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So, my parents are giving me $500 (sort of an unexpected, advance birthday present) and I'm wondering what to do with it. It may not sound like much, but I really don't want to whither it away on anything that won't last or set me up for better gains in the near future.

I also want to take advantage of the amount and do something that is more worth doing if you have $500 rather than $100. So, some investments.

But I also had the goal of trying to pay off one small student loan by the end of 2008. It's not necessary for me to pay this off (no interest payments yet), but it will help me feel like I'm getting ahead, and of course, increase my overall networth.

The two things I care about are: increasing networth and improving cashflow. So whatever I do with the $500 should address this, ideally both. And I want to do it in the best way possible, get the most for the money.

What do you recommend? What would you do?

Some of the options:

-pay off chunk of student loan
-invest in a monthly income trust with high yield
-invest in RRSP (eggh, I don't need this right now)
-put it onto a credit card that I'll just be using right away again anyway
-"save" it by starting a new emergency fund

I'm leaning toward #1: high yield monthly income trust, and #2, chunk on student loan.

I'd really appreciate any thoughts or comments!