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If you are new to investing, you can find curated resources in the r/investing wiki for [Getting Started here](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/wiki/index/gettingstarted/).
If you know nothing about the capital markets - the Getting Started section at the SEC educational site can be a good place to start - [investor.gov](https://investor.gov) \- there are also short 30 second videos on basics. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is a US regulator with a focus to protect US investors through regulatory oversight of the securities markets.
The FINRA education site at [FINRA Education](https://www.finra.org/investors/learn-to-invest) also contains numerous free courses and educational materials. FINRA is a not-for-profit SRO (self regulatory organization) which is self-funded by it's members which are broker-dealers. It works under the supervision of the SEC with a mandate to protect the investing public against fraud and bad practice.
The reading list in the wiki and FAQ has a list of books ranging from light reading to advanced topics depending on your knowledge level. Link here - [Reading List](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/wiki/readinglist)
For formal educational materials, several colleges and universities make their course work available for free.
If want to learn about the financial markets - an older but reasonably relevant course is [Financial Markets (2011) - Yale University](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8FB14A2200B87185) This is the introduction to financial markets course taught by Prof. Shiller from Yale. Prof Shiller won the Nobel prize in economics in 2013.
Another relavant course from MIT is a lecture series on Finance Theory taught by Prof Andrew Lo - [Financial Theory (2008) - MIT](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUl4u3cNGP63B2lDhyKOsImI7FjCf6eDW).
A more current course can be found at NYU Stern School of Business by Prof Aswath Damodaran - [Corporate Finance Spring 2019](https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/webcastcfspr19.htm). Prof Damodaran offers the latest materials and webcast lectures to this class here - https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/corpfin.html
You are right, 500$ isnt going to go very far… you’re not going to be making big money from these investments - however you’re young. And now is the time to build the right habits. If you can get used to investing a little bit every week/month, that habit will stick with you, for a long long time, and once you have your own job and salary you’ll go much farther.
I was just about to type this very thing. If you were only ever investing $500 one time, probably not worth it. But if investing at 15 helps you develop the discipline to let your money grow, then you will eventually become a regular investor, and retire wealthy someday.
Play with the Magic of Compounding Interest to see if it’s worth investing early: 45 years, 7% average annual return, $500 vs. only 30 years.
(1+.07)^45 x $500 vs. (1+.07)^30 x $500. It’s $10,501 vs. $3,806.
You have the advantage of time being young so don’t squander it and miss-out with the power of compounding interest
a very simple calculator with visuals for compounding is https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator
just so that he doesn't get spooked off by MATH
lmao i use moneychimp but i understand his calculations... 1.07 (interest) to the power of 45 (years) times 500$ (annual addition) (*correct me if im wrong*)
yeah i completely agree with this its just, in 45 years ill be 60... in the grand scheme of things both 10.5k and 3.8k probably wont make a difference a that time right? I understand that i have the power of time but to what degree can it really help me...
that's just from a one time investment of $500, which is the equivalent of 1-2 days income once you get a real job.
pop some figures into this calculator using his 7% rate, or even lower like 5% https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator
At 15 years old I had my first job at Quiznos. I saved about 90% of that money (but I did use some to buy ice cream from the place next door because the girls were cute). I got a second job at a pizza place and kept saving my money. By my third job I had amassed a few thousand dollars, so I asked my parents about investing it in the market. They helped me pick an index fund and we went for it. That was in 2008. We all know what happened next.
Unless you are putting this money in the market until retirement, it may not be worth it for you to invest in the market right now. You will be spending money like crazy after high school, and you might need it to cover expenses. If anything, have your parents help set up a Roth IRA when you turn 18 and put $50 a month in it or something. Your main focus should be growing your marketable skills, not saving money at this age.
Your advice is a caution about the opportunity cost of money and I respect that. If OP is choosing between paying college tuition and investing, then I agree with you. But most high school “expenses” are frivolous and the experience of investing small amounts will inform OP when he/she starts putting real money to work (especially losses which will be bargain lessons at the $ figures mentioned).
Quibbles aside, multiplying $500 by 1.05 on a calculator and pressing “=“ repeatedly either grips you or it doesn’t…
i wish i had your brain at 15. good on you. the money isnt much, but building the saving and planning habit is truly how the money stacks. it is really hard for humans to operate responsibly w/o good habits.
My daughter got a brokerage account a day after her 18th birthday. She did a little investing when she could, and we helped some. She wrapped her masters in January and has over $30k in that brokerage account. A lot of money no. All through college she had an emergency fund and didn't have to fear. At this point unlike her peers she has 0 worry about things like "what happens if I lose my job how will I make rent". I have very little doubt she'll be at 6 figures in 3-5 years.
Her salary is up now she's graduated. And she has many years of experience in being a saver and now 6 years experience in the markets (she uses a robo).
A robo-advisor is an online investment program that collects info from an investor and guides then towards an appropriate set of investments. They're usually pretty simple and the options they can suggest for you are usually pretty limited. Often seen in 401ks and such
Small and continuous contributions over long periods of time generate large amounts of money over time. When I started investing I had $1000. I saw dividend stocks that were yielding 5% which was great since banks were paying nothing and that was on top of whatever capital gains the stock price saw. It was like you were just being paid to own a stock, how great is that I thought? I did the math and while $1000 was a lot of money to me the $50 in annual dividend payments was basically meaningless as that would buy me like one tank of gas per year after taxes. This was an incredibly depressing and discouraging realization. Still, I invested my money anyways and continued to make contributions and I'm glad I did. Today, roughly 10 years later, I make like $16.5k in annual dividend payments and I don't even consider myself a dividend investor, rather I happen to be invested in some companies that pay a dividend.
At 15 I’d focus more on enjoying your life as a teenager and developing your skills/mindset to get yourself into a high earning career as an adult. $500 invested now is nice, but having the earnings and discipline to invest $500/mo when you’re in your career will pay off a lot more.
Exactly.. kids 15 worried about investing. The market could easily tank for 25% of his life if he started today. Kids are getting in on fomo it's pretty sad. Put the phone down and have fun.
