Comments on: Teaching Children Practical Money Lessons: Investing

By: AndyS

AndyS — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:41:09 +0000

Great article…involving your kids in the investing process from an early age will ensure that they are more financially savy and secure as adults.

By: My Dollar Plan

My Dollar Plan — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:17:50 +0000

I actually think it is a great idea. How better to learn NOT to invest for the short-term, than in a controlled first-hand experience.

Clearly it worked as the kids learned from their mistake and did better the next year.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:26:38 +0000

Hmmm…the excerpt says the kids were to invest the money, but why does that have to be funds? I guess one has to start somewhere, but it seems like kids have a better shot at success if they learn end-to-end. Instead of starting with fund investing, they could learn how money is made in the first place. $5K is pretty good seed money for a small biz; perhaps that could fund research into a business they could do online. How cool would it be for a bunch of kids to blog about personal finance from their perspective? Or teach themselves an easy to learn craft that they could blog about and sell the results on Etsy? Not only would that teach them money skills they would also get a taste of marketing themselves in the bargain.

Seems like the parents of these kids need a swift kick in the imagination dept. imho.

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:14:49 +0000

For some of us, camping is punishment! ;)

I agree with you that it’s probably not a good idea to encourage them to chase short-term gains. Maybe they can learn those skills for cases where that might be applicable–but I think it’d be better if they focused on finding good indexes and such.

By: The Saving Freak

The Saving Freak — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:17:32 +0000

We do not have kids yet but my wife and I plan to teach our children through helping them invest a portion of any earned income they make. We will start out with mutual funds but also get them a few individual stocks from companies they might purchase (cereal or toys). This way they can learn about the market through items they already enjoy.

By: FrugalTrader

FrugalTrader — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:48:45 +0000

I agree with the authors method of teaching kids. In this case, he is teaching his kids about the stock market, how it works, and how difficult it can be to make short term gains. Perhaps this will push the kids towards learning about alternate strategies like long term fundamental analysis.

By: Curtis

Curtis — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:13:53 +0000

Yeah, I’ve always had a problem with the way most of us are taught about investing in school (if at all). If you get anything, it’s typically a stock market game where you pick stocks for just a few months and see who wins. That’s no kind of investing strategy to teach children. Maybe the financial education should start at like 5th grade and run all the way through the end of High School. That way they really have time to learn some skills and not feel pushed into quick returns.