What are the best long-term investments in today's market for someone at age 18?

[sunkist1227]

Open a Roth IRA and do all your investing through the Roth; take advantage of your tax bracket. For long-term investments, I'd say go with managed products, i.e mutual funds and to some extent, ETFs.

Prior to getting a financial advisor, you should definitely do some research on your own. Read about asset-allocation. More than anything, you'll have decide on how much risk you're willing to take. Asset allocation will tell you that being 18, it's ok for you to overweight in equities, etc, etc.

This is in no-way an endorsement / pitch / sale...whatever you want to call it...I opened a Roth with Vanguard when I was 18. From doing my research, I liked the funds Vanguard offered and also their fees were among the lowest.

In short, just read up on how IRAs work (Traditional vs Roth), how mutual funds work (fees, dividends, management, objectives), and how ETFs work. Once your familiarize yourself, the next step will be to decide what types of product(s) you want to invest in and finding a company that's the best fit (Vanguard, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, etc)