First time investing need help

Hi — great question, and honestly, you’re already ahead of most people your age just by thinking about this now.

From a CCR perspective, the most important thing early on isn’t chasing returns or picking the “perfect” stock — it’s choosing a platform that helps you build good habits, learn as you go, and grow with you over time.

All three platforms you mentioned (Robinhood, Fidelity, Vanguard) are legitimate. But if you’re 18, in college, and starting with limited money and experience, Fidelity is the best single choice to start with.

Here’s why:

– There are no account minimums, so you can start with whatever you have.
– You can buy fractional shares, which matters when you don’t have hundreds of dollars per investment.
– Trading fees are $0, but the education and research tools are much stronger than the others.
– As you learn more, Fidelity lets you easily grow into IRAs, long-term investing, or more advanced strategies without switching platforms.

From a CCR mindset, your priority right now should be growth and learning, not income strategies. Covered calls, options, and yield-focused approaches come much later — only after you’ve built a solid core portfolio and understand risk.

A simple way to start:
1. Open a Fidelity account.
2. Set a small recurring contribution (even $25 a week builds powerful habits).
3. Start with broad, diversified ETFs instead of individual stocks.
4. Learn slowly and consistently — avoid day trading or trying to time the market.

At your age, your biggest advantage isn’t picking the right app or stock — it’s time. Compounding over decades does more work than any clever strategy ever will.

You’re doing the right thing by starting now and keeping it simple.

For more information, visit CoveredCallResearch.com

**Its Just my opinion , DYOR before any thing**

Thinking about investing in such young age is really good , be pround of yourself because many people don’t and regret later in life

First of all how do u want to invest
1)Stocks
2)Goverment schemes
3)Mutual funds or Index
4)Commodities (Gold , Silver)
5)Real Estate
6)Crypto

And there are many other options out there
But always diversify
I would never recommend Crypto as an investing plan , Its extremely volatile and hard to predict because many biggest social figures can easily manipulate the market but if u want to, then play around it with small sum

If u choose stocks , its still little bit risky but u can manage it and predict quite but u need to learn more about reading statements and analysing market and etc
or simply u can choose mutual funds but u still need to learn there too

Gold gave over 50% return only this year but average APR is like 10% so its same like Bonds or Mutual funds , so allocate a fraction for that , u cannot expect this return every year

Whatever you are investing
Rule 1 – Dont put all eggs in one basket
Rule 2 – Research about everything on your own and grow your knowledge
Rule 3 – Just put the sum that u r ready to lose in risky investments plans
Rule 4 – It’s all about portfolio , built a good diversified portfolio
Rule 5 – Never forget these 4 Rules

And develop the **Financial literacy** as much as you can

Some extra opinions
Read some good financial books , and learn the power of compunding and beleive it
even Anually if u get 10% return and if u have good disicipline then in 10 years u can definitely see the wonders of compounding effect

Step #1 is always to get an emergency fund in place before any investment that could put capital at risk. Why? Because life happens and you do not want to be put in a position of having to liquidate your investments because you suddenly “need the money”.