Best Investing Books For Young Kids
5 Financial Literacy Books for Kids 12 and Under that teach about investing
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“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest”
-Ben Franklin
Financial literacy from a young age can change a child’s life. That is the core belief we have here at Future Funders and something that motivates us every day to continue to try to help. When it comes to investing, learning about the topic early can also have its advantages as you can build a knowledge base to grow upon as you get older.
Books can be a great place to start teaching this subject and no matter if you are reading them with your child or they are reading them alone, there are a lot of wonderful ones out there that can introduce subject matter in a less intimidating and straightforward way.
Investing, as we teach it, is one of the three main ways people can choose to consistently earn money. You can also chose the path of Skills for Hire (a traditional Job working for someone else), Skills for Self-Empowerment (entrepreneurship), or it can be some combination of the three.
Now, Investing has its pluses and minuses just like the other two paths. Being an investor is hard (just ask our founder!), there are lots of potential “asset classes” or things to invest in (i.e. stocks, bonds, real estate, etc), and it takes a good amount of emotional as well as financial intelligence to be successful (managing your emotions can sometimes be most of the battle!).
However, on the positive side, if you learn how to do it well and have an understanding of how it works, you can unlock the power of compound interest which will help your money grow rapidly over time (kind of like a snowball gaining steam rolling down a mountain).
As a starting point, we wanted to give parents and kids who are interested a look at 5 books that we found to be great places to start (for some more advanced books check out our post on investing books for teens).
Lastly, the list below is by no means exhaustive (we left out a fair amount that we love!) but as always feel free to leave us a comment with others that you may have found helpful or shoot us a note here!
Brother Bull And Sister Bear Go To The Stock Market
Age Range: 3 years to 7 years old
Authors: Kennedy Thibou Jr.
Our Take: Brother Bull And Sister Bear Go To The Stock Market is perfect for young kids to start to introduce concepts around markets in a fun and playful way. The full page illustrations are vivid and very well done with language that is simple to understand and a cute story.
The book can be a great starting off point for young kids to start learning about the stock market in an unintimidating way that can spark their curiosity to learn more as they get older and grow.
About The Book: Brother Bull loves everything that goes UP. Sister Bear loves everything that goes DOWN. They meet a well-dressed robot who becomes their tour guide to the stock market and takes them on a fun roller-coaster-ride tour!
Follow Brother Bull and Sister Bear as they realize that the stock market is their perfect dream job. Brother Bull and Sister Bear Go to the Stock Market is a rhyming children’s picture book designed to comedically introduce young children (ages three to seven) to the stock market by creating a unique origin story for the phrases “bull/bear market” and “bullish/bearish.”
This is accomplished by personifying the Bull and Bear as young children that love going UP and DOWN. This book follows them on their own journey to discover their perfect market fit.
Investor Ninja
Age Range: 3 years to 10 years old
Author: Mary Nhin
Our Take: Investor Ninja is part of the “Ninja” book series and similar to Money Ninja does a very nice job speaking in basics about important financial literacy topics (in this case talking about markets).
It is a great book to introduce kids to the value of money and ways to invest to make more money. While some of the terms may go over the head of kids at the lower end of this age range, the illustrations are playful and the story can be followed in a way that may help the general meaning of the book sink in (and you can read it again over time).
Lastly, Investor Ninja will help kids become more away of saving and making good money investment choices with the ability to expand on these principles as they get older.
About The Book: Life is hard! And it's even harder for children who are just trying to figure things out. The new children's book series, Ninja Life Hacks, was developed to help children learn valuable life skills.
Fun, pint-size characters in comedic books easy enough for young readers, yet witty enough for adults. The Ninja Life Hacks book series is geared to kids 3-11. Perfect for boys, girls, early readers, primary school students, or toddlers. Excellent resource for counselors, parents, and teachers alike.
Investing For Kids
Age Range: 8 years to 12 years old
Author: Dylin Redling, Allison Tom
Our Take: Investing For Kids is a great book for talking about investing as well as exploring other concepts like where money comes from and saving.
Don’t let the cartoon drawings fool you, the book covers a wide variety of investing an money topics (for example things like ESG investing, credit ratings, compound interest) that place it more on the advanced side of material, but the language used is simple and easy to understand making it ideal for young kids.
As a parent this book is a great stating point for you to jump off in more detail on any investing or money direction that you want with your kid.
About The Book: Did you know that the sooner you understand money, the sooner you can make more of it? It’s true! Investing for Kids can help make you money savvy, showing you how to earn it, how to start a savings plan, and the best ways to invest and create a future with money in the bank.
With a little help from the astounding Dollar Duo―Mr. Finance and Investing Woman―this engaging guide to investing for kids ages 8 to 12 covers essential information about stocks and bonds, how you can invest in them, and how they can help you build your wealth.
Learn about the concepts of “risk” and “reward” as well as learn how to diversify your portfolio and, ultimately, how to make your money grow.
Blue Chip Kids
Age Range: 8 years old to 12 years old
Author: David Bianchi
Our Take: We liked the money language concept of this book which breaks down key terms and lets younger children start to understand the terminology of the financial world around them.
Blue Chip Kids delves into complex financial and investing topics such as EBITDA (fancy acronym for an adjusted measure of a company’s profit that some people look at), stock options, Libor rates (fancy term for a type of interest rate), Leverage (fancy term for debt), and high frequency trading.
The language used however is not too daunting and young kids can understand at least the basics here around investing from which they can learn more or go explore some different avenues talked about in the book in more detail.
About The Book: Blue Chip Kids: What Every Child (and Parent) Should Know About Money, Investing, and the Stock Market is a fun and easy-to-understand introduction to the world of money and investing for kids and parents.
Frustrated by the lack of entertaining financial teaching materials for his 13-year-old son, this book is the result of a father’s commitment to pass on one of life’s most important skills.
Written by David W. Bianchi—an investor and lawyer with an economics degree from Tufts University—this hands-on resource demystifies the basic principles about money matters and shows what it takes to spend, save, and invest wisely.
Filled with simple examples and numerous illustrations, this easy-to-read book discusses money and investing in 100 bite-size topics. For every parent who wants their children to develop the skills to invest wisely and become responsible money managers, regular savers, and to earn money while they sleep, this book is a must-have.
Go! Stock! Go!
Age Range: 8 years old to 12 years old
Author: Bennett Zimmerman
Our Take: If you are looking for great illustrations and a more cartoon like way to explain investing concepts than this is your book.
GO! Stock! Go! goes into the very basics of stocks and how they work helping young kids understand and leave with the ability to try out investing in a few stocks and see what happens.
The stories and cartoons are used to teach and capture the attention of the young even on some complex terms (like market capitalization or a P/E ratio) and while we would admit some of the terms in this book and lessons might need some updating, on the whole is will give your child a great introductory understanding of how stocks work.
About the book: Go! Stock! Go! employs a cartoon-like "Dr. Seuss" style as it becomes the first truly user friendly book on stock and finance.
A storybook follows the Johnson family as they learn the fundamentals of stocks and bonds, the mechanics of investing, and important lessons on risk and reward. The humorous illustrated story is simple enough for children and teenagers yet is also directed towards adults and kids of all ages.
The book offers an advanced section "Let's Talk Stock" that provides an added level of knowledge for older readers. While designed with children in mind, this book is sure to become an adult favorite. "Go! Stock! Go! is terrific. It simply explains what seems confusing and makes it understandable.
