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The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens: 8 Steps to Having More Money Than Your Parents Ever Dreamed Of
From the personal-finance duo Fortune magazine called “funny, smart, cynical, [and] opinionated” comes savvy financial advice for today’s street-smart young investors.
The Motley Fool has made investing fun and easy for millions of people. Now, it custom designs its wit and wisdom for today’s money-savvy teens. The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens helps teens stand out from the ho-hum mutual-fund crowd, build a portfolio of stocks they can actually care about, and take advantage of the investor’s best friend—time—to watch their profits multiply.
Strike a blow for financial independence. The Fool shows you how
· Question authority when it comes to managing your money
· Save cash (for investing, for college...and, yes, even for having fun!)
· Dodge the spending and saving pitfalls that trap so many adults
· Get started investing—online and off—with just a few dollars
· Discover up-and-coming businesses that could become future blue chips
this is not your parents’ money guide! From identifying companies that are both cool and profitable to building a portfolio that makes tracking investments exciting, The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens shows young investors the way to financial freedom.
The Motley Fool has made investing fun and easy for millions of people. Now, it custom designs its wit and wisdom for today’s money-savvy teens. The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens helps teens stand out from the ho-hum mutual-fund crowd, build a portfolio of stocks they can actually care about, and take advantage of the investor’s best friend—time—to watch their profits multiply.
Strike a blow for financial independence. The Fool shows you how
· Question authority when it comes to managing your money
· Save cash (for investing, for college...and, yes, even for having fun!)
· Dodge the spending and saving pitfalls that trap so many adults
· Get started investing—online and off—with just a few dollars
· Discover up-and-coming businesses that could become future blue chips
this is not your parents’ money guide! From identifying companies that are both cool and profitable to building a portfolio that makes tracking investments exciting, The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens shows young investors the way to financial freedom.
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 16, 2002
136 people are currently reading
399 people want to read
About the author
David Gardner
25 books17 followersTom and David Gardner cofounded The Motley Fool, a multi-media financial education company, in 1993. Since then they have co-authored four New York Times bestsellers, including The Motley Fool Investment Guide and The Motley Fool's Rule Breakers, Rule Makers.
Librarian note:
Ther is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Librarian note:
Ther is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
May 10, 2023
2% interest on a savings account? Book is a little dated now…
October 12, 2018
This book is a really good introduction to the business world and what a kid should do with his/her money. This book has really good information about investments and business fundamentals. I thought the book was a good starter book for me to gain information about this type of business. I would recommend this book to somebody interested in business
July 21, 2019
It's hardly updated from 2002 advice and procedures, but it's a good overview of the how's and why's of investing. It is not a good theology of finance though. Don't expect that. I will incentivize my kids to read this.
Read in one day.
Read in one day.
May 15, 2010
A pretty good book for teens in money and investing. They tried a bit too hard to speak 'teen-speak' but for the most part the information was clear, easy to understand, and simple to put into pratice.
January 31, 2017
The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens: 8 Steps to Having More Money Than Your Parents Ever Dreamed Of
Book by: David Gardner
I thought this book was very interesting. It informs the reader, being teenagers, what their best options are for investing money/saving money at a young age. Not only did this book keep me engaged during most of it, but I also feel I learned something about how to manage money in a smart, efficient way.
Throughout the book I was trying to look for what kind of person David Gardner was. Frugal, or not? I was unable to come up with an answer because it is written in a way where it gives you proof that a certain thing works, but ultimately leaves the decision of how to spend to you.
One complaint I have about the book is that once it makes a point, there are page sized boxes with stories/proof in them and it disorients me a little bit because once I get back to the main point, I forget what I was reading about.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a guide to start investing at a young age, because I feel like it covers what it is supposed to cover in a detailed, interesting way that not many other books do. I am happy I read this book, and I feel I learned important financial lessons from it.
Book by: David Gardner
I thought this book was very interesting. It informs the reader, being teenagers, what their best options are for investing money/saving money at a young age. Not only did this book keep me engaged during most of it, but I also feel I learned something about how to manage money in a smart, efficient way.
Throughout the book I was trying to look for what kind of person David Gardner was. Frugal, or not? I was unable to come up with an answer because it is written in a way where it gives you proof that a certain thing works, but ultimately leaves the decision of how to spend to you.
One complaint I have about the book is that once it makes a point, there are page sized boxes with stories/proof in them and it disorients me a little bit because once I get back to the main point, I forget what I was reading about.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a guide to start investing at a young age, because I feel like it covers what it is supposed to cover in a detailed, interesting way that not many other books do. I am happy I read this book, and I feel I learned important financial lessons from it.
July 7, 2025
My elementary school cousin was reading this when I got to California. My Aunt and Uncle don't let him stay out too much on his own but he really wanted to bike all along the pier in Santa Monica and Venice, and he abused the privilege of having the older cousin around to have me go with him. (He correctly noticed my immense desire to be the "cool" cousin. Work in progress.)
