Investing Advice for Pre-med Student : personalfinance

I am at present in my third yr of undergrad and I am making use of to med faculty this upcoming cycle. I am taking a spot my subsequent yr since I am ending early and I can be attending med colleges the yr after (assuming I get in lol). I am attempting to avoid wasting up as a lot cash as doable subsequent yr, however I am questioning what one of the simplest ways to take a position it’s. I at present have all my cash in a financial savings account at 5.1% because it’s low effort and I haven’t got to consider it, however I am questioning if there are different methods I ought to diversify it. I’ve thought of throwing some cash within the S&P500 or one thing however I am unsure if I will get the 8% returns over a shorter span of 4 years. Additionally I would like one thing as low effort as doable to concentrate on faculty. I am additionally gonna guess that my debt from med faculty can be round 150k additionally however I am not gonna take into consideration that for an additional 10 years lol.

I at present work per diem as a CCT which pays 26 an hour and I can choose up as many shifts as I need. It will pay 40k a yr after tax full time and if I wish to spend cash on touring and enjoyable stuff I will choose up some extra time for it. I will nonetheless be residing at residence so my residing bills can be minimal. I am additionally planning on choosing up one other medical certification which might hopefully pay round 35 an hour, however I might take it with out a wage increase for the expertise and employment alternatives down the road. I at present have round 7k in financial savings which I will simply use as a rounding error for subsequent yr since a very good quantity of it would go into med faculty apps anyhow so I am not gonna give it some thought.

After this semester, I will be round 25k in scholar debt, however it’s all federal. A few of it’s sponsored which I will not contact as a result of it is at 3.5% and does not compound till after I am executed with faculty. Some is unsubsidized at 4.9% which is able to accrue curiosity. I did the mathematics and the entire curiosity by the point I might be an attending (assuming 4 years residency) can be round 8,500 so I do not suppose I’ll trouble touching it as a result of 8k proper now most likely means much more than 8k will down the road. Additionally, I might fairly reserve it for residing bills so I do not want to enter excessive curiosity debt for groceries and residing bills and save all my debt for tuition and housing.

TLDR: attempting to avoid wasting 40k subsequent yr earlier than med faculty. What can be the simplest and most secure option to make investments it over the course of 4 years.