Free Money Isn't Just For Old People!
By Matt Henderson
10 November 2014
As a kid in high school, it seems like a daunting task to step in to an ‘adult’ world of economics populated with mundane conversations about price to earnings ratios and dividends. If you’re brave enough, however, you will find a valuable hobby and asset that you will want to keep lively in your daily routine. I had early success in my investment endeavors due to toxic amounts of coffee and a fascination with the idea of fast money. My interest was in the smaller companies, the penny stocks, where I could buy hundreds of shares of companies with only pocket change. These companies are very volatile; you can make or lose a lot of money very quickly. Although there is a significant lingo in this industry, it’s easy to pick up with some patience.
Any teenager from any economic position can make investments and succeed. With services like Ameritrade and Capital One, anyone over the age of eighteen can make a financial account that they can use to invest. As an ambitious youth, you will need to have a parent or trusted adult set up an account for you to make investments through. These accounts are somewhat easy to make, although they usually require an account minimum of $500.
You have to remember that to make money, you need to spend money. $500 is not as much money as it sounds. A month or two of dedicated lawn mowing, snow-shoveling or other miscellaneous, temporary high school jobs can get you there. If there’s a will, there’s a way!
Starting in high school gives you a favorable head start against your peers. Sooner or later, the stock market will turn in to regular conversation and an assumed activity amongst your friends and classmates. To get a step ahead of the competition you should start building your investment portfolio as soon as you can.
The sooner you invest in a potential-filled business, the more money you will make. If you bought just 500 shares of Apple Inc. in January, 2003 for around $1 a share as a freshman in high school, by the time you were eighteen, your 500 shares would be worth around $12 each. That’s $6,000 and a profit of $5,500. Don’t wait to get involved, educate yourself early.
Investing at a young age helps develop knowledge and an interest in economics. You’ll have to learn all of these economic concepts at some point in your life, the easier you start learning, the easier it will come to you. Think of it as learning a language, the kids who started when they were young are fluent in high school.
You can study and learn how successful businesses create and react to sudden market changes. For all of the entrepreneurs reading this, the only way of actually learning proper business and economic concepts is to jump in to the world of business and economics. Start a business, keep up with the stock market, and invest. Gather knowledge and make sure to remember the CEOs that did something right and saw their share prices skyrocket over a day. Learn from the ones that made a mistake and saw their share prices plunge.