College Student Investing

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As a budding college student with a fairly small savings account, I am looking to get started in investing. Mutual funds seem appealing and smart, but hard to win big. Tips? Advice? Links that could point me in a helpful direction? Anything is appreciated. TIA.

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What are you goals for the money you want to invest? Retirement? Extra spending money when you graduate?

What's the time frame?

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College Student Investing
I would just invest play money for the experience. Have fun with your money in college (drinking, roadtrips, spring break). The memories you make with that money outweighs any bit of money made from investing.

A few suggestions:
1. Save up $500-1000 buffer in your checking account (treat this # mentally as a 0 in your account) to avoid bounced checks.

2. If you get a credit card, pay it off monthy. If you make it out of college debt free, you will be doing better than probably 80% of new graduates.

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Not sure about this advice. You think a college kid can have $1000 in his checking account and "mentally" perceive it as "0"? Hell, most adults cannot accomplish this.

Credit card is not bad idea for the sole purpose of building credit history, but can be disastrous...

I think playing around for free is definitely a good idea. Although not exact reality, it gets the point across. Try this site LINK

Lastly, if you have a bunch a money saved away, I'm assuming all of your college is paid for, and any expenses. If this is true, get some advice from your parents or a professional and make a plan to sock it away somewhere safe and forget about it.

Probably the best lesson an economics teacher gave me was the value of time. You can typically double your money every ten years assuming 7% return. So ask yourself this question, would blowing $25,000 on random things when your 20 years old be worth $200,000 when your 60 years old? Maybe so, who knows?

20 yrs old - $25,000
30 yrs old - $50,000
40 yrs old - $100,000
50 yrs old - $200,000
60 yrs old - $400,000

vs. waiting 10 yrs, or possibly longer since you will probably not have a large sum of money any time soon out of college.

30 yrs old - $25,000
40 yrs old - $50,000
50 yrs old - $100,000
60 yrs old - $200,000

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assuming 7% return

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and this is where it gets fun. Assuming