The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens by David and Tom Gardner

Wanting to prepare my 12 year old daughter for a life of smart financial decisions, I bought her this book. I decided to read it first to determine its worth and relevance as well as be able to discuss it with her.

For now, I’m going to have her read the first few introductory chapters and the one with personal stories. She doesn’t have much interest in this area so I’m trying to build it. In the next year or two, when she’s 13 or 14, I’ll have her read the complete book for all of the information.

As far as the book is concerned, I found it to be a great primer for budgeting and investing. It covers basic topics and even more advanced ones with clarity and focus. The personal stories add just the right amount of entertainment to the reading, which is most often very dry in the financial genre.

I’d actually recommend this book to adults with limited investment experience and knowledge, as well. Investing is often overwhelming and intimidating for people without experience, myself included. This book does a fine job boiling it down to the essentials. And it contained many pertinent reminders for my own investment strategy and financial situation.

My only criticism is that the language directed towards teenagers doesn’t stand the test of time. Written in 2001, I can see today’s teens (2016) rolling their eyes at wanting to buy U2’s latest CD. Almost completely irrelevant in today’s world of mp3 downloads and streaming music. :)