How young is too young? Young investors?

[Ruff investment]

I'm a mum, and it's great. My eldest child is 7. She is headstrong and determined. She is the kind of girl that makes me cringe sometimes because, ouch, she is so like me. At other times, it makes my heart swell with pride because, well, she is so how I would like to be.

Today, on the way home from her swimming lesson she said "Mum, can I buy a house?" I replied "I guess so, when you are older." Then she rebutted "I mean now mum, so people can pay it off for me and when I'm older I won't have to pay for one."

I thought about it, and said "Sure, I can't see why not. We would have to look into it, and you would have to save some money so that you have a good deposit."

So she promptly came home, helped unload the car and went out selling eggs from our chickens to our neighbor's.

 

[D.T.]

Need to be 18 to sign a contract

Tell her to start saving her pocket money for a deposit, and get a part time job while in high school and she'll get one for her 18th birthday if she plays her cards right.

 

[Ruff investment]

I've tried the whole, save up thing. She doesn't get paid pocket money, she earns her own with her little side jobs.

I'm pretty sure it can be done, but I'm left wondering if it would need to be associated with a family trust or if we would need to go guarantor.

She is a feisty one, and this has been going on for a while. At first I thought it would just blow over. I thought it might be a phase. But, three years on... and she is still determined.

She has more in her bank account than what we did when we started looking at buying our own place! Holy heck, this is going to get tricky.

Anyone else have or had a child like this?

 

[pinkboy]

Embrace it.

Work through what you can do to compound her returns until she turns 18. She will be well on her way in 10yrs!

pinkboy

 

[Tano]

She can sign a contract at any age to buy a house (law of necessity) but it's not enforceable until she's 18. Vendor may have a problem with that since she can pull out any time with any reason . If she can get a loan and vendor is happy then she can buy a house I would have thought

 

[Jamie M]

Embrace it.

Work through what you can do to compound her returns until she turns 18. She will be well on her way in 10yrs!

pinkboy

This is what I'd be doing.

Contribute a little on a regular basis and get excited as it builds up over time.

My 8 year old is passionate about stuff.....for 5 minutes

She also thinks that I "give people houses" as part of my job....and that I'll be giving her one when she grows up.

Cheers

Jamie

 

[Biz]

She also thinks that I "give people houses" as part of my job....and that I'll be giving her one when she grows up.

Cheers

Jamie

I'll have a couple if you are giving them out like lollies.

 

[HillsGirl]

Maybe you could introduce her to Shares instead?

 

[property_girl]

imho they come out of the womb either good with money or not. You got lucky with her. Encourage and working and saving and I have no doubt she'll have a deposit by the time she's 18.

 

[Ruff investment]

I wish it was a 5minute thing.. but it has been 3 years now. It started after she was in Kinder and we renovated one of our IP's with the kids tagging along side us. It hasn't let up.

I think, given the amount that she has already saved up, that I may just introduce her to shares. A couple of parcels should be a good learning curve. I think you also need to be 18+ to be a Chess holder and have A HIN number, so I'm thinking that I will have them in my name and we can discuss what to buy & when, when to hold and when to sell.

I don't dabble too much in shares. It might be a learning curve for both of us.

And they say "financial literacy starts at home". LOL. When people said that to me before this little spark came along I would have thought that they meant budgeting and saving. You know, watching how mum goes shopping at the supermarket and possibly role play games like 'shops'.

The questions she is flinging at us tonight are pretty hard core for a 7 year old. Like why do we pay tax? If that means that money goes to help others, then why do we donate stuff at school as well? Why would I have a tax file number? How much money do you need for a deposit? I'm earing money, why wouldn't the banks think that my business is enough? How else can kids earn money without working?

I'm a bit tired tonight!

 

[HillsGirl]

On the ASX website you can join in a game, where you invest in the share market, but only in the game, and the "winner" who earns the most money can win $8000.
Maybe she could play and see what she thinks of it?

 

[travelbug]

Get the Cashflow game for kids. It's great and teaches about saving and investing. It might answer some of her questions. It also opens up different investment ideas.
She may not be able to buy a house yet but she could think about a business.

I look forward to hearing how she goes.

She'll certainly keep you on your toes by the sound of it.

Don't forget to instil in her the need to care for her parents. LOL

 

[Tano]

You can buy shares in your name but acting as trustee for your daughter

 

[Truly Exotic]

thats great!

to be honest Id embrace it and let them flourish

however, they are probably saying that because they dont know the implications or scale of the situation,

being kids, they probably think they can put the house away like monopoly at the end of the day

damn, I wish I had started earlier, I always wanted to be share trader like gordon gecko at age 8

 

[MIW]

I'm a mum, and it's great. My eldest child is 7. She is headstrong and determined. She is the kind of girl that makes me cringe sometimes because, ouch, she is so like me. At other times, it makes my heart swell with pride because, well, she is so how I would like to be.

