Learning About Investing as a Child

In 1991, my father was a daily subscriber to The Wall Street Journal. I was excited about all things Disney at that age. Every day after school, we would check the Disney stock price and enter it in an Excel spreadsheet so I could visualize the price going up and down (this was back in the day before the internet provided you with such graphs). My parents really bought a few shares in Disney at that time and when Euro Disney opened in 1992 we got commemorative mugs which I still use to hold my pens on my desk (they were never good in the microwave since they have foil on them) and my Disney mug is a daily reminder of this investing experience.

In 1996, my little sister was old enough to start getting into my piggy bank so The Bank of Mom opened as a way for me to not need to keep cash and coins in my room. Mom kept track of my deposits and withdrawals in Quicken. Quicken also has features for tracking investments and so Dad’s Brokerage was formed. The best thing about Dad’s Brokerage is that I could invest my money at no risk – if I had a gain I really got the profit but if I took a loss Dad absorbed it. Dad’s Brokerage was the ultimate stock market game. I bought a handful of shares in Intel and held onto them for the long term.

In 1999, I closed my accounts with The Bank of Mom and Dad’s Brokerage to switch to a bank that offered interest and ATM cards. I sold my Intel at this time for a 340% profit.

In 2001, my parents told me all about Roth IRAs. I had held my first summer job in the 2000 tax year and my parents took me to Schwab to open a Roth IRA and gifted me the money to max it out that year. They did the same the next year, but since then I’ve maxed it out each year on my own.

All these great learning experiences have left me fully prepared to deal with the stock market as an adult and I truly hope they inspire parents who are looking for ways to teach their children about investing.