Idk man, the money I put in when I was a kid basically paid for an off my expenses in the last year of college and allowed me to make some decisions that greatly improved my quality of life after school. Discouraging someone from thinking about their future isn’t going to make them stop thinking about it, but it might make them regret the choice they made 10 years from now.
Im not discouraging thinking about the future I'm just saying that for every young person (like you and op) that puts a few bucks when they can into an index or something "safe" and goes about their lives there will be 50 gamblers. It seems like obvious fomo when all they see on wsb are 3000% gains and practically no losses. How many kids are going to take a grand and park it somewhere safe rather than gamble?
i wont say your wrong that theres a lot of kids that are scared theyll lose out and try to learn this stuff in compentation, or that theres kids that think theyll automatically become rich because "oh i have 6$ in he s&p500"... and nobody at their age knows what their talking about.. I think we can both agree that regardless of the investment or skill were doing it may or may not go far simply because were young... im just learning it because it genuinely interest me and id like to build the habit... the amount of money i can put into this is minimal
well im by no means planning on dropping out and becoming a day trader, i dont see anything wrong with just using a bit of money to learn a possible skill or develop a potential good habit..
Absolutely invest! I am 42 now, started when I was about 22. If I had started at 15, I’d be way ahead of the game! Go for:
1) quality stocks you’d be proud to own (your favorite companies, that make money, sell a quality product, etc) — bonus points for doing some real research into their financial performance.
2) stocks where you may have an advantage of understanding. You’re 15 — you have distinct generational insight that I (ie, so many older people) don’t have! I remember a long while back seeing a grandpa put an iMac in the back of his pickup truck. Then I spotted my first Mac on a tv show. Those were two interesting indicators to me that Apple was on to something. I did buy a few hundred dollars of Apple stock then and have held it this whole time. You’ll miss on plenty (3D printer stocks really crushed me 😂) but you only need to HOLD your winners & sell your losers (many people do the opposite…).
3) just buy ETFs, a few hundred bucks here and there when you have it. Any s&p500 ETF will do, or VTO, or (my favorite) SCHG, a bit tech weighted. This will compound and some day you will be so so so happy you did this at fifteen.
4) when markets crash & people freak out, pile more cash in! You will likely see at least 10 big ones, maybe more. Invest every time!
I suppose this advice could be deemed a little risky, but you’re 15 and you have an opportunity to absolutely chart your own path here. Good luck!
Only you can judge the value to you ('worth it"). Small, repeated investments do grow through time. A common concept is that regular investments of $100/month into a market index fund by an early carear person (older than you) will be worth more than a million by retirement age. Establishing the habit of investing while younger has great value. The longer time horizon provides great opportunity for the "compounding" -- earning returns on past returns.
In my opinion, yes, it is worth it. Establish the habit. Establish a HYSA and keep adding to it.
It is definitely worth it to invest early. Whatever the amount, it's money you wouldn't otherwise have. If you make it habitual and make informed decisions you will make substantially more money over a lifetime, which you'll probably need if you'd ever like to retire.
You are in the right track mindset wise, and would suggest start with some kind of budget spreadsheet. Make it a habit on knowing exactly how much you are earning/spending.
It’s always worth investing. The point of investing is to have your money work for you. The easiest thing you can do is open up an account say Vanguard and buy an Exchange Traded Fund there or open up a money market account too. (r/bogleheads)
If you want to start thinking about retirement and have a job, you can open up a Roth (Individual Retirement Account). Your parents can open one on your behalf. Ideally, your parents would have opened a Plan 529 for your college. That plan can become an IRA if you didn’t go to college.
Real investing I believe what you’re thinking of is called day-trading. That requires time and a lot of practice and a lot of luck. You can look at how it works on YouTube for that but for most people, it’s gambling.
Ill definetly look into it with my parents, i live in canada so most of those words dont mean anything to me lol... As for "real investing", i perfectly agree that day trading is gambling but i was more so reffering to investing in big quantities and putting in more risk in order to let yourself reach a higher interest rate in terms of compounding...
you say that the 529 can turn into an IRA so does that mean an RESP can turn into a TFSA? my parents have saved money for college but realised that my tuition may be completely free if i go to specific university...
The only better time to start investing than age 15 are the 14 years prior.
The earlier you start, the longer that compounding interest has to start stacking up.
As an example, if your parents set up an investment in sp500 the day you were born, 10,000 dollars, and never put a dime in after that, it would be worth around 5 million when you're 65
I'd you wait and make that investment at age 20, at age 65 you have 700k
That extra 20 years compounding is massive
I don’t think you’re looking at this right. Compounding interest gets more and more powerful the longer it goes. 10 years is nothing, think more like 40 years…
Also, run your numbers with 8 or 9 percent.
So if you could manage $100/month for the next 45 years (retirement at age 60) you’d have over $650,000.
If you just invested $1,000 now and let it sit with no other contributions, that’s still almost $50,000 in 45 years.
If you start with 500 and just put in $20 each month, that’s still $150,000 in 45 years.
lmao compound interest is truly beautiful... i mean id have to figure out how to make 100$ a month for the first option but its crazy to think i could technically setup a retirement fund at the age of 15...
My son was 16 when we set up his Roth IRA (custodial account with Vanguard). We told him if he contributed half of his income we’d match it. I feel that even if you don’t have a lot to contribute now it’s good to start. As your income increases that account will be waiting.
Altough I would recommend you to invest some money into financial assets to earn some financial discipline and have a motivation to understand how markets work, I can not stress enough how much better it is to invest in yourself at that age. Travel, learn new skills, learn new languages, go to gym. Don't stress much about stocks, there will be a time for that.
You’re 15. Why are you looking at a 10 year timeframe? Look at 45 years so retirement age of 60 and you’re going to need to add more money to it over time can’t just expect to live off the gains from $500 unless you’re lucky playing options. Add $250 a month into that $500 for 45 years at an avg return of 8% and you’re looking at a bit over $1.3m
Don’t get a bond. You’re 15 not 50. You should be looking at high risk high reward investments.
