TEENS AND THEIR MONEY

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Teens and Their Money

By Selena Maranjian

There are a lot of terrific resources available to help you learn more about money and investing. Be prepared to be shocked by how many articles and books and other resources I list below. Don't expect to get very far with them today. Perhaps just read one or two articles. Perhaps print out the list of books and check one out from your library. Plan to keep revisiting this page, though (maybe bookmark it), and to keep learning -- in whichever ways work best for you: articles, books, magazines, seminars, and discussion boards. Think of this long page as a kind of library that you can visit again and again.

Fool Content

As you read through our Fool offerings, note that we try to make all our content easy to read -- and sometimes amusing, too. (Our motto: "To educate, amuse, and enrich.") Most of it is geared toward adults, but remember that most adults don't know much more about investing than you do -- in fact, you may already know more than most adults -- really!

Some Key Fool Areas:

Mostly Fun Fool Articles:

Mostly Educational Fool Articles:

More Educational Fool Articles:

Even More Educational Fool Articles:

Some Solid, Mostly Educational Fool Discussion Boards

(Other than our Teens and Their Money discussion board, that is. Remember that full access to our boards costs a little, but we do offer a 30-day free trial -- check them out!)

Other Useful Websites

Here are a few websites created for or by young people, about money and investing (some are affiliated with financial companies that may want to sell you something). They're not officially endorsed by The Motley Fool, but you may learn some interesting things:

Also, visit http://www.jumpstart.org/, click on "Links," and you'll see much more content geared toward young people.

To Learn More About Mutual Funds:

Other Educational and/or Entertaining Websites

  • Berkshire Hathaway -- This is the website of Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway. There you can access some 25 years' worth of Buffett's annual letters to shareholders. They're famous for how easy to understand, educational and even amusing they are.
  • Better Investing -- This is the website of the National Association of Investors Corp. (NAIC), the granddaddy organization of investment clubs. It offers solid guidance on clubs, investing in general, and companies of interest. It also offers guidance specifically for teenagers.
  • The Hollywood Stock Exchange -- This is an investing game site, where you compete with others by buying and selling stocks and bonds of movies and entertainers. It's a fun way to learn about how the mechanics of investing work.
  • Bankrate.com -- This site will help you find banks and CDs offering the best interest rates. You can also find good credit card deals and other information there. (Also good: CardLearn.)
  • LavaMind -- This company sells several games that teens or adults will enjoy, where you compete to become the richest person by building businesses and trading in outer space. There's a free demo version of one game available. Another game is at http://www.escapefromknab.com/. If you try these games and like them, share your experiences on our Teens and Their Money discussion board.
  • Here are two useful guides on how to read financial statements, produced by IBM and Merrill Lynch.

Newspapers and Magazines

Fortune, Forbes, SmartMoney, and BusinessWeek are just four of many general interest financial magazines that will offer you insightful coverage of various companies, industries, trends, personalities, investing strategies, and much more. (Other possibilities: Better Investing, Worth, Kiplinger's and Money.)

There are two primary newspapers that are most useful to investors: The Wall Street Journal and Investor's Business Daily. You may be able to sign up for free trials for one or both of them here.

Fool Books

Below are brief descriptions of some:

Other Good Books

Look these up at your local library or on Amazon. Don't think, if you find one to be a little boring, that they're all boring. Some are about investing, but many are just about great businesses and the interesting people who built them. The more you know about great businesses, the more easily you'll be able to spot them and invest in them.

Feel free to share other resources you find on our Teens and Their Money discussion board.

Remember that the more you learn, the better you'll likely do. To maximize your money now and in the years to come, keep learning!

This article was adapted from The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens: 8 Steps to Having More Money Than Your Parents Ever Dreamed Of. For many more ideas and guidance on how to make and save money, check out the book. It also includes a lot of tips on how to land jobs and succeed at them.

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