Help me to Retire

I don’t as yet have children, but when that day comes I want to be armed with a life time of financial information to teach them all I know about investing before they get out of teenage hood. I for one wish I knew what I know now when I was a teenager. I think it could have changed my life to the result of being several hundred thousand dollars richer or even much much more.

So at what age do you begin to teach your kids? I think it’s never to young as long as your kids have a basic understanding of money and its value. You can then begin to teach them about the ways money can make money. Perhaps starting with a basic savings account, preferably one with a decent interest rate and no fees such as the ones offered by ING and Bank West. Get them to save at least 10% (preferably more) of every bit of money that comes their way. Make sure they don’t touch it and show them how their money is growing over the following months and years. Get them excited about it.
Once they have a decent amount saved up and they have matured a bit you could then get them into a managed fund or even open a stock market account for them. Teach them about charts and valuing companies. This can be a great learning experience for them, especially if they make some money and lose some money.

From here you can teach them about property investing and using leverage (other peoples money). You can also get them to read books like Rich Dad Poor Dad so they can learn the difference between being an employee, self employed, a business owner and an investor.

There are several books written by Rich Dad to help you in the area of teaching your kids, you can check out the range here.

I think most of all you need to keep learning about money and investing fun, especially when your kids are young, other wise they will just think it’s boring. Good luck.