Teaching our kids the basics of financial literacy and introducing them to a world of investment is never too late as it is never too early as well. People would often say, it's never to late to learn, but when it comes for kids to learn investing, 'it's never too early to learn.'
The Family Education website, is encouraging parents to teach kids how to invest in the stock market by helping them set up an online trading account. Stock market should not be that difficult to understand. Millenials, who reads up on computer magazines and create their own games and company would then make their initial public offering. With all the information available, what is to worry about not understanding the concept?
After all everything could now be done online. Traditional investing will mean one has to call their broker in order to buy and sell shares. Nowadays, all it takes is to sit in front of a desktop or laptop and trade.
Familiarity about which company to invest in will not even be that difficult to choose from. Your kid might even be familiar with all this companies as he and others like you have used their products one way or another.
Stocks is not the only source of investment income that your kid can have online. There are also mutual funds, UITF and other types of securities.
So the question goes, how does one start with online investing?
First off, it's good to identify which online brokerage you would like to use. Examples are E*Trade or Charles Schawb Online. Now, if the account to be opened is for a person under 18 years of age. The parents for the kid will have to open a custodial account.
Opening an account with a broker is as simple as opening a bank account. Just request an application form which you can fill online and submit it together with the brokerage requirements by mail. Once approved, voila!
You can start buying shares online. To show you an example, here's a video of two kids who made a lot of money investing in the stock market:
