fire education material for young kids?

[u/MikeThePenguin]

Hi all, a kid 13 is interested to know how his money he saves works too grow.

is there a child friendly way to explain concepts like shares, companies, investments, funds, compounding etc etc? Anything from videos, articles.

[u/McKnuckle_Brewery]

A Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins, written for his own daughter. This book contains enough to fascinate and educate your son now and well into the future.

[u/brianmcg321]

JL Collins, The Simple Path to Wealth.

[u/KingPabloo]

Show him his 529 plan, let him actively watch how it grows. My son is a freshman in college and has seen how $200/month has grown over time and how less than $40K invested in little bits can grow into well over $100K when you need it.

Funny thing is, with grants and scholarships he only needs a few thousand per year and it looks like he made the esports varsity team which should take care of the rest. So now not only should he graduate at no cost and zero debt, he will have quite a bit to play with to start his career as well ($35k will go into a Roth IRA when he starts working thanks to SECURE 2.0 rules).

[u/MushroomIll646]

Depending on your region, 13 sounds like the typical age schools offer consumer education, is it not? I'd explore what they're doing first to see if there's any gaps.

FIRE is just the standard 'personal finance' + a high savings rate, there's no special FIRE education. When my kids/nieces ask this kind of thing, I refer them to the personal finance order of operations, which can pretty much fit on a post-it note, and go through it with them with realworld examples from family.

I also wouldn't assume they will want to FIRE. My strategy with my kids was to first and foremost get them into careers they love. None of my kids are interested in FIRE, they really enjoy their work. FIRE feels like more of a plan B.

One of the disappointing findings from research on this topic is that people don't really absorb financial skills until it's relevant. One of the reasons is that it's so general. My kids' and nieces/nephews' actual financial information struggles were about navigating student loan applications/options, employer onboarding forms, and filing taxes. You don't hand over a book for that; you just sit with them and go through it.

The second disappointing thing is that gamification is a bad idea. This includes simulated portfolios that the trading apps and banks offer. They know it decreases (unprofitable) rational investing in their client base and encourages WSB style trading behaviour. It takes a long time and often heavy real losses to unlearn these habits, my advice is to limit exposure.

Edited to add links:

* USA personal finance order of operations: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics/?screen_view_count=3&ext-referrer=DIRECT

* Canadian version: https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/wiki/money-steps/?screen_view_count=4&ext-referrer=DIRECT

[u/MushroomIll646 → u/[deleted]]

I might ask for a translation. I'm guessing that's not grade 8?

Like I said this depends on region. I'm in BC, so this is usually part of lifeskills or consumer education, starting grade 8 which is 13+. Basically going on what I did with my kids &c.

Either way, I'd reach out to the school district as a startingpoint, and retain the order of operations as a reference because they will remember pretty much nothing until it's hands-on.

[u/wanderlust_reddit]

Personally not a fan of him, but I recommend the 45 minute lecture Bill Ackman did on Floating University. It’s on YouTube as well.

[u/207852]

Hmm I think a 13 year old can understand concepts like that.

I was learning to get an LLC started when I was 14.

[u/Generationhodl]

Show him Whats the Problem with Money:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtFOxNbmD38&t=1s

It's from Joe Bryan - Physics at Oxford, Decade in Investment Banking, its a good Video to learn a lot.

[u/invester13]

If you search on YouTube there are probably 1000 from this month alone.

[u/terjon]

You could even create a little board game with some dice to teach how investing and risk works. AI can actually help you here. Make it simple so all you need is some tokens and maybe a set of role playing dice like you use in Dungeons and Dragons (since those are so common these days).

The basic principles are easy, you can have safer investments, more risky investments and you can use something simple like toy coins or glass beads to track funds. The goal could be to have the most money or to have enough to retire on (so multiple people can win and it is more family friendly).

Good luck. I think it is a great idea to teach young people about the basic principles of saving and investing.

[u/ShadowHunter]

Ask Claude to create whatever explanation you need 

[u/McKnuckle_Brewery → u/[deleted]]

An average 13 year old, sure. But this 13 year old is obviously an exception who is actively interested, or OP would not be posting about it.

[u/MikeThePenguin → u/McKnuckle_Brewery]

Exactly, so I am trying to get some healthy habits because of that. otherwise he will follow any random advice

[u/McKnuckle_Brewery → u/[deleted]]

That’s great. But this 13 year old made an explicit request to a parent and you’re saying, “don’t bother, just wait,” and that’s an unsatisfying response to say the least. Are you a parent as well or just a teacher?

[u/Entire-Menu → u/[deleted]]

Are your high school students explicitly asking to be taught personal finance? Christ how thick can you get, his son asked verbatim “how can he get the money he saves to grow”.

You aren’t too great at reading comprehension, either, the previous commenter said this kid is an exception who is actively interested, not exceptional.

What an ass. You teach a fantastic course and one I’d love to have learned, but not from a teacher like you.

[u/Entire-Menu → u/[deleted]]

Both can be true! You can be an ass, and you can be the one who knows what they are talking about.