Teaching Generation Z about Money

by | May 29, 2018 | Wealth Management

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Teaching Generation Z about Money

[/fusion_text][fusion_text]One of the fun parts about my job is getting clients’ children off to a good financial start. A few times a year, I sit down with someone in their late teens or early twenties to teach them the basics. Since I can’t possibly do this for all my non-client friends’ children and still run a business, I thought I’d share the blueprint for an initial conversation.

Here is the general outline I follow:

  1. Discuss the importance of saving (see Forget You! Money Blog – https://www.cherrytree.com/forget-you-money/)
  2. Explain the different ways to make your money grow – savings account, stocks, and bonds. Explain what a stock and bond are.
    • Stocks = ownership in companies like McDonalds, Amazon, and Netflix. Use companies that appeal to them.
    • Bonds = loans to companies, government, and people.
  3. Stocks usually have higher returns, but have more risk – bigger ups and downs.
  4. Cover why we want to own thousands of companies.
    • Give examples of things that can go wrong with one company – Blockbuster Video, Kodak. I like those examples because young kids can’t imagine a world without streaming movies or digital cameras.
    • Give examples of all the different countries they will be investing in – United States, Great Britain, Spain, China, India, whatever might appeal to them.
  5. Explain why fees matter and that index funds are a great place to start. You can get all your money invested around the world for less than 0.1%.
  6. If needed, explain why Bitcoin isn’t an investment.

That’s a good start anyway. The most important thing is to start small and keep it fun.[/fusion_text][separator style_type=”single” top_margin=”” bottom_margin=”” sep_color=”” icon=”” width=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]

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