Today, on the way home from her swimming lesson she said "Mum, can I buy a house?" I replied "I guess so, when you are older." Then she rebutted "I mean now mum, so people can pay it off for me and when I'm older I won't have to pay for one."

I thought about it, and said "Sure, I can't see why not. We would have to look into it, and you would have to save some money so that you have a good deposit."

So she promptly came home, helped unload the car and went out selling eggs from our chickens to our neighbor's.

Very inspirational, I suppose start young, because after certain age we have no control over them, right?
Yes most kids investments, I had in our names in trust for (ITF) accounts....
I also suggest playing investment games, like Monopoly and Cash flow suggested, or even saving some money and buying some collectibles, like ounce of gold, some stamps that may interest her, or some stocks for long term, what do you think?

 

[Ruff investment]

Thank you so much for the support.
I've already signed up t play the ASX game myself to see how it goes and so I can help DD along if she wants to play it. Loads of educational info on there, which is a huge plus.

I think I'll do the following in this order;

- Continue on taking the kids into the bank so they can deposit their money.
- Buy Monopoly for her b'day.
- Purchase Cash flow in a few more weeks so when she is bored of monopoly we can change it up a bit and put a different slant on things.
- Discuss buying shares with her, and try to look at blue chip options for a parcel.

We need to seriously start thinking of investing WITH our kids for the future! Not FOR them, or on behalf of them, but along side them. Something I had not really considered.

I have to say a BIG THANK YOU again for the support. Quite a few friends and family would not understand this predicament of parenting and have ideas that we can implement to encourage and support her.

 

[MRO]

Maybe you could introduce her to Shares instead?

I did this with my 8 year old son. He saved up some money from birthdays/xmas and various jobs i have paid him for. As soon as he had more than $500 we bought him some shares - i even got him involved in the selection process by asking him about companies he knew about or had heard of. We made a list, did some basic research on yields etc. Bought Telstra about a year ago at $5.25. He has received a couple of dividends around the $14 each i think.

We get him to spend the dividend money so he gets the 'big picture' with investing, putting away a lot now and receiving benefits in the future.

 

[skater]

My eldest child is 7. She is headstrong and determined. She is the kind of girl that makes me cringe sometimes because, ouch, she is so like me. At other times, it makes my heart swell with pride because, well, she is so how I would like to be.

Today, on the way home from her swimming lesson she said "Mum, can I buy a house?" I replied "I guess so, when you are older." Then she rebutted "I mean now mum, so people can pay it off for me and when I'm older I won't have to pay for one."

Anyone else have or had a child like this?

YES!!!

When ours were young, they both watched us buy houses, reno & rent out, so it became normal to talk about houses.

We had a business & they both worked in the business, at junior rates. The understanding was that they were only allowed to work if at least half of everything they earnt went into the bank account, and they were not allowed to draw on this until they were 18, and it was implied that in reality this would be their first house deposit. They were age 8 & 10 at the time!

The questions she is flinging at us tonight are pretty hard core for a 7 year old. Like why do we pay tax? If that means that money goes to help others, then why do we donate stuff at school as well? Why would I have a tax file number? How much money do you need for a deposit? I'm earing money, why wouldn't the banks think that my business is enough? How else can kids earn money without working?

So....over the years, we've been asked all sorts of 'unusual' questions from our children, and they have both absorbed a lot of it like a sponge.

The youngest would sit on my knee when I was on SS, would answer questions about Real Estate and then she started posting. First under my username, which I was annoyed about, but then under her own.

The depth of understanding she had by her mid teens is astounding. I remember some posters getting annoyed that they would get advice from a teenager, which was usually the correct advice, and others would just be totally amazed that the words flowing were hers and not mine.

Like your child, she was, and still is a headstrong girl. At age 18 she moved to Melbourne to pursue a job as a Property Manager, and now, at age 23 runs her own Property Management Company.

 

[bob shovel]

Why not set up one of those high interest savings account of your own to match hers. I am not sure how much she is depositing but if you put in $5 or $10 a week it would grow and help get her into the game.

if you have more kids you would probably need to share it around somehow... good luck but if she is so determined and while she is determined you help educate her and on the side have a growing fund for her it could really make things happen. You dont want to be simply giving cash to her each week i feel, so keep it under your hat as a surpirse for having a great attitude!

Encourage part time jobs as much as you can. I was a kid who was money minded and saved, or "didnt spend" when I finished school I had around 20k from memory. I helped boost it by using term deposits and understanding that form of investing (when it was around 8%)

 

[Colin Rice]

I played monopoly with my eight year old this week and she loved it and bugs me to play all the time.

As soon as she is responsible enough I will give her tasks to do that will put the theory into practice. Monkey see monkey do

One of the goals I have for all four of my children is that by the time they leave high-school they will have the skills to start their own businesses if that's what they want to do and they will want to