In the past few weeks, several of my clients have asked me about how to get their children started with investing. As generation X parents are watching their children grow up, they are realizing that educating their kids about how the stock market works is an important lesson, which they unfortunately don’t spend enough time in school systems teaching. We do not tell our kids now that money doesn’t grow on trees, but we do tell them that i-phones don’t grow on trees. Rather than getting frustrated, you should take advantage of this by helping them get excited about investing their money instead of spending their money. At oXYGen Financial, we are soon considering launching a course for our clients’ children to teach them these very important techniques.
- www.computershare.com– This is was the first place that I got my oldest daughter into stock investing. When she was learning about topics like percentages in school, I thought being able to track a stock that she would enjoy following would be a great idea to buy for her. Through Computershare, we were able to invest in something called the McDirect program for McDonald’s stock. In a plan like McDonalds, the minimum investment for a custodial account is $100 or $500 for a regular individual/joint account. Today, you only need to buy one share of stock to open a custodial account at Computershare. When McDonalds pays dividends, they will automatically buy fractional shares of the stock and reinvest those dividends. In addition, you can add money anytime to you like for a nominal fee to purchase additional full or fractional shares of stock.
- www.oneshare.com or www.giveashare.com– You can use oneshare or giveashare to provide your children a share of stock in their very favorite company. Perhaps it is Krispy Kreme (which by the way made huge money over the past five years), Activision (some Guitar Hero please) or maybe even the World Wrestling Entertainment (no arguments from Vince McMahon). The stock that you buy can be matted and framed for your child or simply sent in the mail. After you purchase the initial one share of stock, you can add money along the way to continue to purchase fractional shares while the dividends are automatically reinvested. There is an upfront registration fee of about $50, but after that initial fee you’ll be on your way to stock ownership.
- www.betterinvesting.org or www.stockmarketgame.org– The National Association of Investors Corporation is a non-profit organization that teaches individuals and investment clubs how to employ fundamental analysis to become successful long term investors. You can get started with them for a small registration fee and then begin buying stock through a dividend reinvestment plan.
The early process about investing is about education and excitement. What if you could get your children as interested in making money with their money as they are spending money on the latest and greatest Xbox video game? Wouldn’t it be great if your kids wanted to save more than they wanted to spend? Krispy Kreme now has coffee infused donuts. It could be time to start dripping some donuts and coffee into your kid’s future and help them enroll in a stock plan.
Written by: Ted Jenkin
Request a FREE consultation: www.oxygenfinancial.net