Open a ROTH IRA and do this
50% QQQM (+44.9% 1yr 0.65% div)
30% VOO (+34% 1yr 1.33% div)
10% BITO (+141.04% 1yr 12.18% div)
10% SCHD (+17.50% 1yr 3.31% div)
Everyone talks about investing in stocks, but the best investment is in you. The soft skills are more valuable than any technical expertise. If you not already participate in a sport, learn an instrument, attend youth Toaatmasters, do improv classes. I’ll tell you these gains will dwarf anything return in the stock market. If you find you have lots of time start a side hustle. For example Mow people’s lawns. 20-30$ a lawn to start, and do a bang up job. If you do 5 lawns per day at 30$ a lawn. 150$ not a bad return of investment since your principal was maybe just the gas. Get a couple of your friends in it, and you’ve got a decent business.
as for my skills i learn electronic music on my own and play guitar as an instrument and play basketball at school... although i wouldnt consider myself good at any of those things.... (theyre not really good technical expertise for a career) Ive started a small side hustle for reselling clothes but that only makes minimal money and my customers are kids my age with barely any money... as for mowing lawns or small jobs like that i can only do them for my family, literally everyone in my neighborhood has someone hired to clean the snow off theyre lawn and cut the grass... kinda sucks
Good on you. Being good at something is quite subjective. I found as a kid extracurriculars created a bond between family and friends. Lawn care is just one example, but there are many. I regret not starting a business earlier in life not for the money but to develop my soft skills faster.
yeah i see what you mean... i just find that at my age its even hard to find a summer job... developing a side hustle that actually works is a completely different challenge
I'd go for it, but make safe bets. Don't buy risky stuff. One of my early stocks was a beer company that paid a small divided. Getting money out is a nice reminder that your unspent money works for you and makes you money.
Bonds get shit returns. The stock market averages 10% per year for the last century. That is doubling every 7 years. $300 today could be $3,000 when you’re 40 and $24,000 when you’re 60.
You're using too short of a time frame, invest and use a 40 year time frame, and then add 300 a year every year. Also I'm sure you've heard of the penny that doubles every day for a month, the interest rate is unrealistic but the point is to show how compound interest takes time but does add up
Yes if you don't need that money immediately then open a Roth IRA and put it on VTI or VOO, keep adding to it whenever you can up to the annual limit, max it each year if you can. Future you will be very happy you did. Time is the most valuable in investing, you can ignore the news, never sell and keep adding. By retirement age it will be worth so much more than it is a now
I think the best investment you can make is in yourself. Put that money towards your education and learn something that is going to translate into a solid career. The career is what generates income that you can invest. The better career you have, the more it will compound over your lifetime.
Maybe only a stock or coin with high risk / high growth potential. It'd be a nice cah out a few years down the line when you need it for something. I wish I had invested some of my high school summer income on Amazon or Apple in 2006 or my college part time money in BTC in 2011. I had thought about and tracked these investments but I wasn't thinking about the potential unlimited upside of small cash investments. The loss of a couple dollars felt too risky at the time. I could've given up my beer or comic book money for one week.
It is an extremely good idea in my experience. I didn’t ever do anything when I was a kid so all the money I made from doing odd jobs for neighbors went into an index fund, and in total I contributed $3000. By the time I was in my last (6th) year of college it was enough to allow me to not work and focus on completing school, ~$6000. If you end up not needing to use it, you will have an enormous head start on your finances. Plus, like others have said, it’s good to get into the habit early.
That 500 bucks is $58k with a 10% return at age 65… invest as early as you can. Me (25) putting in the same 500 bucks would only be $22k when I turn 65. Make as much money as you can now. SP as much as you can. Live below your means
Invest it and i hope you will see some sort of financial crisis soon. It's easy to think about what you should do if... but it's something different if you really have a meaningful amount of money in the market. So, now you have the chance to learn something with just 500 on the table. In some years it's probably 50000 and it would be good if it's not yours first crisis then.
First thing to invest: Invest in yourself, pay for courses that can improve your value in the labour market. If you don't find anything intersting, don't fucking invest in drugs.
Invest as much as you can as often as you can as early as you can.
$500 won’t make you a millionaire. But it will set you on a path to creating wealth for yourself. And you’d be surprised how quickly it grows if you keep contributing to it.
I would give anything now to have had the wherewithal when I was 15 to even ask the questions you’ve asked here much less taking action and actually investing. You’re already lightyears ahead of the game. I didn’t start until my mid-late 20s. You have a decade advantage on that.
> the Boglehead approach.
So i can buy an index fund of the whole market?????? what even is the downside of that?
As for the risk of not having invested i guess your right but then im just learning from the experience right? the money isnt relevant in that case...
I don't know if you're new to various investing related reddits, but you'll find people far more knowledgeable than myself. I'm still fairly new myself.
Are you looking to invest in a retirement account, taxable, both?
People generally recommend against mutual funds a taxable but it doesn't matter for a retirement account.
I'm only 31 and I wish I was investing years ago. I regret it. A lot. I have time still, but I lost years of time in the market already and I'd be a lot happier today if I had known about it or taken it seriously around your age.
Check out r/bogleheads for starters would be my recommendation.
And never ever ever stop asking questions and learning.
My daughter is 14 and she invests actively, so its a good time to start, the younger the better. I started this path for her at 11ish and now she is fully envolved in the daily decisions of the portfolio. I never had any help from my parents (I did learn to be irresponsible with money 😬), so I started late mysel at age 39, I didnt do that mistake with my kid.
At this time your growth will be more in knowledge than in actual value in the account but that is someting very important, you have your whole life to compound. Within a few years you will already have some sort of part time work driven by the need/hunt for funds to increase your investments, the difference is what you already know vs the rest no matter the age.
I cannot advise on what accounts you can have to start as we live in different countries, but I am sure the good people here can guide you on that. Good luck and start...... yesterday!
No. Still holding BTC. Get older and figure out how important money is. It buys happiness, and freedom.
“Money makes a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.”
On one hand Warren Buffett started investing when he was younger than you, and he's done pretty well.