Anyways we spent the bike ride catching up on life. He knows wayyyyyy more about investing and economics than I did at his age. Apparently this book is the real winner. So yeah! If you are feeling young and precocious pick it up. I skimmed through it and there's some real economic advice in a way digestible for people pretty young. I would still recommend Naked Economics by Wheelan as an introduction to the field, but this book has some pretty solid explanations of economics concepts at beginner level.
Anyways we spent the bike ride catching up on life. He knows wayyyyyy more about investing and economics than I did at his age. Apparently this book is the real winner. So yeah! If you are feeling young and precocious pick it up. I skimmed through it and there's some real economic advice in a way digestible for people pretty young. I would still recommend Naked Economics by Wheelan as an introduction to the field, but this book has some pretty solid explanations of economics concepts at beginner level.
September 28, 2021
This was a great book! While it's definitely geared towards people who don't have any or much experience in investing, as most of the chapters revolve around the topic, it's also great for teens who already do have experience as it teachers about much more than only the stock market. Although there are many outdated facts (e.g. "There are roughly 275 million Americans today"; "American Online [AOL] is one of the largest on-line services in the world"), the actually important information - how to responsibly make money, save money, and spend money - is just as relevant today as it was when the book was published about 20 years ago.
January 12, 2021
Very good introduction to investing. Provides a good overview of investing and is easy to understand for new and young investors.
It is heavily American based, a lot of the information actually only applies to the USA.
Additionally, it is a little bit outdated (2002) but there is nothing they can do to solve that.
Overall, really good and interesting book. It opened my eyes to investing and helped me understand what investing may look like for different investors. It highlights the keys to successful investments, and a successful life.
It is heavily American based, a lot of the information actually only applies to the USA.
Additionally, it is a little bit outdated (2002) but there is nothing they can do to solve that.
Overall, really good and interesting book. It opened my eyes to investing and helped me understand what investing may look like for different investors. It highlights the keys to successful investments, and a successful life.
December 12, 2022
One of three books that I am using to teach my kids personal finance basics. It starts with setting financial goals, saving money, budgeting, avoiding financial mistakes, and investing. The second part of the book is learning how to find and track the performance of companies and basics about evaluating performance. She wanted to learn about investing, and this is a good eye opener to the reality that you need to save, budget, be frugal, and have emergency funds before you can invest.
September 1, 2020
I felt that this book lacked in developing an appropriate way to interact with their intended audience. Either the authors of the book would overly exaggerate their humor to keep their audience entertained or they would slam you with technical terms. Their conflicting writing styles made it difficult for me to relate to their book and I don’t think teens now in days will relate either.
February 1, 2021
Bought this for my kids for Christmas, but it is pretty outdated. And they said that Amazon was a lousy investment for them in this book, but if you know anything about them, they ended up making 20,842% on Amazon! The concepts are good and the tone is good, but the book is just a little too old to be relevant today.
January 30, 2018
very helpful
January 17, 2021
Accessible, funny, instructive and filled with good resources. Hopefully, a decent launching pad for my two boys.
February 22, 2022
Unfortunately outdated in 2022. I'm a Fool and want to have my nieces learn the Foolish mentality, but I fear the antiquated references would reduce their confidence in the messages.
March 22, 2022
Yes, there’s some outdated info, but I think the basics are there to get my kids interested in investing. Ordering 3 so we can make this a family book club read this summer.
July 20, 2022
Good basics but a lot of outdated references and info.
January 6, 2025
Nothing has made me think I could make a lot of money before thirty like this.
June 14, 2012
As the author of The Teen's Guide to Becoming a Millionaire, and a frequent follower of the Motley Fool, I was very interested to see what David Gardner had to say about investing for teens. The promise of the book is very grand: eight steps to having more money than your parents ever dreamed of. I wanted to see how well the book lived up to its promise.
Overall, I would say that this book does a good job in several areas. In each of these cases, Gardner takes a complex topic and distills it down to the basics in a form that teens can understand. The eight steps themselves are very solid, and a person can reliably follow them and be far better off than someone who doesn’t follow them.
The eight steps begin with helping teens set goals and make plans. They help teens have an understanding of how they can earn money (which becomes the seed of their investments) and to begin saving the amount that is needed to start investing. They then move on to teaching teens the basics of the financial system, including banks, credit unions, brokerage firms, insurance, etc. Then, the eight steps moves on to understanding how the stock market works, and finally to an understanding of mutual funds. Finally, they describe how teens would need to go about setting up a brokerage account and start investing.
Much of this seemed very basic to me, personally. But, as I talked with my own teens about this, it was quickly clear that teens don’t get this information from a high school education. One of the reasons it seemed so basic to me is that I’ve been working with this for the last twenty years. But it is all a necessary foundation for someone who has not been taught this in school.
The second half of the book was dedicated to investing in shares of individual companies. This included finding great companies, tracking them to determine their performance over time, understanding how financials of companies work, and crunching the numbers. It also covers how teens can set up an investment club.
There was only one area where I still found myself wanting additional information. I said a minute ago that the book took a complex subject and simplified it down. In certain areas, it seemed to stay too simple. There were a couple of areas where I could see that a teen would need additional information in order to move forward, but that additional detail wasn’t discussed. While the simplified explanations were good, teens could benefit from being directed to additional resources, in order to expand their understanding.
