One is to earn interest, and the other is to diversify the family's asset allocation and put eggs in several baskets. Because the topic says that your parents will pay for your four-year tuition, as far as I understand, this $900,000 should not be used to pay for your daily living expenses (of course, you can also choose to keep tens of thousands of dollars to buy a new car for fun, but it will not affect the overall conclusion), and you can use it all for investment.
Because the interest rate in the United States is very low, I think debt investment is not attractive, but you might as well invest about $65,438+million in the long-term national debt of the United States as a safe asset for family emergencies. And more complex financial instruments, such as futures, derivatives, hedge funds, etc. One may not be enough for 900 thousand, and the other may not be able to hold it because of the subject's experience of just going to college, so I suggest you focus on real estate and simple equity investment. In terms of real estate, there are huge differences in housing prices among cities, which cannot be generalized.
But I suggest that you invest in one or two condominiums (Condo for short) during your study abroad. Live in a house, rent out the rest, and you can have a stable cash income. However, a single-family house usually has a lot of messy things to deal with. I guess you, a student, have no energy or interest to do it, and you don't recommend it. If you live in America after graduation, you can use house instead of condo. I suggest investing 500,000 to 700,000 dollars in this part, depending on your personal risk preference and local house prices. For the rest of the money, you can take out 30,000 to 50,000 and try to operate individual stocks yourself. Even if you lose it, it won't have much impact on your overall financial security. You can practice. But as a student, I think most of the money is still in the index fund, which will not affect your energy. Like a spy, follow S&; P500 is in the overall trend. After buying it, it usually doesn't take much time to take care of it. Leave it alone. Or you can ask a financial adviser to help you with it. The American market is very developed and mature, and there are many big companies, such as Fidelity. You can try to get to know it after you settle down.