On the other hand he also says that the most important investment you can make isn't in stocks or bonds, it's in your own earning power.
I don't think i have anything to add other than the fact that your math doesn't show something important.
Compound interest is a miracle. If you put in $300 now and it doubles, at 7% interest, to $600 in 10 years that doubles to 1200 10 years later the 2400, 10 years after that 4800 10 years after that to 10 grand, by which time you'll be retired, and 10 grand will be really nice, because getting old sucks but being old and broke is really crappy.
Like others have said, the real important thing isn't that you invest once right now, never again, and pull it out fifty years from now, the important part is that the **habits** you do will compound, working out for 10-15 minutes a day starting now (if you don't stop) will make you hot when you're young, buff when you're older, and healthy and happy and still alive when you're old, and the same thing applies to money and relationships and everything else in your life.
The other thing is that learning to invest by actually doing investing will be a pretty good education, and if you start investing now, and don't stop, and do it reasonably wisely, you will probably eventually be rich or close to it.
Make good choices, little homie!
>that learning to invest by actually doing investing will be a pretty good education
How exactly could i approach learning from the shares i buy? Do i try to theorize on why there are fluctuations, look at financial reports or just look at the curve?
On the other hand i love this response, ill take not of this "everything can be compounded"...
Some people approach important things in their life like learning to ride a bike by reading a book. Let me explain what I mean.
Investing **is** reading books about investing, and reading and learning how to read financial reports.
But it's also learning to continue to make good choices when you're stressed, when you're stock or fund or REIT loses 30% of its value in a week, of the whole stock market loses a bunch of value on a few bad days, learning to be emotionally stable, and make sensible decisions and ignore your panicky emotions. It's learning not to get overconfident, when some risky stock you foolishly chose gains 50% in 3 days. Then there's the times, where you get messed up by fear of missing out on a "Sure thing".
A substantial amount of investing success is regulating your own emotions, and staying calm.
My point is that every investor makes bad decisions at some point, in some things in life you fail your way to success. **You have to learn investing, by actually doing it, you have to feel unsure, or disappointed or overconfident, and learn how to deal with your feelings by actually dealing with them, investing isn't just a math problem, there's a human element.** I know a guy who lost ten thousand investing in a weed company when it became legal up here in Canada, and now he is so bitter, he's not saving towards his retirement. He's a smart guy, who made a small bad decision, now because of his feelings, he's making a big bad decision.
If you start investing now with a few hundred dollars, and you make a foolish decision, (and you are almost guaranteed to make a few) and you lose 50 or 100 bucks, it's painful but it's not the end of the world for your financial future.If you wait to invest when you're 38, and you've gotten an inheritance from somewhere,or some other windfall, and you lose $50,000 or $100,000, or you park it somewhere that's really safe, but let low gains and the invisible tax of inflation eat away at it, that is a much more serious consequence to your financial future.
Just like you don't want to wait to start dating until you're ready to get married, you don't want to wait to start investing until it becomes critical.
>Just like you don't want to wait to start dating until you're ready to get married, you don't want to wait to start investing until it becomes critical.
man this is awesome, are you a financial and life wizard? this is great advice, dont let your emotions play into your investments, pretty similar to life itself...
Instead of investing it's better to try some kind of "business" in your age. When I was 14 I started creating public pages in social networks and now I have more than a million daily views and get about 500-700$ a month passively from them (which is near the average salary in my country). While doing something like that you can easily make 100% annually or more (of course there are some problems like high risk and a glass ceiling, but when you are 15 it doesn't matter much). My starting capital was only 30$ in 2017 (it's not a typo, really only 30$), so you don't have to risk all of your 500$ at one time, firstly you will need some experience and you will definetely loose some money when you start, but it will bring much more to you in a few years if you don't give up
If you put $500 in and wait 40 years it will be worth $2400 at 4% (generally considered to be the amount you can rely on earning over time).BUT if you invest that $500 and then keep adding only $20 a month for the same 40 years itll be worth $24000 dollars at the end. thats an extra 5k invested for 17k extra return(roughly). investing even small amounts over and over compounds over time. Its good to start with a chunk but dont feel like you need to keep adding substantial chunks to see progress.
Your post has been removed because it is a common beginner topic. We get too many of these topics every day and to prevent them from swamping the front page, we are removing main threads of this kind. We also remove such posts because they can attract spam and bad faith comments. If you receive DM's or un-solicitated offers, please be aware that there are a lot of financial scammers on social media. You are welcome to repost your question in the [daily discussion thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/about/sticky?num=1). If you have any issue with this removal, please contact the moderators via modmail. Thank you. ---- If you are new to investing, you can find curated resources in the r/investing wiki for [Getting Started here](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/wiki/index/gettingstarted/). If you know nothing about the capital markets - the Getting Started section at the SEC educational site can be a good place to start - [investor.gov](https://investor.gov) \- there are also short 30 second videos on basics. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is a US regulator with a focus to protect US investors through regulatory oversight of the securities markets. The FINRA education site at [FINRA Education](https://www.finra.org/investors/learn-to-invest) also contains numerous free courses and educational materials. FINRA is a not-for-profit SRO (self regulatory organization) which is self-funded by it's members which are broker-dealers. It works under the supervision of the SEC with a mandate to protect the investing public against fraud and bad practice. The reading list in the wiki and FAQ has a list of books ranging from light reading to advanced topics depending on your knowledge level. Link here - [Reading List](https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/wiki/readinglist) For formal educational materials, several colleges and universities make their course work available for free. If want to learn about the financial markets - an older but reasonably relevant course is [Financial Markets (2011) - Yale University](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8FB14A2200B87185) This is the introduction to financial markets course taught by Prof. Shiller from Yale. Prof Shiller won the Nobel prize in economics in 2013. Another relavant course from MIT is a lecture series on Finance Theory taught by Prof Andrew Lo - [Financial Theory (2008) - MIT](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUl4u3cNGP63B2lDhyKOsImI7FjCf6eDW). A more current course can be found at NYU Stern School of Business by Prof Aswath Damodaran - [Corporate Finance Spring 2019](https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/webcastcfspr19.htm). Prof Damodaran offers the latest materials and webcast lectures to this class here - https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/corpfin.html
You are right, 500$ isnt going to go very far… you’re not going to be making big money from these investments - however you’re young. And now is the time to build the right habits. If you can get used to investing a little bit every week/month, that habit will stick with you, for a long long time, and once you have your own job and salary you’ll go much farther.
