Wednesday, January 28, 1998
Emily's Foolish
Education
By Malcolm Schmerl
([email protected])
When my daughter Emily was born, I arbitrarily decided to save $50 a month for her. Today her portfolio is valued at nearly $25,000. She turns ten in April.
One aspect of such a portfolio is the wonderful educational opportunity it affords. Each evening we log into her deep-discount brokerage account and review the day's activities. It only takes fifteen minutes and I can relate things to her allowance, a level she understands readily. "Today, you made enough to cover your allowance for the next 2 years!" She often has questions like "What exactly is a dividend?"
I have been amazed that at the age of nine, she's already learned a great deal about managing money. I gave her $100 for Christmas and sometime later asked what she was going to do with it. The first $35 was coming back to me to help upgrade the computer, $25 was going to savings, $30 was for cloths and the last $10 for a CD.
I believe this aspect is as important as the value of the portfolio itself. "If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach him to fish…"
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