Family Fun, Anyone?

Have you ever wanted to create an exciting and fun way to get the kids or grand kids excited about stock market investing?

Now that my oldest son, Cameron, is seven, he is ready to start working!  Dad is so ready to teach him the value of a dollar.  Wait…child labor laws?  Oh..well maybe he’ll have to wait…

While he’s waiting, maybe I’ll teach him a lesson or two about investing.   I decided to have his sister Katelyn (age 5) be his partner in crime.  While we’re at it, Mom can join too!

Here’s what we’re doing:

1) We bought I’m a Shareholder: The Basics About Stocks for Kids by Rick Roman available at www.giveashare.com for $13.95 plus shipping.

We will use this great book for teaching lessons on the basics of stocks, economics, the markets, and investing.  This book does a wonderful job showing children complex concepts in an easy to understand format.  It has great visuals and a ton of entertainment value.  Hey at the very least, Dad will have fun!

2) I made a chart of about 50 different companies for the children to choose from.   I started with companies they were familiar with and even allowed them to do their own research to come up with some suggestions.  For example my son Cameron found a company called Cameron International (Ticker Symbol: CAM)  and a company, Odessey Marine Exploration (Ticker Symbol: OMEX) that literally searches for shipwrecks and hidden treasure in the ocean.  How cool!

My Daughter, Katelyn found Leap Frog (Ticker Symbol: LF) maker of her Leapster Learning System and Petsmart (Ticker Symbol: PETM), one of her favorite places to go to get treats for Noah, the family dog.

Mom even had fun discovering Coach stock (Ticker Symbol: COH) - her favorite purse manufacturer and we can’t forget about her gas…I mean gas for the car with her Exxon (Ticker Symbol: XOM) pick.  She cheated.  She saw they were the top spot on the Fortune 500 list;)

Now Dad’s a little more boring… My two favorites were Research in Motion (Ticker Symbol: RIMM), maker of my crackberry…I mean Blackberry!  Can’t go anywhere without my phone! And Cracker Barrel (Ticker Symbol CRBL), one of my favorite breakfast spots!

3) We each picked 10 stocks.  We will keep track of how our picks do over time.

4) We used a FREE online website to set up portfolios for each of one of us and ficticiously bought $100 of each stock.  Whoever has the largest portfolio gain for the month wins!

5) The winner each month will be awarded $100 to invest in a stock of their choice.  We will keep doing this every month to encourage investing in our home and get the children excited about learning how the markets work, how companies are run, how to do research, and how to keep track of gains and losses.

I love lemonade stands to teach the fundamentals of capitalism, but this is another fun way to get the children excited about the markets at a young age!  It will be a ton of fun and create long lasting memories I’m sure!

How do you teach your children or grandchildren about money?