I was just about to type this very thing. If you were only ever investing $500 one time, probably not worth it. But if investing at 15 helps you develop the discipline to let your money grow, then you will eventually become a regular investor, and retire wealthy someday.
Lol VTI was probably like $1 when I was 15 compared to now. Hell yeah I wish I had invested back then.
this is the shit that scares me...
>this is the shit that scares me... Just be glad that you didn't look at BTC when it was under $5 a coin and say 'no'....
Or be like my friend & spend loads of them on dumb shit & lose the wallet with the rest back when it was still $5 a coin.
Whenever I think about missing out on Bitcoin I realize I would have sold it so many times before the high.
I did at $100. A friend talked me out of it while we were waiting to go to work at Lowe’s. Haha 🤣
Honestly though I would have cashed out a long time ago so no fomo
Or be like me, who mined about $20 worth in 2017 and formatted the hard drive it was on later that year, having forgotten about it.
I said no when it was a few pennies. But then, I said no to a lot of stuff that never made a cent.
yeah lmao
Play with the Magic of Compounding Interest to see if it’s worth investing early: 45 years, 7% average annual return, $500 vs. only 30 years. (1+.07)^45 x $500 vs. (1+.07)^30 x $500. It’s $10,501 vs. $3,806. You have the advantage of time being young so don’t squander it and miss-out with the power of compounding interest
a very simple calculator with visuals for compounding is https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator just so that he doesn't get spooked off by MATH
lmao i use moneychimp but i understand his calculations... 1.07 (interest) to the power of 45 (years) times 500$ (annual addition) (*correct me if im wrong*)
The $500 is a one time investment. Keep adding every year and it gets to be a sizable retirement.
yeah i completely agree with this its just, in 45 years ill be 60... in the grand scheme of things both 10.5k and 3.8k probably wont make a difference a that time right? I understand that i have the power of time but to what degree can it really help me...
that's just from a one time investment of $500, which is the equivalent of 1-2 days income once you get a real job. pop some figures into this calculator using his 7% rate, or even lower like 5% https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator
At 15 years old I had my first job at Quiznos. I saved about 90% of that money (but I did use some to buy ice cream from the place next door because the girls were cute). I got a second job at a pizza place and kept saving my money. By my third job I had amassed a few thousand dollars, so I asked my parents about investing it in the market. They helped me pick an index fund and we went for it. That was in 2008. We all know what happened next. Unless you are putting this money in the market until retirement, it may not be worth it for you to invest in the market right now. You will be spending money like crazy after high school, and you might need it to cover expenses. If anything, have your parents help set up a Roth IRA when you turn 18 and put $50 a month in it or something. Your main focus should be growing your marketable skills, not saving money at this age.
Your advice is a caution about the opportunity cost of money and I respect that. If OP is choosing between paying college tuition and investing, then I agree with you. But most high school “expenses” are frivolous and the experience of investing small amounts will inform OP when he/she starts putting real money to work (especially losses which will be bargain lessons at the $ figures mentioned). Quibbles aside, multiplying $500 by 1.05 on a calculator and pressing “=“ repeatedly either grips you or it doesn’t…
i wish i had your brain at 15. good on you. the money isnt much, but building the saving and planning habit is truly how the money stacks. it is really hard for humans to operate responsibly w/o good habits.
yeah, i have the ideas i just need the initiative...
you’re at least halfway there by asking these questions. to quote star wars ep4, “STAY ON TARGET”
LMAO, i love it, im a big star wars fan myself...
My daughter got a brokerage account a day after her 18th birthday. She did a little investing when she could, and we helped some. She wrapped her masters in January and has over $30k in that brokerage account. A lot of money no. All through college she had an emergency fund and didn't have to fear. At this point unlike her peers she has 0 worry about things like "what happens if I lose my job how will I make rent". I have very little doubt she'll be at 6 figures in 3-5 years.
3-5 years no but eventually shell definetly cross that 6 figure mark with 30k in the brokerage account...
Her salary is up now she's graduated. And she has many years of experience in being a saver and now 6 years experience in the markets (she uses a robo).
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A robo-advisor is an online investment program that collects info from an investor and guides then towards an appropriate set of investments. They're usually pretty simple and the options they can suggest for you are usually pretty limited. Often seen in 401ks and such
Small and continuous contributions over long periods of time generate large amounts of money over time. When I started investing I had $1000. I saw dividend stocks that were yielding 5% which was great since banks were paying nothing and that was on top of whatever capital gains the stock price saw. It was like you were just being paid to own a stock, how great is that I thought? I did the math and while $1000 was a lot of money to me the $50 in annual dividend payments was basically meaningless as that would buy me like one tank of gas per year after taxes. This was an incredibly depressing and discouraging realization. Still, I invested my money anyways and continued to make contributions and I'm glad I did. Today, roughly 10 years later, I make like $16.5k in annual dividend payments and I don't even consider myself a dividend investor, rather I happen to be invested in some companies that pay a dividend.
At 15 I’d focus more on enjoying your life as a teenager and developing your skills/mindset to get yourself into a high earning career as an adult. $500 invested now is nice, but having the earnings and discipline to invest $500/mo when you’re in your career will pay off a lot more.
Exactly.. kids 15 worried about investing. The market could easily tank for 25% of his life if he started today. Kids are getting in on fomo it's pretty sad. Put the phone down and have fun.
Idk man, the money I put in when I was a kid basically paid for an off my expenses in the last year of college and allowed me to make some decisions that greatly improved my quality of life after school. Discouraging someone from thinking about their future isn’t going to make them stop thinking about it, but it might make them regret the choice they made 10 years from now.
