Some of the things I love about homeschooling are the opportunities I have to learn with my children about all sorts of big ideas – including our latest – the stock market.
How did this subject most recently bubble to the surface, you may ask? Well, this past week, I was talking with a friend of mine and she was telling me about her husband’s interest in day trading.
It got me thinking.
I’m always interested in new ways to make money, to invest, and to learn. When you’re a homeschooling parent, it’s important to be creative in ways of building income streams.
The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea on another level. I am not terribly well versed in the market. I know enough to explain the basics, but that’s about it. Both of my children, at different times, have expressed interest in understanding more about how money works.
One, in particular, wanted to understand how the stock market works. He had been reading this book I had assigned him, based on his interest. It covers everything from saving, making money, to the stock market…it’s a great resource for introducing financial concepts to kids.
So, I wanted to up my game with my kids.
And myself.
I went online and started to learn. One of the things I watched was this guy on YouTube. I found him to be pretty down to earth and break down some information of what day trading was and what it wasn’t.
Yeah, a lot of it went over my head, but some of it didn’t. It was a starting point.
While I’m not so sure that I’m going to jump right into day trading, it was interesting to learn about.
But I still wanted to learn more.
From there, I did some more reading and ultimately decided to download the Robinhood app.
I initially deposited $50 into my account and my children and I sat at the kitchen table and we started the conversation about the stock market…again.
I showed them the Robinhood app. We started talking about the stock symbols, companies versus products, and why analysts might project a buy, hold, or sell on a particular stock. We started to look up different companies and examine how they were doing that day, the past week, month, quarter, year, and last few years.
Finally, one of my kids suggested we look up Nintendo – what kid wouldn’t?
Analysts suggested a strong buy and the few remaining said to hold. No one suggested to sell. I asked my children if they could think of reasons why the analysts would make those suggestions. They thought about it and one said that the Nintendo Switch is a really popular product and that so many kids love it.
He’s right – it IS really popular- it never seems to go on sale and when I looked it up on Amazon below, I only had to type in N-I-N before it populated the Nintendo Switch in the search terms. Talk about popular!
I asked them to think some more about this time of year. They thought some more. It’s fall. Christmas is coming. Ahhhh!
It was like all the lightbulbs went on at once!
Analysts look to the future! Of COURSE!!!
You could see it all coming together – it was an AWESOME homeschooling moment. THIS was a moment worth holding on to.
But then there was MORE. Doing a little more research gave us MORE information. We learned that Nintendo was coming out with a new version of this wildly popular switch next year. This information made headlines earlier this month. Well, that sure helps explains why analysts would say to buy and hold on to this stock.
So, together at the kitchen table, I purchased one Nintendo stock.
And a spark was lit.
Both of my children have been following the activity and I’ve added a few more other stocks. They have been reading more about the market and learning more.
THIS is what I wanted to see. And I’VE been learning more. Who knows? Maybe I’ll even make a few bucks while I’m at it.
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Thanks for the read. Won’t you please share it? It might help someone out. It sure will help me out. Thanks! – Ma 🙂
