Turn a Spender into an Investor

By: Joann Kuster Seymour

Author, Financial Educator

Spending—rather than saving money—is a habit, especially for teens. According to surveys by Teenage Research Unlimited, the average teen has more than $104 a week to spend—five times more than their parents had.

Yet, today’s teens are less savvy about money, and most haven’t learned what to do with a dollar IF it’s not spent. Nevertheless, they want to live well, retire rich, and stand to inherit a large nest egg they won’t be able to perpetuate.

Learning to save and invest is a valuable lifetime skill, just like reading. The better you become, the more success you see.
We all have a vested interest in helping teens be good savers and investors. They will make better employees, landlords, employers, philanthropists, legislators, company founders, shareholders, and citizens who give back.

Here are some ideas to develop the investing habit:
1) Give gifts or allowances of “investment” money, not “spending” money.
2) Start investing accounts rather than checking accounts.
3) Learn about the stock market with fun investment books, such as Stock Market Pie.
4) Start an imaginary portfolio, where each investor chooses several stocks. Reward the best investor each quarter.
5) Be stock market detectives. Use the library to find companies that would be good investments.
6) Visit a broker’s office to watch market activity via computer, ask questions, or discuss a stock.
7) Sample and compare competing products/services. Discuss and/or invest in the better stock.
Start a DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Program) account in a company that interests a young spender. (See www.dripinvestor.com.)
9) Attend a stockholders’ meeting of a local company.
10) Find entertaining websites about investing. (www.asec.org, www.americasaves.org, www.sec.gov/investor/tools/quiz.htm.)
11) Play a stock market game.
12) Start a family investment club.
13) Reward those who practice investing skills.