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Teens Tackle the Stock Market at
YoungBiz Summer Camps

By Amy Rauch Neilson

For a few dozen or more teenagers across the country, memories from summer camp this year won’t be of flickering campfires or pesky bugs, soggy canoe trips or midnight pranks. Indeed, when these students put pen to paper for a “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” essay, words like “P/E ratio” and “bear market” may spill across the page, along with “checkbook register” and “budget”.

These teens, from Orlando, Atlanta, New York City, Houston, and Washington, D.C., spent a steamy summer week made for beaches and swimming pools learning the basics of money management and the stock market. Now in their second year, the YoungBiz Better Investing Camps take an overall approach to personal finance that encompasses everything from how to build a budget to balancing a stock portfolio.

Therese Stevens of Crete, IL, sent her four grandchildren to the Orlando camp. “I’ve been purchasing shares of stock for them since they were born, so they’re not new to the subject of investing,” Stevens said. “But, after the camp, I think they’ll be better savers and will watch the stock market’s ups and downs more closely.”

The advantage of starting early

For teens, there are big rewards for gaining these life lessons early. “We had the opportunity to show our campers that, with their youth and compound interest working in their favor, it’s a great time to be young,” said Brad Dodson, whose New York City camp, held at New York University, was filmed by CNN and Black Entertainment Television as well as a Tokyo film company. “We taught them how to see the value in both bear and bull markets and that right now, it’s a buyer’s market.”

The market’s sharp downturn, which coincided with the camps, had the campers on edge at first. “The first day, they reacted like a lot of adults do, with ‘oh my gosh, we’re losing money,’” Dodson recalled.  “But once they understood, there were lots of conversations about what stocks they could get a good deal on.”

What’s in a (household) name?

Dodson’s campers were quick to begin investigating companies as potential investments. “This camp really opened their minds to the current events they were reading about in the newspapers,” he said. “They went home at night and started looking around the house for the names of the companies that make the products they use every day. They began to realize these companies are potential investments.”

Indeed, the teens who participated in the Washington, D.C. camp, held at George Mason University in Arlington, VA, brought several investment ideas to class after scouting their households. Camper Evan Robbins, 15, brought Coca-Cola to the table, noting that the company had recently begun to test-market a new product called Limeade. Meanwhile, camper Kayla Williams, 13, discovered a number of products she uses were made by Johnson & Johnson — a stock she continued to track throughout the week.

Off to the right start

Each camp kicked off with activities that introduced long-term financial goal setting. Campers also filled out a personal survey that measured their attitudes and knowledge of money and investing — a test they repeated at the week’s end. They were proud to see their scores increase dramatically over the five days. “I now understand the P/E ratio!” Robbins boasted.

In addition to learning how to evaluate stocks and mutual funds using analysis tools like Value Line and Morningstar, campers also learned the basics of budgeting and money management. “They learned how to write a check and keep a check register,” said Angela Subbs-Brady, who led the Orlando camp. “They also chose a hypothetical job, budget, and lifestyle. It was a big eye-opener for them to see how much money they would have to earn just to get by.”

Practicing their swing

Campers had plenty of special opportunities to learn from local stockbrokers and bankers, who volunteered their time to visit the camps and speak to the teens. At the Orlando camp, held at the RDV Sportsplex, campers were treated to a presentation by stockbroker Louis Bell, Jr. from Salomon Smith Barney, who drew a clever analogy between investing and the game of golf.

In Washington, D.C., campers took a field trip to First Union bank, where Vice President Russell Fleming took them through the vault and even showed them what a sheet of money looks like when it arrives from the mint. And in New York, campers discovered a different kind of ATM — one that dispenses rolls of coins. “They were checking it out to see if the company that made the machine — Mas-Hamilton — would be a good investment,” Dodson said.

Bragging rights

The camps heated up as the week drew to a close. Campers, who had worked in teams throughout the week to create a stock and mutual fund portfolio that demonstrated the best long-term growth potential as well as balance, competed for cash awards and bragging rights.

“As the week went on, the campers became increasingly competitive,” Dodson reported. “They were using Value Line to evaluate companies and looking for that ‘diamond in the rough.’”

Some were convinced they had found it, such as the Stunning Stockbrokers team from the Washington, D.C. camp, who combined mutual fund investments with growth companies like Dell Computer and Home Depot to create their portfolio. All walked away with a sense of pride and accomplishment at the stock-picking skills they had acquired during the week.

“When you have a teen explaining to the judges why his team picked one stock over another, using terms like P/E ratio and growth, that tells you they’ve learned quite a bit,” Dodson said. “By the end of the week, our campers come away with a good understanding of money management and the financial skills they’ll need for the rest of their lives.”

For more information about future YoungBiz Better Investing Camps, click on the button for YoungBiz Camp Central on our homepage.