What if a few lessons could give your students a better future?
Few school districts have embraced investing for teens. Nonetheless, providing solid investment advice is one of the best ways to enrich someone’s life. The earlier teens learn these lessons, the sooner they will be on the path to creating a better life for themselves and their loved ones.
Are you a teacher or administrator wondering how to incorporate investing as a teenager into your curriculum? This guide covers everything you need to know, including free resources that can help transform your students’ lives for the better!
Main Takeaways
- Investing can be very rewarding, and students should learn this skills as soon as possible.
- Because investing is a complex topic, students will need the help of their teachers in the form of interactive games and lessons.
- By teaching the right investment concepts early on, teachers can lay a foundation for the student’s financial literacy and financial freedom.
Table of Contents
- Key Investment Concepts to Introduce
- Options to Simulate Investing
- Real Application Opportunities for Teens
- 4 Tips for Teachers
- EVERFI’s Free Investing Course for High School Students
Key Investment Concepts to Introduce
Sometimes, teachers have trouble creating lessons about investing as a teenager because they don’t know where to start. Just what are the most important concepts to introduce as a foundation for future lessons? And what makes those concepts so vital for anyone who wants to learn how to start investing as a minor?
Below, you’ll find a brief list of concepts and why they are so important to introduce in the classroom. Once you incorporate these ideas into your lessons, both you and your students will be one step closer to a lifetime of making comfortable investments, thanks to increased financial literacy.
Stock Market Basics
Students learning how to invest as a teen must first learn the basics. This includes how to invest through a broker, how to understand the Nasdaq, the S&P 500, and the New York Stock Exchange. All of this provides the fundamentals necessary for a student to understand the stock market before they ever make their first investment. Teachers should approach this topic through the lens of pure potential: No matter what your financial situation is, understanding the market is a way of eventually obtaining a more comfortable lifestyle.
Investing vs. Trading
Those interested in investing as a teenager must learn the difference between investing vs. trading. In short, investors buy stock anticipating long-term benefits, whereas traders try to buy at low prices and sell at high prices as a way of generating a quick profit. Teachers should ultimately present this information neutrally, allowing students to choose whether they want to be an investor, trader, or both.
401(k)s, Roth IRAs, and Retirement Investing
When students learn how to start investing as a minor, they will be in a better position to prepare for their golden years. Accordingly, they need to learn about 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, and other methods of retirement investing. Teachers should cover these concepts as different ways of covering retirement costs and how the best retirement investment strategies may change over time.
Options to Simulate Investing
Actually, investing as a teenager can be difficult for many reasons. Fortunately, teachers can simulate investment options in the classroom, giving students important hands-on experience. Below, you’ll find a few free websites to help your own school district simulate investment activities for students:
These online options provide all the fun and learning opportunities of the stock market without any of the risk. That makes them a great way to learn how various investment concepts work before trying winning strategies out in the real world.
For a more comprehensive experience, Marketplaces: Investing Basics is a great option to equip students with an understanding of how the market works and the confidence to participate in it.
Real Application Opportunities for Teens
Once students learn how to invest as a teen, they may have trouble getting started because you usually must be 18 to set up investment accounts. Fortunately, there are a few other easy ways for students to get around this restriction and begin their investment journey.
- Parents can open custodial accounts with their teens; when the teen turns 18, they will have full control of the account.
- Parents can also play stock games with their children and offer practical investment advice.
- Some brokers offer fractional shares, which allow teens to invest in major companies without spending large amounts of money on stocks.
Investing as a teenager is difficult but not impossible. Getting started early is a great way for students to thrive financially later in life.
4 Tips for Teachers
For young people, learning how to start investing as a teenager can be pretty intimidating, thanks to all the complex concepts. But with the right teacher, even the most complicated concepts can be easy to understand.
If you’re a teacher helping students learn how to invest as a teen, there are a few easy ways to simplify lessons. Below, you’ll find our top tips for teachers to help you get started!
1. Investment Group Project
Some students will inevitably have an easier time understanding investing than others. By creating investment group projects, you can pair the strongest learners with the weakest ones. This helps bring everyone up to speed, and requiring presentations can help the entire class learn from each group’s successes and failures.
2. Bring in an Expert
Sometimes, students have trouble understanding investing because everything seems so abstract. One way to get around this is by bringing in a young, local investor to answer student questions. Seeing someone who is a successful investor can make everything seem more tangible, and this expert may very well be able to answer stock market questions better than the teacher, thanks to their extensive financial education.
3. Use Board Games
Younger students may be able to learn much about investing by playing the classic board game Monopoly. On a very basic level, the game teaches students how investing wisely early on helps make it easier to acquire what you want later on. The game also emphasizes the concept that good investment is one of the most reliable ways to grow your wealth.
4. Focus on Budgeting
Many students will likely need to learn more about budgeting before they understand the stock market. Because of this, you should create lessons about budgeting that lead directly into lessons about investing (incidentally, EVERFI’s foundational financial literacy course, EVERFI: Financial Literacy for High School covers budgeting). Not only will this provide the fundamental information students need to succeed, but it will also help them learn never to invest money they cannot afford to lose.
EVERFI’s Free Investing Course for High School Students
Investing for teens is a complex subject, but you don’t have to teach it by yourself. That’s what Miami-based high school teacher Yolette Mezadieu learned, testifying that “teaching students about generational wealth and financial literacy is essential. I have used EVERFI’s resources for years. Having students learn about investment through Marketplaces in a non-intimidating, fun, and practical manner allowed them to embrace the concept.”
With the right educational resources, you can streamline lessons about investment and the stock market while preparing your students for a successful life after high school. To get started, be sure to check out EVERFI’s free, standards-aligned high school course on Critical Investment Education for High School Students!
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Chris Snellgrove is a college writing professor with over 15 years of experience as a teacher, professor, and instructor. He’s primarily taught at the high school and college levels, but has also led ESL programs for primary school students. In addition to his teaching experience, he has extensive experience with SEO, small business optimization, and ghostwriting for hundreds of clients in all different fields.