The most recent thread along this topic I could find was in 2013. So starting a new one.
Looking for books that might help young adults get started in investing. Specifically need something to motivate mine to invest $$ sitting in a checking account. But include any that you think might help and include a line or two about what stage of life it’s targeting.
Suze Orman’s “The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke.”
First to a Million is a good one for teens.
This might be a good start. Young adults are more receptive to game based learning than reading books.
I’ve liked this for young people:
https://www.amazon.com/Money-Talk-Framework-Financial-Decisions/dp/B0BM3W829G/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1W6T06S2Q1E5M&keywords=paul+ciampa&qid=1684798152&sprefix=paul+ciampa%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-2
I opened a youth account at a particular brokerage where my retirement account is for my DS. This brokerage has an excellent online educational component complete with webinars that are offered to teens and young adults in which the presenters do a great job of making investing and personal finance topics relatable and relevant. The cash component of the account comes with a debit card. I found more success getting my DS interested this way than with personal finance books, games, or isolated info websites.
You can google “youth brokerage account” to find it.
I haven’t read it, but found this to be a possibly suggestion for my twentysomething:
Definitely not just finance, but covers much of what I want him to ‘hear’.
It was on Kindle Unlimited, so will give it a look. Thanks!
Good idea, hadn’t thought of that. He’s got the ROTH, just hasn’t started to invest it yet. I’ll see if they have some investment advice that he might be a good target for.
If anyone has a child that has tried this, I would love to know if it helped motivate them to make good financial decisions.
I’ll be honest, this one makes me nervous. A few of the summary points sound like they could be interpreted incorrectly by a teen. I might try and read it and then consider recommending.
Uh… surely this doesn’t require any investment knowledge or a book?
Explain to them what an index fund is, that it’s historically returned 7% a year in real returns, and putting money there is better than letting it erode away.
Easier said than done, granted → I have a father who took years of convincing for him to start putting money in stocks instead of letting it sit in a bank account (and we’re not talking about small figures).
But you don’t need to have any investment knowledge to get him/her to invest. My father doesn’t really have any financial knowledge - he knows what inflation is and that’s the extent of his financial knowledge.
If your kid knows compound interest, you can explain to him the benefits of investing and if he knows what inflation is, you can get him to know why money not invested is money losing value.
My husband has given many young people (including our kid) copies of The Simple Path to Wealth by J L Collins.
Helpful info that kids may or may not know
The example of your Father is exactly what I am dealing with. The kid knows he should, but fear of a correction/recession/etc is giving him cold feet. Hearing it from dad isn’t going to convince him nearly as well as a well written book could. Even bothering to get him to move $$ to an interest bearing account is a challenge…
Long term I am not worried, but the short term push to get him started is what I need some assistance with.
This looks great, thanks! Might even read this with him to encourage some discussion topics.
He’s run a business for a few years and filed his own taxes. Anything he ‘has’ to do he can get done. It’s easy for him to understand the impact of your first two points, much harder to take that first step.
For some young people (me included decades ago), a good first step is to put a small amount into a 401K account at work. Take advantage of corporate match if available. Then don’t be afraid to put that long term money into a stock fund. Yea, there is risk of it losing money… but over time it will grow. Hopefully some of those books will have charts illustrating the growth potential
This would be the forced step he would need. Where you are required to select an investment option. He would pick an index fund. But his first internship just offered ESPP, not 401k, and this summer’s doesn’t offer either. So what information/example pushes a 20 year old to move $$ in his ROTH into an index fund?
This may be reasonable. However, if your child does decide to invest in equities on a regular basis, dollar-cost averaging might meliorate the negative effects of market fluctuations.
I love the simple path to wealth and the author suggests the best thing for young adults is yo start investing just before a major correction so they lose some money but then they get over the fear and are able to invest for the long haul.
How to adult by Jacob Cousineau I another good one I got for some grads
Not specifically on investing but about mindset, The Millionaire Next Door, is quite good. I still love the Dr North vs Dr South comparisons.
I gave this to my 17 year old, who also passed it on to several of his friends. It’s excellent and eminently readable:
The Simple Path to Wealth, by JL Collins
“Total Money Makeover” (Dave Ramsey). As straightforward as it gets.