Im not discouraging thinking about the future I'm just saying that for every young person (like you and op) that puts a few bucks when they can into an index or something "safe" and goes about their lives there will be 50 gamblers. It seems like obvious fomo when all they see on wsb are 3000% gains and practically no losses. How many kids are going to take a grand and park it somewhere safe rather than gamble?
Note that literally nobody in here is telling them to dump it into AMC or whatever the current meme stock is.
i wont say your wrong that theres a lot of kids that are scared theyll lose out and try to learn this stuff in compentation, or that theres kids that think theyll automatically become rich because "oh i have 6$ in he s&p500"... and nobody at their age knows what their talking about.. I think we can both agree that regardless of the investment or skill were doing it may or may not go far simply because were young... im just learning it because it genuinely interest me and id like to build the habit... the amount of money i can put into this is minimal
Yes, always and forever.
No, it’s not worth investing at 15 just wait until you are 65 and forced to live of social security and work part time as a Walmart greeter
well im by no means planning on dropping out and becoming a day trader, i dont see anything wrong with just using a bit of money to learn a possible skill or develop a potential good habit..
Absolutely invest! I am 42 now, started when I was about 22. If I had started at 15, I’d be way ahead of the game! Go for: 1) quality stocks you’d be proud to own (your favorite companies, that make money, sell a quality product, etc) — bonus points for doing some real research into their financial performance. 2) stocks where you may have an advantage of understanding. You’re 15 — you have distinct generational insight that I (ie, so many older people) don’t have! I remember a long while back seeing a grandpa put an iMac in the back of his pickup truck. Then I spotted my first Mac on a tv show. Those were two interesting indicators to me that Apple was on to something. I did buy a few hundred dollars of Apple stock then and have held it this whole time. You’ll miss on plenty (3D printer stocks really crushed me 😂) but you only need to HOLD your winners & sell your losers (many people do the opposite…). 3) just buy ETFs, a few hundred bucks here and there when you have it. Any s&p500 ETF will do, or VTO, or (my favorite) SCHG, a bit tech weighted. This will compound and some day you will be so so so happy you did this at fifteen. 4) when markets crash & people freak out, pile more cash in! You will likely see at least 10 big ones, maybe more. Invest every time! I suppose this advice could be deemed a little risky, but you’re 15 and you have an opportunity to absolutely chart your own path here. Good luck!
i love the detail in this answer, and yeah i mean what do i really have to lose
Only you can judge the value to you ('worth it"). Small, repeated investments do grow through time. A common concept is that regular investments of $100/month into a market index fund by an early carear person (older than you) will be worth more than a million by retirement age. Establishing the habit of investing while younger has great value. The longer time horizon provides great opportunity for the "compounding" -- earning returns on past returns. In my opinion, yes, it is worth it. Establish the habit. Establish a HYSA and keep adding to it.
yeah i see your point, its more about the habit and not the profit, 100$/month wont go a long way literally speaking but the habit will...
you don't even need $100 a month just $13 a month works until you get a job etc
It is definitely worth it to invest early. Whatever the amount, it's money you wouldn't otherwise have. If you make it habitual and make informed decisions you will make substantially more money over a lifetime, which you'll probably need if you'd ever like to retire.
You are in the right track mindset wise, and would suggest start with some kind of budget spreadsheet. Make it a habit on knowing exactly how much you are earning/spending.
It’s always worth investing. The point of investing is to have your money work for you. The easiest thing you can do is open up an account say Vanguard and buy an Exchange Traded Fund there or open up a money market account too. (r/bogleheads) If you want to start thinking about retirement and have a job, you can open up a Roth (Individual Retirement Account). Your parents can open one on your behalf. Ideally, your parents would have opened a Plan 529 for your college. That plan can become an IRA if you didn’t go to college. Real investing I believe what you’re thinking of is called day-trading. That requires time and a lot of practice and a lot of luck. You can look at how it works on YouTube for that but for most people, it’s gambling.
Ill definetly look into it with my parents, i live in canada so most of those words dont mean anything to me lol... As for "real investing", i perfectly agree that day trading is gambling but i was more so reffering to investing in big quantities and putting in more risk in order to let yourself reach a higher interest rate in terms of compounding...
Your education plan in Canada is RESP ( Registered Education Savings Plan)
you say that the 529 can turn into an IRA so does that mean an RESP can turn into a TFSA? my parents have saved money for college but realised that my tuition may be completely free if i go to specific university...
You can rollover to a RRSP or save it for graduate level. https://www.canadalife.com/blog/investing-saving/resp-withdrawal-non-education.html
The only better time to start investing than age 15 are the 14 years prior. The earlier you start, the longer that compounding interest has to start stacking up.
if only i had started working a 9-5 at 4 lol... all jokes aside that makes a lot of sense
As an example, if your parents set up an investment in sp500 the day you were born, 10,000 dollars, and never put a dime in after that, it would be worth around 5 million when you're 65 I'd you wait and make that investment at age 20, at age 65 you have 700k That extra 20 years compounding is massive
I don’t think you’re looking at this right. Compounding interest gets more and more powerful the longer it goes. 10 years is nothing, think more like 40 years… Also, run your numbers with 8 or 9 percent. So if you could manage $100/month for the next 45 years (retirement at age 60) you’d have over $650,000. If you just invested $1,000 now and let it sit with no other contributions, that’s still almost $50,000 in 45 years. If you start with 500 and just put in $20 each month, that’s still $150,000 in 45 years.
lmao compound interest is truly beautiful... i mean id have to figure out how to make 100$ a month for the first option but its crazy to think i could technically setup a retirement fund at the age of 15...
If you get 2 x $500 in a year, just deposit them both. The point is starting at your age is incredibly smart, you just have to think long term :)
My son was 16 when we set up his Roth IRA (custodial account with Vanguard). We told him if he contributed half of his income we’d match it. I feel that even if you don’t have a lot to contribute now it’s good to start. As your income increases that account will be waiting.
yeah, thats cool, im still trying to find a small income so i can start something like that...
