I see that a lot of thoughts as well as trial and error went into introducing teenagers to investing.
My own investment journey started around with being gifted one IPO share of Swiss company Astra by my father. Back then, it was a obscure process to be dealt an allocation in IPO shares. I guess my father had to call in a longtime favor with someone from his bank or the stock exchange. The share price rose dramatically as I could read in the newspaper in the first few days. “Easy money” was thus imprinted in my 12 year old brain. I also had received a gold coin from my grandparents. It reached a good price in 1980 and then fell for the next 20 years. “gold is no store of value” was the next lesson for teenager me. Stock markets rose throughout my formation years but I didn’t have any money. And whatever I had, I spent on travels, camera equipment and partying.
Fast forward 20 years, my father gifted my son a portfolio of some Swiss stocks at age 15. He only told him that I - his father - was holding a few shares grandfather had gifted him.
Then came a phase when we tried to understand what my son could use the wealth for. It was meant to be a lesson in stock picking and HODLing. Grandfather directed a few trims and switches and at age 18, my son was told the substantial value of his portfolio. He understood he was not to touch it unless for a greater purpose. At the same time he used his pocket money to have splurging Sushi lunches with friends. I didn’t trust him with so much money yet.
At age 23, my son started to earn some money on the side and was friends with someone who traded crypto options and had crazy stories of fast money to tell. My son learned from his friend while I tried to instill some long-term thinking and robust asset allocation in him. As I am writing this, my son has expressed a goal to reduce his 100% crypto exposure soon. He is happy with 20% short-time gains while I casually show him my longer term crypto gains of 60%. I state that this is only 5% of my total wealth and that I am ready to lose it all. I also offered to share my investment strategy with him. There I am explaining the asset allocation to myself and track progress year by year. He is interested to read it. Maybe the message is hitting home?
As he is entering his 25th year, I feel it is now time to hand him the keys to his portfolio and let him make his own decisions. I made a lot of mistakes in my 20s and 30s and hope he makes them too, but only on a negligible part of the portfolio.