Bond Photos, a recent college graduate who invests, is thankful he started investing at a young age.

“I’m in a much better place just because of the investments that I had," he said.

Thanks to his investments, Photos feels a step ahead than most people who just graduated college. He started when he was 18 and over time learned keeping up with current events is key.

“Just being able to keep up on the news, being able to understand what the market is doing based upon trends, and how news actually affects the markets," said Photos.

And professional advice doesn’t hurt.

“With me, I actually hired an investor," he said. "They’re the ones who have the practice and the training to actually make sure that your investments pan out and become mature, which just simply means you get more money for your money.”

As a finance professor at Syracuse University, David Weinbaum tells his students you can’t be one-dimensional.

“You want to be diversified across lots of different stocks," said Weinbaum. "You don’t know what industry is gonna outperform; it’s very difficult to predict that.”

And, above all else, patience is vital.

“The worst thing you could do to yourself is sell in a market downturn because to get that right you have to be right about two things," he said. "You have to be right about when you sell but then also you’re gonna be sitting on the sidelines and you have to be right about when to get back.”

“If it looks bad, just wait it out," said Photos. "If you wait, say, 10-20 days, maybe even towards the end of a quarter or the end of the year, your investments might just swing back up.”

As he moves towards his next chapter, investing gives Photos a sense of security.

"It’s just a lot easier to get a step forwards in life just because you have these investments that you can fall back on in case you don’t have the money on hand," he said.