How to invest as a teenager: stocks, funds, & cryptos
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Is Your Teen Ready to Start Investing?
Discover if a teenager is ready to become an investor with our short online financial literacy quiz. Our proprietary questions cover themes such as setting money goals, save money, and more. It also provides guidance on the next steps to help teens become savvy investors. Investing for teenagers, especially stock investing, is the best way to insure a strong financial future.
Stocks for Teens
With more than 6,000 stocks traded in the stock market, it would be difficult for kids or teenagers to pick stocks for their portfolios. However, they can begin with big stocks in market indexes (such as the Dow) and stocks of companies they may know. For example, some of the more popular brands teens like include: Nike, Chipotle, Vans, and many others. These are all possible stocks teens can invest in after they do some basic financial analysis on the companies. In this article, Stocks for Teens, we walk you through how to choose the right stocks.
Crypto Funds for Teenagers
January 2024 was the first time investors accessed crypto through exchange-traded funds (ETFs). So, cryptos like Bitcoin can now be bought directly from online brokers like stocks. Yes, it’s still risky to own crypto! However, teenagers remain highly interested in owning digital assets because they are radically different from how their parents use and invest money. The new crypto ETFs have reduced some of the risks involved in holding crypto by ensuring that holders won’t lose money due to fraud by an exchange, as was the case with FTX.
Investing in Funds for Teens
Investing for teenagers is much easier with index funds. With these funds, teens who don’t know how to pick specific stocks can rely on the value of stock market indexes such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Standard and Poor’s 500 and the NASDAQ. These types of index funds are the cheapest (and probably the safest) way for kids and teens to invest in the stock market.
Investing Apps for Teens
Investing for teens has become popular through lots of new engaging apps that allow teens to easily trade stocks through custodial brokerage accounts. These apps are by companies like Greenlight and Bloom — relatively new companies that cater specifically to teen investors and their parents. Some traditional companies are also offering apps that are appropriate for teens: Fidelity, E-Trade, Charles Schwab, and more. Stocks for teens are available through all these apps.
