tax-free growth. Tax-free withdrawals in retirement. Contributions can come out tax- and penalty-free at any time. Open one at Fidelity or Schwab in about 15 minutes and put it in a total-market index fund like FSKAX or VTI.

The 2026 limit is $7,500 per year. Even $100 a month starting at 22 is a massive head start. See the full Roth breakdown.

Start Bitcoin DCA, even $20 per week

Once the four priorities above are running, start a small Bitcoin DCA. Twenty dollars a week at Strike, River, Swan, or Cash App. The amount is less important than the habit. Volatility stops mattering when your time horizon is 30 years.

Guides: Dollar-Cost Averaging, How to Buy Bitcoin.

The power of starting at 22 vs 32

Run two scenarios: $300 a month into a Roth IRA from age 22 to 65 at a 7% real return, vs the same $300 a month starting at 32. The numbers are not slightly different. They are wildly different.

What to avoid

Most of what compounds net worth at this age is not about clever moves. It is about avoiding a handful of common expensive mistakes.

Your first-year plan

Twelve concrete steps, in order. Do one per month and you end year one in better shape than 90% of Americans.

If buying a house is on your radar in the next few years, start a separate HYSA for the down payment now, even if contributions are small. The habit and the account matter more than the amount at this stage. See how to balance this against retirement contributions: Saving for a House Without Wrecking Retirement.

Next: early career