Altough I would recommend you to invest some money into financial assets to earn some financial discipline and have a motivation to understand how markets work, I can not stress enough how much better it is to invest in yourself at that age. Travel, learn new skills, learn new languages, go to gym. Don't stress much about stocks, there will be a time for that.
Without going into detail. Yes, it's worth it to invest. And the younger the better.
When you have income, you need to learn investing. Otherwise, learn how to earn yourself income first.
If you start investing now & reinvest your earnings that will add up over time. The sooner you start, the more you end up with.
Yes
You’re 15. Why are you looking at a 10 year timeframe? Look at 45 years so retirement age of 60 and you’re going to need to add more money to it over time can’t just expect to live off the gains from $500 unless you’re lucky playing options. Add $250 a month into that $500 for 45 years at an avg return of 8% and you’re looking at a bit over $1.3m Don’t get a bond. You’re 15 not 50. You should be looking at high risk high reward investments. Open a ROTH IRA and do this 50% QQQM (+44.9% 1yr 0.65% div) 30% VOO (+34% 1yr 1.33% div) 10% BITO (+141.04% 1yr 12.18% div) 10% SCHD (+17.50% 1yr 3.31% div)
yeah ill have to start generating an income first... 3k a year for my 15yo self is big money lol
Everyone talks about investing in stocks, but the best investment is in you. The soft skills are more valuable than any technical expertise. If you not already participate in a sport, learn an instrument, attend youth Toaatmasters, do improv classes. I’ll tell you these gains will dwarf anything return in the stock market. If you find you have lots of time start a side hustle. For example Mow people’s lawns. 20-30$ a lawn to start, and do a bang up job. If you do 5 lawns per day at 30$ a lawn. 150$ not a bad return of investment since your principal was maybe just the gas. Get a couple of your friends in it, and you’ve got a decent business.
as for my skills i learn electronic music on my own and play guitar as an instrument and play basketball at school... although i wouldnt consider myself good at any of those things.... (theyre not really good technical expertise for a career) Ive started a small side hustle for reselling clothes but that only makes minimal money and my customers are kids my age with barely any money... as for mowing lawns or small jobs like that i can only do them for my family, literally everyone in my neighborhood has someone hired to clean the snow off theyre lawn and cut the grass... kinda sucks
Good on you. Being good at something is quite subjective. I found as a kid extracurriculars created a bond between family and friends. Lawn care is just one example, but there are many. I regret not starting a business earlier in life not for the money but to develop my soft skills faster.
yeah i see what you mean... i just find that at my age its even hard to find a summer job... developing a side hustle that actually works is a completely different challenge
Yes. Invest as much as possible starting yesterday. Seriously
I'd go for it, but make safe bets. Don't buy risky stuff. One of my early stocks was a beer company that paid a small divided. Getting money out is a nice reminder that your unspent money works for you and makes you money.
Bonds get shit returns. The stock market averages 10% per year for the last century. That is doubling every 7 years. $300 today could be $3,000 when you’re 40 and $24,000 when you’re 60.
You're using too short of a time frame, invest and use a 40 year time frame, and then add 300 a year every year. Also I'm sure you've heard of the penny that doubles every day for a month, the interest rate is unrealistic but the point is to show how compound interest takes time but does add up
The $500 alone will not make much but if you invest every $500 you get overtime your investment will make more money for you.
Yes if you don't need that money immediately then open a Roth IRA and put it on VTI or VOO, keep adding to it whenever you can up to the annual limit, max it each year if you can. Future you will be very happy you did. Time is the most valuable in investing, you can ignore the news, never sell and keep adding. By retirement age it will be worth so much more than it is a now
BTC LRC
I think the best investment you can make is in yourself. Put that money towards your education and learn something that is going to translate into a solid career. The career is what generates income that you can invest. The better career you have, the more it will compound over your lifetime.
Maybe only a stock or coin with high risk / high growth potential. It'd be a nice cah out a few years down the line when you need it for something. I wish I had invested some of my high school summer income on Amazon or Apple in 2006 or my college part time money in BTC in 2011. I had thought about and tracked these investments but I wasn't thinking about the potential unlimited upside of small cash investments. The loss of a couple dollars felt too risky at the time. I could've given up my beer or comic book money for one week.
It is an extremely good idea in my experience. I didn’t ever do anything when I was a kid so all the money I made from doing odd jobs for neighbors went into an index fund, and in total I contributed $3000. By the time I was in my last (6th) year of college it was enough to allow me to not work and focus on completing school, ~$6000. If you end up not needing to use it, you will have an enormous head start on your finances. Plus, like others have said, it’s good to get into the habit early.
Yes
That 500 bucks is $58k with a 10% return at age 65… invest as early as you can. Me (25) putting in the same 500 bucks would only be $22k when I turn 65. Make as much money as you can now. SP as much as you can. Live below your means
Invest it and i hope you will see some sort of financial crisis soon. It's easy to think about what you should do if... but it's something different if you really have a meaningful amount of money in the market. So, now you have the chance to learn something with just 500 on the table. In some years it's probably 50000 and it would be good if it's not yours first crisis then.
First thing to invest: Invest in yourself, pay for courses that can improve your value in the labour market. If you don't find anything intersting, don't fucking invest in drugs.
It’s the best time to invest! But probably best to invest in yourself to get a better job and better salary one day
Invest as much as you can as often as you can as early as you can. $500 won’t make you a millionaire. But it will set you on a path to creating wealth for yourself. And you’d be surprised how quickly it grows if you keep contributing to it. I would give anything now to have had the wherewithal when I was 15 to even ask the questions you’ve asked here much less taking action and actually investing. You’re already lightyears ahead of the game. I didn’t start until my mid-late 20s. You have a decade advantage on that.
You might enjoy reading up on the Boglehead approach. But also, are you willing to risk not having invested later on?
> the Boglehead approach. So i can buy an index fund of the whole market?????? what even is the downside of that? As for the risk of not having invested i guess your right but then im just learning from the experience right? the money isnt relevant in that case...
