Getting Kids Interested in Precious Metal Investment

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If you were asked to come up with a list of projects you would rather not dive into on a Sunday afternoon, “teaching the kids about investment strategies” would probably come somewhere near the top. It’s hard enough to get our own heads around today’s investment options, without trying to convince a sullen teenager that it is something they want to become interested in.

But the point is that we are at a financial watershed. In our parents’ generation, investments were relatively simple, jobs were for life and pension plans would see them through their retirement years. Today, many of the same financial instruments are in place, but their robustness is crumbling, and we are looking to find better alternatives. By the time our kids are grown up with teenagers of their own, the old order will be a thing of the past. They need to understand about investments, and to be brutally honest, they need to be better at it in the years ahead than we are today.

Precious metals capture the imagination

Gold and silver are the perfect place to start, because from the age of two or three, your kids will associate precious metals with wealth, a concept instilled and reinforced through traditional childhood stories like Rumpelstiltskin and The Golden Goose.

The popularity of precious metals has not diminished on contemporary film and books. The Harry Potter universe sees all financial transactions conducted using gold, silver and bronze coins. Disney favorites like Treasure Island and Robin Hood also feature precious metals as an intrinsic component to the plot.

Let them see the real thing

Stocks, share and unit trusts are harder things for any of us to get to grips with, and particularly children, because of their intangible nature. However, gold and silver are precious metals that you can touch and feel. Make the most of this, whether it is with your very own silver bars of coins – there is a wide choice of various types and sizes available here – or by taking them to a coin show.

The latter will show just what a popular pastime coin collecting is among people of all ages, and numismatics provide the perfect first step to foster a wider interest in precious metals and investments in general.

Use real world examples to demonstrate inflation

If the kids have grandparents or other older relatives around, get them working with you! There is nothing to beat a real world example to put across complex concepts, and inflation is a case in point. Hearing Grandad say: “When I was your age, a can of Pepsi cost five cents,” will fire their imagination and curiosity far more than a dry theoretical explanation of economics, interest rates and the like.

The future in their hands

This is often called a golden age for retirees, but the point is, it will not go on forever. The coming generations will have to take their futures and their fortunes into their own hands. And it’s up to us to teach them how to do it.