Hello there Ambrose!

Full disclosure, I am writing this as a part of a contest which is potentially allowing me to earn between .5-1.5 steem for writing a decent introduction to you, a new member of the community. This is the contest. https://steemit.com/minnowsupport/@inquiringtimes/a-contest-for-welcoming-and-enouraging-new-steemians-up-to-50-steem-in-prizes#@charitybot/re-charitybot-re-inquiringtimes-re-doodlebear-re-inquiringtimes-a-contest-for-welcoming-and-enouraging-new-steemians-up-to-50-steem-in-prizes-20180127t015444558z

As an economics student I'm sure that you understand that many people are mainly motivated by money, in my short time here I have received many generous votes from just commenting. My personal tip is that unless you have friends or wealthy benefactors who can vote for your posts, that it is instead more beneficial to comment on others' posts in a constructive way, enter contests if you want a chance to win steem/sbd without any initial monetary investment into the platform, and in general maybe post if you feel like it but don't depend on it to generate huge returns anytime soon.

There are many, many factors to how and why money flows as it does within this website, and the link I sent you has some articles that does go into that a bit. I am always available if you have any questions about the platform, and wish you the best in your studies and in your time here on steemit.

Personally I do not believe the price of the currencies used on the site can maintain themselves for that long, so I would be personally hesitant to purchase any amounts of steem or sbd. However, if you acquire them on this site through natural engagement with others then there are many things that they can be useful for, and a natural consequence of a system where many are interested in making money is that there are lending services (paying steem or SBD for SP delegation leasing) and vote services (paying steem or SBD for voting bid bots) usually available from the larger stakeholders at any given time. www.minnowbooster.net is one such website where these services are usually available, but right now delegation lease seems to be down.

If you're a sociable person you can find many people here who might share the same interests as you, enjoy your time here and don't worry too much about making money, very few earn a lot, and many were here before the prices skyrocketed. I'm sure the financial aspects of this site will or have already interested you, as there are many games being played simultaneously with regards to how people act and what they choose to do with their steem/sbd, and figuring out how to make all of this work well for you is part of the fun.

You can even visit this website http://www.steem.supply/ to check how much you've made and are going to make, or this website http://www.steemreports.com/ to see other things like who votes for you and who interacts via voting or flagging patterns. There are many such websites that track all of the data being created here.

https://steemit.com/tools/@gmuxx/my-steem-toolkit is a nice compilation of some of the tools I've just listed and more, and I hope that you find it useful in the future.

Honestly, I would prefer to buy an SP delegation for you to give you a head start, but prices are crazy high right now because of the demand from buyers, plus one of the best marketplaces to do so is down right now. So remember, try not to worry too much as you've just started here, learn as much about it as you can as long as it doesn't impact your real life negatively, don't waste money you can't spare on steem or SBD considering SBD was worth around 1 dollar in November and Steem was trading at pennies last year and current prices aren't guaranteed in the future, and have fun!