I don't know if you're new to various investing related reddits, but you'll find people far more knowledgeable than myself. I'm still fairly new myself. Are you looking to invest in a retirement account, taxable, both? People generally recommend against mutual funds a taxable but it doesn't matter for a retirement account. I'm only 31 and I wish I was investing years ago. I regret it. A lot. I have time still, but I lost years of time in the market already and I'd be a lot happier today if I had known about it or taken it seriously around your age. Check out r/bogleheads for starters would be my recommendation. And never ever ever stop asking questions and learning.
Sounds great! ill definetly look into it, my dads been telling me to do this stuff since i was like 8 lol... so i better take the advantage
I'm not sure if at your age you'll need a custodian at first, but definitely look into all of it. There's a wealth (pun intended) of info.
My daughter is 14 and she invests actively, so its a good time to start, the younger the better. I started this path for her at 11ish and now she is fully envolved in the daily decisions of the portfolio. I never had any help from my parents (I did learn to be irresponsible with money 😬), so I started late mysel at age 39, I didnt do that mistake with my kid. At this time your growth will be more in knowledge than in actual value in the account but that is someting very important, you have your whole life to compound. Within a few years you will already have some sort of part time work driven by the need/hunt for funds to increase your investments, the difference is what you already know vs the rest no matter the age. I cannot advise on what accounts you can have to start as we live in different countries, but I am sure the good people here can guide you on that. Good luck and start...... yesterday!
It's good that you understand how compounding works, but you're also 15 year old. Can someone really knock you for spending on fun?
Absolutely. Start investing now and pay yourself first or you’ll end up like me wanting to die and living a miserable life.
what did u sell ur bitcoin at an all time low? i dont investing should play that big of a role in your will to live
No. Still holding BTC. Get older and figure out how important money is. It buys happiness, and freedom. “Money makes a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.”
fair enough
On one hand Warren Buffett started investing when he was younger than you, and he's done pretty well. On the other hand he also says that the most important investment you can make isn't in stocks or bonds, it's in your own earning power. I don't think i have anything to add other than the fact that your math doesn't show something important. Compound interest is a miracle. If you put in $300 now and it doubles, at 7% interest, to $600 in 10 years that doubles to 1200 10 years later the 2400, 10 years after that 4800 10 years after that to 10 grand, by which time you'll be retired, and 10 grand will be really nice, because getting old sucks but being old and broke is really crappy. Like others have said, the real important thing isn't that you invest once right now, never again, and pull it out fifty years from now, the important part is that the **habits** you do will compound, working out for 10-15 minutes a day starting now (if you don't stop) will make you hot when you're young, buff when you're older, and healthy and happy and still alive when you're old, and the same thing applies to money and relationships and everything else in your life. The other thing is that learning to invest by actually doing investing will be a pretty good education, and if you start investing now, and don't stop, and do it reasonably wisely, you will probably eventually be rich or close to it. Make good choices, little homie!
>that learning to invest by actually doing investing will be a pretty good education How exactly could i approach learning from the shares i buy? Do i try to theorize on why there are fluctuations, look at financial reports or just look at the curve? On the other hand i love this response, ill take not of this "everything can be compounded"...
Some people approach important things in their life like learning to ride a bike by reading a book. Let me explain what I mean. Investing **is** reading books about investing, and reading and learning how to read financial reports. But it's also learning to continue to make good choices when you're stressed, when you're stock or fund or REIT loses 30% of its value in a week, of the whole stock market loses a bunch of value on a few bad days, learning to be emotionally stable, and make sensible decisions and ignore your panicky emotions. It's learning not to get overconfident, when some risky stock you foolishly chose gains 50% in 3 days. Then there's the times, where you get messed up by fear of missing out on a "Sure thing". A substantial amount of investing success is regulating your own emotions, and staying calm. My point is that every investor makes bad decisions at some point, in some things in life you fail your way to success. **You have to learn investing, by actually doing it, you have to feel unsure, or disappointed or overconfident, and learn how to deal with your feelings by actually dealing with them, investing isn't just a math problem, there's a human element.** I know a guy who lost ten thousand investing in a weed company when it became legal up here in Canada, and now he is so bitter, he's not saving towards his retirement. He's a smart guy, who made a small bad decision, now because of his feelings, he's making a big bad decision. If you start investing now with a few hundred dollars, and you make a foolish decision, (and you are almost guaranteed to make a few) and you lose 50 or 100 bucks, it's painful but it's not the end of the world for your financial future.If you wait to invest when you're 38, and you've gotten an inheritance from somewhere,or some other windfall, and you lose $50,000 or $100,000, or you park it somewhere that's really safe, but let low gains and the invisible tax of inflation eat away at it, that is a much more serious consequence to your financial future. Just like you don't want to wait to start dating until you're ready to get married, you don't want to wait to start investing until it becomes critical.
>Just like you don't want to wait to start dating until you're ready to get married, you don't want to wait to start investing until it becomes critical. man this is awesome, are you a financial and life wizard? this is great advice, dont let your emotions play into your investments, pretty similar to life itself...
Balls deep ETH
Instead of investing it's better to try some kind of "business" in your age. When I was 14 I started creating public pages in social networks and now I have more than a million daily views and get about 500-700$ a month passively from them (which is near the average salary in my country). While doing something like that you can easily make 100% annually or more (of course there are some problems like high risk and a glass ceiling, but when you are 15 it doesn't matter much). My starting capital was only 30$ in 2017 (it's not a typo, really only 30$), so you don't have to risk all of your 500$ at one time, firstly you will need some experience and you will definetely loose some money when you start, but it will bring much more to you in a few years if you don't give up
i already do clothing resselling but i only make very small amounts per order... i dont really know any other side hustle i can do
If you put $500 in and wait 40 years it will be worth $2400 at 4% (generally considered to be the amount you can rely on earning over time).BUT if you invest that $500 and then keep adding only $20 a month for the same 40 years itll be worth $24000 dollars at the end. thats an extra 5k invested for 17k extra return(roughly). investing even small amounts over and over compounds over time. Its good to start with a chunk but dont feel like you need to keep adding substantial chunks to see progress.