We should do whatever we can to introduce the children in our lives (that may include nieces,
nephews, and grandchildren) to the fundamental principles of entrepreneurship and money
management. Sending your child off to camp, taking field trips, and reading newsletters
geared toward youth are activities that make learning the basics exciting and fun. Employing such methods
will also help your child foster a healthy respect for money, responsibility and hard work.
Here‘s what you can do:
Teach financial literacy at home. You don’t have to wait until your child is about to leave home to
teach him or her personal finance. Set aside a couple of hours regularly to talk to children about budgeting.
It’s crucial that you let them know that accumulating wealth is about saving and investing, not buying and
spending—and that your assets have nothing to do with what label you wear.
Get your children to start investing early. Provide your children with a sound financial education
through stocks and mutual funds. There are a few mutual funds that are not only an investment vehicle but also
a teaching tool. In fact, the most popular, Columbia Funds, offers two kid-friendly quarterly newsletters—Dollar
Digest, for younger investors and It’s Your Money, for teen investors. The publications feature profiles of the
companies that the fund invests in as well as interviews with the CEOs of companies whose products and
services appeal to or affect the lives of young people.
Have your children earmark some money for savings and investments. Just as you are to put
10% to 15% of your paycheck in savings and investments, insist that your children do the same with a
portion of their allowances, monetary gifts and wages. Encourage friends and relatives to give them stock
for a birthday gift, a Christmas stocking stuffer or a graduation present. Challenge your children to keep
track of their investments’ performance.
Make financial literacy fun. Take your kids to places of business and finance such as the New York
Stock Exchange or the Federal Reserve. Play board games such as Monopoly and Take $tock, in which
players each start with $150,000 and have opportunities to buy stocks that they land on as they move around
the board. Encourage your child’s school to participate in the Stock Market Game sponsored by New York
Securities Industry Foundation for Economic Education, where students nationwide (grades 4–12) are given
hypothetical portfolios valued at $100,000 to manage by doing company research and picking stocks.
Have your children join or start an investment club. So that your youngster will become
proficient in picking and keeping track of stocks, encourage him or her to join or start an investment club
with others. They can recruit fellow classmates, church members, or teammates. Investment clubs provide
structure and discipline and, in some cases, are affiliated with civic groups, such as the Boys and Girls
Scouts of America.
Send your kids to entrepreneurship and investment camps. There are some 40 camps around the
country that teach youth how to invest or start a business. YoungBiz Inc. sponsors two week-long boot camps,
one teaches the basic principles of entrepreneurship (YoungBiz ‘Trep camp), while the other addresses the
fundamentals of investing in the stock market (YoungBiz Better Investing camp).
Involve your children in entrepreneurial ventures. Encourage your children’s entrepreneurial interests
and efforts. Besides presenting a chance to make extra pocket money, running a business teaches young
people sound money-management skills. The kind of business a child starts should reflect his or her favorite
hobbies as well as what he or she is good at.
Expose your children to local business owners. Visit black-owned businesses in your community
and in other cities when you are vacationing or visiting relatives. These outings will help your children
understand how business and the economy work in their neighborhood. Find a business mentor within your
family or network of friends or check with professional organizations such as the National Association of
Black Accountants, National Black MBA Association and National Black Chamber of Commerce.
PRINCIPLE NO. 7
To Provide Access to Programs that Will Educate
28
W
steps
Declaration of Financial Empowerment


resources
Camps & Programs:
Black Enterprise Kidpreneuers Conference
800-543-6786; www.blackenterprise.com
The Bull and Bear Investment Camp
(Conducted by Moody Reid Financial
Advisors Inc.) 800-761-0274
Camp Start-Up, Summer Stock,
and Who’s Behind the Noise
805-965-0457; www.dollardiva.com;
www.independentmeans.com
Children’s Entrepreneurial Opportunities Academy Inc.
Millionaires in the Making Servant Leadership
Program and Camp C.E.O.
615-320-3232; www.ceo-academy.org
Securities Industry Foundation for
Economic Education Stock Market Game
212-618-0519; www.smg2000.org
The Enterprise Center Youth
Entrepreneurship Boot Camp
215-895-4000; www.theenterprisecenter.com/
forentre/youth/youth.asp
YoungBiz Better Investing and YoungBiz ‘Trep Camps
888-543-7929; www.youngbiz.com
Organizations:
EDTEC Inc.
800-963-9361; www.edtecinc.com
Granville Charter School
609-393-3229
Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Inc.
at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
816-932-1000; www.entreworld.org
NAACP Reginald F. Lewis Youth Entrepreneurial Institute
410-580-5745; www.naacp.org
National Association of Investment Corp.
(Trade group for investment clubs)
877-275-6242;
www.better-investing.org/subjects/youth
The Institute for Entrepreneurship
920-993-9800; www.theeplace.org
The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship
800-367-6383; www.nfte.com
Websites:
www.myownbizkit.com
www.youthventure.org
www.youthinvestor.com (Columbia Funds)
www.fleetkids.com
www.bankingonourfuture.org
www.jumpstartcoalition.org
www.ncee.net/ea/program.php
(National Council on Economic Education)
www.kc.frb.org/fed101/indexflash.cfm
(Federal Reserve)
www.teachingkidsbusiness.com
www.teenstartups.com
www.ja.org (Junior Achievement)
Books & Publications:
The Lemonade Stand: How to Encourage the
Entrepreneur in Your Child by Emmanuel Modu
The Millionaire’s Club: How to Start & Run Your Own
Investment Club—and Make Your Money Grow
by Carolyn M. Brown
Making Money the Old-Fashioned Way:
A Story of Black Entrepreneurship
by Aaron Bocage & George Waters
Investing For Life (A publication of the NAIC)
by Jeffery D. Fox
Y&E magazine (A publication of YoungBiz)
PRINCIPLE no.7 My Children About Business and Finance
29
Create a youth enterprise center. Work with churches in your community to establish a Youth Enterprise
Center. Churches have all of the necessary ingredients to serve as a youth-business incubator: office equip-ment,
space, funds to provide micro- or macroloans, and a built-in customer base—the congregation. Most
churches have members, with backgrounds in accounting, law, or education, who can mentor youth.
Support school-based programs. Push your child’s school to develop entrepreneurial clubs and class-room
curricula that integrate business concepts into such subjects as social studies, economics and math.
Organizations such as EDTEC Inc. provide educational products and training. Its “New Youth Entre-preneur”
is a soup-to-nuts series on starting a business, developed in conjunction with the Ewing Marion
Kauffman Foundation.