What motivates you? Family, friends, excitement, travel or the future? Money is what motivates me the most. Almost every single thing is tied to money — the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the paper you do your math homework on—but what if you could generate your money without lifting a finger?

The answer is simple: invest now. We have all been told this by our parents, teachers and peers but never actually go through with it. The first step to growing your money is to get a job as soon as possible. You could work as a host at a restaurant, a cashier at the grocery store or as a babysitter for your neighbor. Not only will this money benefit you in the long run, it will give you the opportunity to work for something instead of relying on your parents for money.

The second step is to save at least 50% of your paycheck so that your savings account can grow in order to invest. Once you have saved enough, do some research on where you would like to invest in the future.

From my own experience, I started investing right when I got my first paycheck at the age of 16. I opened a Roth IRA and put money into that account once a month. A Roth IRA puts money towards your retirement and grows exponentially based on how much you invest and how early you invest. Opening a Roth IRA is the best way to start saving your money for the long run.

To profit your money in the short run, invest in stocks that you intend to take out after two to five years. A safe way to make sure you profit is to invest in ETFs like QQQ or SPY that will never have extreme plummets in prices.

An important aspect of investing is to realize that when stocks are down, it is not a bad thing. The best time to invest is when the stock market has fallen. Right when Russia invaded Ukraine, stocks plummeted giving a great opportunity to invest at a cheap cost; when the market begins to thrive again, the money you have invested will surge. When investing in stocks, timing is everything from when you invest to when you sell.

Investing is a tricky, yet great way to expand your thinking to real world money and math. As students, we have to plan for our futures in college, jobs, and possibly a family. Investing now is a simple way to set yourself up for success.