I've already moved some funds to stocks, and I've taken a couple of long shots on a VC fund and crypto-currencies.

As crazy as it may sound, personally I would invest 3500 into crypto currencies...

To get down to numbers, I have $30k in savings, $20k in personal stocks I've been toying with since 2016, a few grand in crypto for the heck of it, an IRA, and 401k that I put 10% of every paycheck into that I would never withdraw from (company contributes 1.5% on top of that).I'm heading to Indiana this weekend to look at some $20-30k SFRs that need around $10k of TLC, and also some duplexes in the $60-100k range.

ken, the US Federal government is the monopoly supplier of the US economy, i.e. a currency issuer, whereas you and I, states and businesses are currency users.

The dollar being high means that demand is high and prices are high, and currency risk is high.  

This year, I finally decided to commit myself to at the very least try my hand in real estate investing and get a taste of what it's like for myself rather than just reading about other people's experiences in books and blogs, even if I fail in the process.So for context, here's the rundown on my current situation:  I am a 20 year old (almost 21 whoop whoop) who is going to school for engineering at a JuCo for free while working about 30 hours a week with $2k+ in the bank and another ~$2k in stocks and crypto. 

Time is a currency you don't get back.

I get this is a real estate forum, and therefore a good place to start for real estate advice, but I am always curious why people just getting started want to invest in real estate versus stocks, bonds, NFTs, Crypto, starting some other type of business, etc.

thank you for sharing, I've been wondering when Crypto and RE would run into each-other.  

You can then trade these tokens just like you would trade any other cryptocurrency.