Review of: The Young Investor – Projects and Activities for Making your Money Grow

by Katherine R. Bateman, copyright 2001. Published by Chicago Review Press, Inc

Summary

Ms Bateman wrote this book to help her tween grandchildren learn about the market so they could wisely select investments with money she planned to give them when they became teenagers.

She covers a breadth of topics spanning the history of money, how currency and coins are made, bank accounts, credit, debit, ATMs, compound interest, risk tolerance, stocks, bonds and mutual funds, the economy, the market, the market indexes, stock picking and more. Along the way she introduces many terms on which even most adults don’t have a great handle – such as limit order.

Read this book to understand and address:

Tweens will get high level explanations of many financial concepts in terms they can understand – using everyday concepts with which they are familiar.

Adults will get a refresh on the same concepts as well as ideas on how to help their kids learn finance concepts.

What I liked.

Bateman likens all the concepts to everyday things that kids can easily understand. For example, when explaining the stock market she compares it to a local soccer league, saying  that the stock exchanges are like the league; shares of stock like team members because they get traded; the brokerage houses are like the team owners; and the stockbrokers are the players.

I really liked the specific activities she outlined related to each concept. I bought the book after reading the library version, specifically to have access to these activities as I execute my Grandma Rie’s Money Camp each year.

She also does not talk down to the kids in the book and I feel it is at the right level for the age groups she targets.

What I wished for:

Some of her analogies were a bit of a stretch and because she tried hard to simplify expression of the concepts she was necessarily at the skyscraper high level.

Favorite quotes:

“These companies [stock exchanges] are like huge supermarkets where you can buy, sell or exchange almost anything’ p 43

“The stock market is a lot like your local soccer league or a major baseball league. There are teams, players and rules.” p 47

“It’s [economics] the study of life with a special interest in saving and spending” It’s the study of money and how it circulates. It’s the study of people and their savings patterns. It’s the study of investing trends. It’s the study of how people’s minds work and what makes them save or not save.” p 74

“The key to all this stuff about stock picking is to simply look around you, then think – What does my family buy over and over, and who makes it?” p 94