6 Essential Tips to Help Children Start Their Investment Journey

For adults, financial advice often emphasizes the importance of making smart investments—not just for your own benefit, but to secure a stable future for your family as well. This kind of financial planning can lead to a more comfortable and secure life down the road.

What many financially-savvy people understand is that starting early gives you a major advantage. The longer your money is invested, the more time it has to grow. Unfortunately, many people don’t figure this out until they’re well into their twenties, after landing their first serious job.

Imagine if you could give your kids a head start. With the right guidance, they can begin their investing journey much earlier. Here are six simple strategies to help your kids start developing smart investment habits:

### 1. Start With the Basics
Begin by teaching your kids the core ideas behind investing—but keep it age-appropriate and simple. Start with the difference between saving and investing. Use relatable language and examples, like explaining the concept of diversification as not putting all your “eggs in one basket.”

You can explain that the goal of investing is to grow your money over time. For instance, a stock represents a small piece of ownership in a company. Having open and straightforward conversations with your kids is a great way to start.

### 2. Help Them Create a Strategy
While investing in stocks is a common and effective way to grow wealth, it’s equally important to have a thought-out approach. Teach your kids how to come up with a strategy for selecting and managing stocks. Show them how to evaluate the right time to buy or sell and emphasize the importance of diversification.

Kids don’t have to wait until they’re adults to get involved; it’s possible to start small and build their knowledge gradually.

### 3. Introduce Them to Stockpile
Investing can seem intimidating for kids, especially when high stock prices are involved. That’s where Stockpile comes in—it’s a platform that lets you gift stock gift cards for companies they’re interested in, like Apple or Amazon.

Your kids can redeem these cards, invest in fractional shares, and track their portfolio’s performance. Stockpile makes it easy for them to monitor, buy, sell, or trade stocks. They can also build a wishlist of stocks to share with loved ones, making the process interactive and beginner-friendly.

### 4. Use Resources to Explain Concepts
Sometimes talking about investing isn’t enough to help kids fully understand the concepts. That’s when visual aids and educational tools come in handy. Online platforms like TheMint.org are designed for children and teens, simplifying complex investment ideas into manageable pieces.

These resources often include helpful tools, such as calculators and discussion prompts, which make learning practical and fun. You can also share your own investment charts or portfolio to give them a hands-on experience.

### 5. Let Older Kids Invest More Independently
By the time your kids are teenagers, they may be ready to take a more active role in their own investments. If they’ve already learned the basics and have some hands-on experience, you might consider giving them a larger sum—like $1,000—to invest themselves.

Encourage them to experiment with different strategies but set a rule that the money should remain invested for at least five years. This allows them to experience how the full economic cycle impacts their investments, deepening their understanding of how the market works.

### 6. Make It Fun and Engaging
For kids to stay interested, investing has to be enjoyable. If it feels boring or like extra homework, they may lose motivation. To keep them engaged, focus on companies they already know and like, such as Disney or Apple. Use relatable examples and fun comparisons that make the concepts easier to grasp.

### The Takeaway
Investing might seem overwhelming at first, and knowing when to start teaching your kids about it can be tricky. However, you don’t need to rush into actual investments. Just introducing the basic concepts early and explaining them in simple terms can go a long way.

Platforms like Stockpile offer an easy, interactive opportunity for kids to start exploring investing in a safe and manageable way. They can even watch their investments in real-time, which adds an exciting, real-world element to the learning process.

Starting early equips your kids with tools and knowledge that can set them apart as financially savvy adults. By the time they’re in their twenties, they’ll likely be much further ahead of their peers in terms of financial understanding and savings.

So, when will you start teaching your kids about investing, and what tools will you use to help them along the way?