Other than that, the content of the information was very good. Teens who are interested in investing will benefit from reading The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens.
Overall, I would say that this book does a good job in several areas. In each of these cases, Gardner takes a complex topic and distills it down to the basics in a form that teens can understand. The eight steps themselves are very solid, and a person can reliably follow them and be far better off than someone who doesn’t follow them.
The eight steps begin with helping teens set goals and make plans. They help teens have an understanding of how they can earn money (which becomes the seed of their investments) and to begin saving the amount that is needed to start investing. They then move on to teaching teens the basics of the financial system, including banks, credit unions, brokerage firms, insurance, etc. Then, the eight steps moves on to understanding how the stock market works, and finally to an understanding of mutual funds. Finally, they describe how teens would need to go about setting up a brokerage account and start investing.
Much of this seemed very basic to me, personally. But, as I talked with my own teens about this, it was quickly clear that teens don’t get this information from a high school education. One of the reasons it seemed so basic to me is that I’ve been working with this for the last twenty years. But it is all a necessary foundation for someone who has not been taught this in school.
The second half of the book was dedicated to investing in shares of individual companies. This included finding great companies, tracking them to determine their performance over time, understanding how financials of companies work, and crunching the numbers. It also covers how teens can set up an investment club.
There was only one area where I still found myself wanting additional information. I said a minute ago that the book took a complex subject and simplified it down. In certain areas, it seemed to stay too simple. There were a couple of areas where I could see that a teen would need additional information in order to move forward, but that additional detail wasn’t discussed. While the simplified explanations were good, teens could benefit from being directed to additional resources, in order to expand their understanding.
Other than that, the content of the information was very good. Teens who are interested in investing will benefit from reading The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens.
January 1, 2017
Wanting to prepare my 12 year old daughter for a life of smart financial decisions, I bought her this book. I decided to read it first to determine its worth and relevance as well as be able to discuss it with her.
For now, I'm going to have her read the first few introductory chapters and the one with personal stories. She doesn't have much interest in this area so I'm trying to build it. In the next year or two, when she's 13 or 14, I'll have her read the complete book for all of the information.
As far as the book is concerned, I found it to be a great primer for budgeting and investing. It covers basic topics and even more advanced ones with clarity and focus. The personal stories add just the right amount of entertainment to the reading, which is most often very dry in the financial genre.
I'd actually recommend this book to adults with limited investment experience and knowledge, as well. Investing is often overwhelming and intimidating for people without experience, myself included. This book does a fine job boiling it down to the essentials. And it contained many pertinent reminders for my own investment strategy and financial situation.
My only criticism is that the language directed towards teenagers doesn't stand the test of time. Written in 2001, I can see today's teens (2016) rolling their eyes at wanting to buy U2's latest CD. Almost completely irrelevant in today's world of mp3 downloads and music streaming. ;)
For now, I'm going to have her read the first few introductory chapters and the one with personal stories. She doesn't have much interest in this area so I'm trying to build it. In the next year or two, when she's 13 or 14, I'll have her read the complete book for all of the information.
As far as the book is concerned, I found it to be a great primer for budgeting and investing. It covers basic topics and even more advanced ones with clarity and focus. The personal stories add just the right amount of entertainment to the reading, which is most often very dry in the financial genre.
I'd actually recommend this book to adults with limited investment experience and knowledge, as well. Investing is often overwhelming and intimidating for people without experience, myself included. This book does a fine job boiling it down to the essentials. And it contained many pertinent reminders for my own investment strategy and financial situation.
My only criticism is that the language directed towards teenagers doesn't stand the test of time. Written in 2001, I can see today's teens (2016) rolling their eyes at wanting to buy U2's latest CD. Almost completely irrelevant in today's world of mp3 downloads and music streaming. ;)
August 26, 2010
I had to read this book for Econ for school and I learnt a lot. It teaches you the basic ideas of economics but it definitely is only the basics and I feel as though I need to read/research a lot more in order to understand some of the topics. It is a good started book for any teen who is interested in making money and minus all the cheesey jokes they make, it really got me motivated to start investing.
November 13, 2014
This is my first Motley Fool book, and I am super impressed. Written in a conversational tone and with minimum jargon, any layman will be able to learn and understand this financial book. This book reveals the magic of the stock market and has truly made an impact on my financial decisions and plans.
July 12, 2012
Fantastic book in the sense that its had a large impact on my financial strategy for the rest of my life. I have not taken their instructions into my daily life due to my wariness with the stock market, but I have not forgotten any of their advice.
Read
November 18, 2016This book was well put together and It Definitely gave me a lot of information to get started with investment. If you feel like you want to learn about investment to get started i definitely recommend this book.
November 11, 2008
The perfect gift !
July 26, 2009
I really liked this book. I got it from my grandparents. It taught me a lot about what to do when saving and investing money for the future
October 26, 2013
I loved this book. so basic but inspirational to save money and invest it.
I'm about to re-read it.
I'm about to re-read it.
December 23, 2021
Simple, but great.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews