ABC's of Money with Alan Akina - Lesson 4: How to Invest in Stocks with $5

Hey everyone, again welcome back to another edition of the ABCs of Money with Uncle Alan. Welcome back if you're— you are joining us again. If you are here for the first time, I know we have some first-timers, welcome. I hope you did your financial projects. Remember the 2 projects that, that Uncle Alan gave you? Number one, was to research a house in your neighborhood. Okay. A house in your neighborhood. And I wanted you to price it out. And there's 3 things that I wanted from you. So the first thing is I want you to find out the price. What is the price of this particular home in my neighborhood? Then we also wanted the monthly mortgage payment. So if you took out a loan, you have to go on a Google calculator, a mortgage calculator, and find out what the monthly payment is. Okay. Okay, and then the third thing I wanted you to do is I wanted you to see what the total is. Okay, the total for your entire payment when you make principal and interest payments. So after 30 years, what would that be? And I asked you to do the same thing for your dream car. So whatever your car is, we, we asked you to do that. And so we have a winner this week for doing their homework. As you guys know, Uncle Alan is starting to give away these gift cards. Oh yeah. We're giving away these Stockpile gift cards, and the winner actually it's two sisters, the Scoville sisters. I think it's Sadie and Sarah. So congratulations to you. I'll make sure we get your dad's email. We'll send you your gift card so you can start investing. Congratulations to both of you. Now I want to go into lesson four: how to invest. In stocks. So what I want you to do, the first question I want you to write down, you can type this in, the answer if you know it, is what is a stock? Okay, so what is a stock? Part of a company. Okay, good. Kaleo, your kids are good. Part of a company. A part of a company that people can own. Okay, Mindy, your kid said a part of a company that you can own. Absolutely correct. Okay, so a stock is being able to own a piece of a company. So for example, if you were a shareholder or stockholder of, let's say, Disney, you in essence own a piece of Disney. So what you can do when you own Disney, you can tell your friends like, hey, if they ever go— any of your friends go to Disneyland, you can say, hey, thanks for going and helping me make some money. Or let's say you own stock in Apple. So if you ever see someone with an Apple, an iPhone or, or earbuds, tap them on the shoulder and just say, thank you so much. And then you can walk away. Why? Because they're helping you to increase the value of your piece of the company. So I have an example for you. I have 3 different So this is how it used to be in the old days, okay? So companies would issue stock or certificates, okay? So this is a certificate for Starbucks. Love Starbucks hot chocolate. This is a certificate for, one of the original certificates for Apple Computer. And this is your, the amount of shares that you own in common stock. And then another one I printed out, one of, It's a little more updated Disney stock. So they used to issue these, these certificates. Okay, these are paper stocks. Now today the stocks are almost all digital. Everything's online. So these, these paper stocks really aren't, uh, aren't around much. So I wanted to talk to you about a company. Okay, so an example of, let's say, let's say we all got together and we did, and we were We wanted to start the ABC Company, okay? And we needed to raise $100. So, so we needed $100. So we said, okay, we're going to split the company up into 100 pieces. So we're going to give 100 shares. Hand me the papers. So we're going to give 100 shares. So we make 100 of these certificates and we can sell that to the public so anybody can buy it at $1. A share. So each certificate or share would be now worth a dollar. And the way that you make money— actually, I'll explain the way you make money. But now you become what we call a shareholder of the ABC Company, okay? Or a shareholder of Starbucks or Disney or Apple, okay? And why is that important? Okay, why do we invest in stocks? So this is number 2. I want you to write this down. Okay. There's 3 Reasons why we invest in stocks. Okay, so write this down and you can follow along with me and, and enter it in. First is it's a great way to build wealth. So getting your money to work for you. Okay, it's a great way to, to build wealth. So the stock market, if you sort of average it out, and a little crazy, but the average return that you would get since 1926— now I wasn't born yet, but one of my friends is on, he might have been born around that time, his name is Dr. Dale Keaton. Okay, so from 1996 Till today, the stock market has averaged about 10% a year. So you make about 10% a year, give or take. Now, as you can tell, markets go up and down. I'm going to talk about that, but this is going to be your average, very close to 10% since, since 1926. Okay. The second reason that you want to invest in stocks is because it's passive. Passive. Passive means you don't have to work. So it's not like you're buying stock in Disney and then you go to work there. You don't, you don't have to work there. Okay? You're able to invest and let your money grow and let your money work for you. So it's, it's a Passive type of investment that allows you to continue to do what you're doing. So if you have a job or you're running another business, you can keep doing what you're doing, but then make those investments so you can grow your wealth. Okay. And then the third reason is diversification. Okay. So being able to have money— remember, lesson number 1 was money coming in, right, from 3 different income sources. So you might have a job, then you'll be able to have income from paper assets or stocks, and then, you know, real estate. So this allows you to be able to diversify your income and your wealth building. So those are the 3 reasons why— 3 major reasons why you want to invest in the stock market. Number one, it's a great way to build wealth. You got your money working for you. It's passive, which means you don't need to go to work for it. Okay? You're not there. It's working for you while you're doing other things. And number three, it gives you some diversification. Okay? So it kind of mixes them up. Remember the three buckets, right? So I have an example for you. So I looked up some information on Amazon. I'm sure all of you know Amazon. You know, you're probably ordering things on Amazon now with this coronavirus. So I did a research project on Amazon. Okay, so here's what would happen if you invested, say, $100. Okay, $100 of your dollars went into Amazon right when it went IPO. So you need to know this, okay? Write down this IPO. It doesn't stand for EPO, okay? IPO stands for Initial Public Offering. So this is right when Amazon said, we're gonna sell stocks, okay? So that's an IPO, is an Initial Public Offering. Right at the beginning, you can buy stocks. So this was 23 years ago in 1997. Okay, so at that time, at that time, Amazon shares were $18 apiece. And so your $100 would have got you 5 of these shares. So you got 5 of 5 shares of Amazon in 1997. I know you weren't around, but your, your parents are okay. Now, here's what happened to, to Amazon over 23 years. They had 3 stock splits. Okay. So they had 2 2-for-1 stock splits. So they had 2 2-for-1 and they had 1 3-for-1 stock split. Okay, so what that means is— and write this down, kids— stock split is when they trade 1 stock for 2. So the 2-for-1. So if you have 5 stocks, you would trade the 5 in for 2 more of each that you have. So you would end up with 10. So they did that twice. Okay, so then you did another stock split and you ended up with 20. Okay, then they did a 3-for-1, so you ended up with 60. So as of yesterday, okay, so I checked the stock. So if you had 60 shares of Amazon, here's what it would be worth today. So each share you bought at $18, last night or yesterday it was at, it was at $2,168 per share, which would give you roughly about $130,000 in value today. Okay, now that's Amazon, and that's assuming that, you know, you got it in at the IPO price. Well, this is, this is kind of a good example. A lot of, a lot of people talk about Amazon and I think you're very, very familiar with Amazon. Okay, so great way to build wealth long term. I always say that investing in stocks is like running a marathon. Okay, it's if you're on a track team, you have the marathon runners, they run long distance, then you have your sprinters, and then you have your mid sprint. And so running a marathon is just like investing in stocks. You got to consistently do it. Have a steady pace. You got to do it over your lifetime and just real, real steady. Okay, now I want to get into the third reason that we want to invest in stocks, and we're going to talk about how do I make money? How do I make money on stocks? So it's it's simple. There's two ways that you make money, and I'm going to show you an example of my daughter's accounts and how she's making money. Okay, so um. The first way you make money is buying what? Low and selling high. So in this case, if you buy a share of Amazon at $18 and you sell it for $2,100, you're going to make a profit. Okay. So that's one way to make money is you buy a stock at a lower price and you sell at a higher price. We don't want to do it the other way, right? Buy high and sell low. A lot of people do that because they're crazy, right? Crazy adults. They're not thinking. They get caught up in emotions as opposed to thinking about, what do I— what am I really doing here? I'm buying the company. I'm going to talk to you about that in a second. Now, the second way that you make money is through what we call dividends. What is dividends? Dividends are, very simply put, they're some of the profit that the company makes. They're going to send that to all of the shareholders or stockholders. So if you have stock, you're going to share that, and they're going to share the profits with you, and you make money. And typically, they— most companies will pay dividends every 3 months, so every quarter, and they'll pay you a percentage of what you— what's how many stocks you own. So I'm going to share with you my daughter. So come here, Kiani. This is, um, this is Kiani, and she's helping behind the scenes. So, Kiani, we, uh, we started an account for her a long time ago, and we're gonna pull this up. So, wow, let me see if you can see this. Can you guys see this okay? Is that cool? Okay. So this is Kiani's. You see Kiani's name. It's this is her account, but I'm the custodian because she's under 18. Okay, so um so actually today, so today the stock market hasn't closed yet. It's still going. But here's her one day. So her one day she is up 4.3%, which Is earning her $620 in value. So she's not getting $620 in cash dollars. This is $620 in value. Okay, so let's see what she did over the period of a week because this stock market has kind of been going up and down. This week has been, been pretty good and the month has been, you know, decent. And then her max lifetime. of investing is at about 15% since she's been doing this. So let's go back and let's, let's show you some of these stocks that she bought. Okay, so, so she has some pending orders. So she's put some orders in for stock today that should close later. But here's her, here's her portfolio. Okay, so she owns some Apple, Nike, Google, Amazon, Disney, Microsoft, with Urban Outfitters, Costco, some Vanguard mutual fund, American Express, Walmart, and this is Berkshire Hathaway, and then recently got some Delta. Now, when she started, she didn't start with this much. We started with 3 different companies, and over time, she's been doing this for years, so she's been acquiring little pieces of companies. So let's take An example of. Let's see here. Okay. So let's say Apple. Let's see what she's done with Apple. So click on Apple. That's the share price today as it is. So it's going up today. Now, her if she wanted to sell, she this is how she could make money. She has a total investment, an average purchase price of $234 per share. The current value is at $287. So she would roughly, if she wanted to sell all of her stocks today, she would make 22% on that, which would equal about $934. Okay. And so that's one way. That's number one, buying low, selling high. Now I want to talk about number 2, dividends. So we're going to go down here. I'm going to show you what dividends are. Okay. So the dividend yield on this, on Apple, is 1.37%. Okay. So just over 1% is what they're going to pay in a dividend. So I'm going to share with you her Her account. Let's see here. I'm going to show you the dividends. Okay. Let's see here. Give me one second. Okay. So let's see. This is a timeline. So she put an order in for some of these stocks today. Okay. And so she got a dividend. So she received a dividend of $2.98 from Walmart on April 7th. So a week ago. Okay. So we set up the app to automatically take the dividend, and dividend is some of the profit that Walmart is sharing with her or with you. And so we have it automatically set up. So now it reinvests That $2.98. Okay, let's see what she did from Nike. So she received from Nike on April 2nd, so 12 days ago, a dividend of $2.65. So with this app, it reinvested the, the $2.65 into more shares of Nike. And And that's what the transaction was like that day. Okay, so then it tracks, you know, what you bought. So she's been buying stuff. Here's a here's a dividend from Microsoft, three dollars and seventy-one cents over time. So so kids, what what this is is again remember I said it's long-term investing, and so because there is dividend now she hasn't really sold much. There's there's some things I think she wants to sell Urban Outfitters. She was telling me that this morning that. Urban Outfitters went up a little bit and she wants to get out of it because she doesn't think it's a good company anymore. But so she'll try to sell high and get, get out of that and then reinvest it. And then all of her dividends are going back in to buy more shares of that company. Okay, so what I want to talk about is an example of a 20-year-old versus another 20-year-old investing. Okay, so I have an example. So let's say there was two 20-year-olds. Okay, let's say they're they're two of your your uncle and your aunt. Okay, and your aunt started investing at the age of 20. They both are 20; they're twins. So they started investing. Let's say $300 a month. So I got this example. Okay, so they're putting in $300 a month, and your aunt invested from the time she was 20 till she hit. 30 and she stopped. For some reason she stopped. Maybe she had kids or whatever happened. She stopped investing. She just left all her money there and let it grow. Her twin brother didn't invest at 20. He started at the age of 30 when she stopped. So he invested from 30 to age 50 and then he stopped. Now they both are twins. So when they both hit the age of 50, who do you think will have more money? Okay, so let's assume they invested $300 a month. Okay. And they got a return of 8.8%. So not 10%, but 8.8% over those years. So if, if the investor is 20 until 30, they would have invested $54,000. $175 by 30. Okay. And if they let it stay, if they let it grow at that 8.8%, by the time they reach 50, your aunt would now have $292,000. Okay. Now, your uncle that started at 30 and went to 50, so he invested twice as long, but he started 10 years later. Same $300 a month, same 8.8%. When he reached 50, he would have only $180,000. So your aunt won the investment game by over $112,000 just by starting early. And that is why what we're doing today for you kids is so very, very, very important. Because the one thing that you have is time. You have time that we can never get back. And if you start early and you're consistent with it over time, this could be something very, very significant for you. And I think if you ask any adult if they had a regret of not starting earlier, I think almost all adults would, especially those that understand money and compounding. And how things grow and reinvestment of your dividends and things of that sort. Okay. So in, in closing, I have a couple more things for you. All right. It's which is how do I get started? Number 4, how do I get started? There's 3 simple things that I want you to do to get started. Okay. Number one, you need to choose a platform. Okay, so choose a platform. What is a platform? An investment, like an app or a brokerage firm to help you with the transactions of buying stocks because you really—it's difficult to buy stock directly from the company. It's much, much more efficient. To use an investment firm and use their tools and apps. I'm going to talk to you about a few apps at the end that you can use to choose a platform to get started. Okay, now with these platforms, they're, they're becoming a lot easier and simpler to use, and the price to trade has come down over all the years that Uncle was growing up. They always would charge, you know, $5 to $10 or $20, $30 or more to buy a stock. Now these companies are charging $0.99 to, to some nothing. It's free.

Okay.

Now the second thing I want you to do is I want you to evaluate and pick stocks or mutual funds. Okay. So you're going to research, research and pick Stocks or mutual funds. Mutual funds is a bucket of stocks all in one, one, one investment. Okay. I'm going to suggest that you just start with a few. So look at on the platform the different stocks and research those things. So what I did with my kids is like Kiani, who you met, and all of them, I said, okay, you're going to pick 3 stocks, look at all of them, tell me you know, what stocks you think would be good to invest in and why. And I want you to remember this. Write this down, kids. When we're investing in stocks, the way to think of it is like how the greatest investor our world has ever seen— his name is Warren Buffett— invests. Okay? The way he thinks is he's buying the company. If I were to buy the company, I'm not just buying a stock. If I was buying the company, What company would I buy and why? Why is this a good company? So I told my kids, hey, go pick 3 companies, tell me why. These are companies that you probably should know, you want to be familiar with and what they're doing and what they sell and all this stuff. How do they make money? How long they've been in business? And like Mr. Warren Buffett says, do they have a moat around their business? You ever seen a castle with a moat to protect the castle? What does the business have surrounding it that protects them and helps them to be really, really good? Why is Apple really, really good? Why is Amazon really, really good? Why is Disney really good? And I'm going to share with you some examples. Okay. So that's, that's the second thing. Okay. And then the third is what we call dollar— write this down— cost averaging. Okay, dollar cost averaging, which means you're going to invest a little bit every month or every quarter, and you're going to do it consistently over time. Why? Why is this so important if you invest a little bit over time? Because the market goes up and the market goes down. Market goes up, market goes down. This is kind of how it is, but eventually over time it's going to go up. So if you dollar cost average, You're going to start to buy stocks and the price is going to average out because it's going to be impossible, impossible to time the market. Like, okay, the stock market is low. How do we know? No one knows that this is the bottom of the stock market. No one knows the top when to sell, not even professionals. So dollar cost averaging allows you to do it consistently over time. Okay, so, so write these down, kids. When you evaluate a company, so like, like one of my— when you do your research, you want to find companies that you know you're familiar with. So one of my favorite companies is, is actually Disney. I like Disney. Why? Because they're a fun company. They're a great company to own. I mean, think about this. How does Disney make money? And you can go look this up, right? Of course, they have Disney World, Disneyland. They have their theme parks, they have Disney Channel, they got Disney Radio, they have Disney hotels, right? In Hawaii, they have the Aulani, that's a Disney hotel. Then they have the Disney Cruise, which is very expensive to go on. And then other things that they own that you might know— actually, the new thing that I really, really love that's, that's helping them out today is Disney Plus. Disney Plus. Some of you, if you have Disney Plus, give me a thumbs up or something and let me know if you have Disney Plus. That is like huge right now. Everybody's watching it. They have like 50 million subscribers that are helping them even when the parks are closed. They're still making money. Some of the other companies that they own, I wrote this down for you. I looked it up last night. Disney owns ESPN, Marvel, they own ABC, And probably 100 other companies. So if you look up, if you just Google what companies Disney own, you'll, you'll be amazed and see, you know, why they're such a good company. So I want you to dig down and do that with, with other companies that, that you're familiar with. Now I want to talk to you about a few platforms and then we're going to wrap up here. So a few platforms that I like to use. Number one is Stockpile. So Stockpile. Is where I got these gift cards. So, so stock. One of the reasons why I like Stockpile is because it's made for kids. Okay, it's, it's very simple to use and it's very relatable to kids. And it gives parents control to set up a custodial account. So as you've seen, I have a custodial account for my kids and they can buy and sell stocks within their account. But whenever they make a transaction, so like you saw some that was happening with Keanu, It sends me a notification in my app or in my email, and I can approve or disapprove of any transaction that my kids make. So it gives the parents control. So parents, when you set this up, this is something they should be aware of. The other reason I like Stockpile is because it lets you buy fractional shares. And so fractional share program is, let's say Disney is at is that, uh, or Amazon, right? Here's Amazon's price as of last night, $2,168. Well, we might not have $2,000 to invest in one stock, but with Stockpile, they'll let you buy $5 of the, the one share. So you can buy fractional shares, and over time you'll add up to one. Really, really cool feature. Now, the only downside to them Is that any time you buy or sell, it's $0.99. Isn't much, but that $0.99 could go to work for you. OK, so that's one of my favorites for kids. The other one that I like is Robinhood. I've just started using that. Robinhood is— yeah, again, I've just set up a brand new account. I love it because it's a step above Stockpile, so it gives you more research. More information on each company, and I also like it because to buy or sell, when I buy or sell, it's free with their basic account. Now the way they make money is they have a gold account that they try to upsell you on, but the free account is great for for all of you kids, and maybe you're a teenager, a little bit you know older. Your parents might want to set something up like that. I like that, and I have my oldest son on Robinhood as well. And then another one that I use is Charles Schwab. Okay, so Charles Schwab is a long-term— why I like them, because they've been in business for a long time and their technology is getting better and they've lowered their costs dramatically. Okay, they've lowered their costs A ton. So between Stockpile, Robinhood, and Charles Schwab, those are great to start with. And there's there's others, and you don't have to go with this. There's there's others. And remember, guys, I'm not a stockbroker. I'm not trying to give investment advice. I just want to teach you the basics of the stock market, how it works, and then ultimately you have to decide and work with your parents. That's why I want your parents here is. Is you know how much are we going to allocate to each stock and what companies should we get or mutual funds? What platform should we use? Those are all going to be up to you. This is just a very informational course that I want to do. I don't want to try to influence you any other way and and you know have you do things that that you you probably shouldn't do. And again, that's just my disclaimer. Again, I'm not a stock poker. I want to make that very very clear. And I'm not trying to get you to buy stock or do it through me or whoever. But this is investing in stocks. Now I have, I have a financial project for you. So write this down.

Okay, kids,

there's, there's 3 things that I want you to do for your financial project. Number 1, I want you to set up one of these platforms. So choose a platform and get it set up. Like I said, most of them are free today. Do your research, figure it out, get, get online and set up. And shouldn't cost you anything. Now, some of it is going to ask your parents to connect their bank accounts so they can move money back and forth. That's just standard. The second financial project is I want you to pick 3 companies or mutual fund to invest in. Okay. And I want you to research and make a case of why these are the 3 out of all the ones that you look at. There's a lot of great companies. My daughter even picked Snapchat. My younger daughter, she had Children's Place. It's because what she knew. But a lot of them are doing Nike and other things. So I want you— I want you to pick 3 companies. You don't have to put any money into it yet, any investments, but just write it down and pick 3 companies or mutual funds or 2 and write down why these would be good investments. And you're going to have to make that pitch to your parents on why you should invest in this company. But make sure you do all the research on them. Look at— look up their information. Okay. There's tons of information on these companies. And when you go to the platform, there is information you can get from each. Okay. And then the third thing I want you to do, so I want you to take a picture. So you take a picture with, you know, handwritten down, you can type it out, the companies that you picked. So here's my top 3 picks. And you can post it on right here on my Facebook, or post it on your parents' Facebook. Tag me in it and use the hashtags Money ABCs and hashtag 101 Financial. Okay, so Money ABCs and hashtag 101 Financial. We're going to pick a winner for more gift cards. Okay, from Stock Model, we're going to give out more of these cards for the winners. I want to see three. Of your best companies, you take those pictures. Now, you don't have to invest in it. I'm not saying go buy those companies, but I want you to do the research and get into the action. And only when you feel ready and your parents are with you on these investments do you start. And I always suggest starting small, starting small and working into the game. Okay. Now, with that being said, I know this is a long one. There's a lot going on. I'm gonna take a few questions if you have any.

So Violet asks, when you buy a stock, is the payment a one-time or recurring every month?

One-time, one-time payment to buy a certain amount of stock. Now some apps let you invest a certain amount every month if you set it up that way for auto invest, but typically when you're buying stocks like these apps, Like Stockpile doesn't let you do that, but others do. Charles Schwab, my Charles Schwab does it automatically.

Sarah Farrell asked, does Stockpile cost money to start an account?

Nope. All these are free to start. Stockpile, Robinhood, Charles Schwab, they all have free accounts. So look for those free accounts and play around with it. You don't— like I said, you don't have to put any money in right now. Start small, take your time, do your research before you do anything.

Okay, Erica asks, what do you think about using Plaid to transfer money to Stockpile from your bank? Is it secure?

Yeah, Plaid is fine. I've used it. So that's the— like I said, when you set up these accounts, they're going to ask you for, um, they're going to ask you to connect your bank, and they use a third-party service called Plaid. Plaid was just bought by Visa, so I think they're pretty safe.

Do you have a constant flow of income from stock?

Can you get a constant flow of income from stock? Yes, you can through dividends. Remember the 2 ways we make money is through dividends. They, they will pay— most companies pay a dividend every 3 months. So write that down, dividends, 3 months on average.

Tanya asked, do you have a stock?

Tanya, yes I do. I have a lot of stocks. I have a lot of different stocks that I like, and I kind of watch a little bit. I don't track it every day, I just watch a little bit, and then I invest in mutual funds. So mutual funds is like an entire bucket of a bunch of different companies all in like one stock. So one of my favorites is like what they call S&P 500, but like 500 of the top American companies all in one. Love those.

Alyssa asks, where should we look to find the information on a company we pick?

Google, Google or Yahoo Finance. There's a ton of information. Just Google the company. Just say, let's say it's Disney. You type in Disney stock information and it'll pull up a bunch of information, different websites.

Scarlett asks, how do we tag you?

How do we tag me? So on my Facebook, my Facebook is just @AlanAkina, A-L-A-N, A-K-I-N-A.

Karen asked, what stock app do you use the most?

What stock app do I use the most? For my kids, Stockpile. Robinhood, I just set one up for me. I didn't get one for my kids except for my older son. And then my Charles Schwab, I have that automatically investing every month. And my Vanguard, I have a Vanguard that I use for my IRAs.

Heather asked, do you make money off stock?

Do I make money off of stock? I am. I've never taken any money out. I just have it continually buying and growing. And so my plan for stocks is that I'm going to try to keep it in there as long as I can. Remember, the key component is having in there for a long time. So if you're twelve now and you start and you start putting a little bit of money and you get used to this habit, what that means is you're spending less money that's coming in on buying junk or stuff. And you're buying assets and you're going to train yourself. So when you become an adult, you can continue this habit. And if you do this to your old— like Uncle, Uncle is really old now. Okay. So when, when you're really old like Uncle, your, your portfolio will be huge. It'll— there'll be a lot of money in there, but it takes time.

Auntie Jen Watson asks, what pharmaceutical company would you recommend with this COVID?

Oh, good question. What pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical company would I recommend? I don't have any recommendations. I don't know that area very well, and I don't really want to recommend any stocks to anyone today.

Khalil asked, what if you just put in $10? Is that too little?

Hey, $5 is great. It doesn't matter how much you start with as long as you start. That's the key, Khalil. Does not matter how much you have. It's just getting started and then working hard and then putting a little away every month, right? We remember the 3 S's. The first is money that we save. That money goes into our savings and we use that to buy assets. So a little bit, a little bit. Even if you put $1 a month away, that's better than nothing.

Francie asks, should you invest in mutual funds or stock market? Which do you recommend for long term?

Probably long term would be mutual funds. So buying a bucket of stocks that has a whole bunch of them in there. Gives you more diversification, right? Remember the third thing we say, why invest in stocks? Diversification.

Xavier says, I'm 17. How long on average does it take someone my age to generate viable wealth from stocks?

17 is a great age to start, and it really depends on, on how much you can put away each month, right? The more you can invest, you know, 10% of your take-home pay, 20% or more, And you consistently do this over time and you pick good companies, you've got great mutual funds and you don't get scared, right? The market's going to go up and the market's going to go down. And what happens when the market goes down? Everybody freaks out. They start to sell. So they do the opposite of, of this buying low, selling high. They buy high and sell low. So what, what I teach my kids is when the stocks go down using the app, it turns red. That's when you want to buy because we already picked the company. We know it's good. So don't freak out. Stay consistent. Okay. And I know the market goes up and down, so just don't get emotional about it.

Which account do we choose on Stockpile to sign up? Custodial adult or custodial minor?

If you are the parent, you want to set up a custodial minor. Or yeah, so you got to connect to your parents. Custodial minor.

Junior asks, can we transfer money from an IRA to use with these apps?

Through an IRA, you probably can use it with Charles Schwab. Not these guys. Not yet. No. Well, kids, thank you very much. It was a great lesson. Now, on Thursday, Thursday, lesson 5, we're going to talk about how to start your own business. Okay, so this is going to be a great lesson. I hope you tune in. Be sure to tag your friends, share this with your classmates, other family members that are missing out on all this valuable information. So kids, be safe, be smart, be wise. Continue to do your homework, listen to your parents. God bless you all, and I'll see you on Thursday. Bye.