Hello! It’s Jen again, with installment four of Agili’s Game for Kids: Intro to Personal Finance.

Click here for a printable version of our Game for Kids: Intro to Personal Finance (12 pages).

Module 4 – Stock Primer

Hello, and welcome to Module Four: Stock Primer. The goal of this module is to get kids to understand that buying a company’s stock means you own a piece of that company. With this game we get there by using products already familiar to our children. See Page 7 of the game for the Stock Primer Module.

At the beginning of this module, stock ownership is explained in simple terms and then children are asked to collect three items from around the house. These items should be familiar, maybe through commercials or from store shelves. The middle of Page 7 has examples of such items. Once your child brings the items to you, visit this website: https://www.allbrands.markets/ and type the name of the product into the search bar. Select your product from the drop-down (if available) to see that product’s parent company, stock symbol and current price per share. If you can’t find your item, the company is likely not publicly traded. If you can find your item, explain to your child: “If you want to own a share of [item], you need to pay [price] to buy a share of the company [parent company].”

My ten-year-old daughter Jojo worked through this module with me. We read through page 7 together and I made sure she understood the objective. Then, Jojo brought three items to me: Puffs, Crayola crayons and Chips Ahoy cookies. We sat down together to do our research.

I went to https://www.allbrands.markets/ and typed Chips Ahoy into the search bar. Once I clicked on the link in the drop-down, the Chips Ahoy page opened. Scrolling just a bit down the page showed us the stock price ($55.15 per share) and the stock symbol (MDLZ). We knew that Chips Ahoy cookies are made by Nabisco, but we learned that Nabisco’s parent company is Mondelez International.

A little further down the page there’s a link to see other products made by Mondelex International. Jo really enjoyed looking at this list – some of them (like Cadbury Creme Eggs) really surprised her!

I also went through this module with my fifteen-year-old son Gage. Gage brought me Triscuits, Froot Loops, and the sock off his foot (sigh), which was Nike brand.

What I learned:

• Jojo’s Crayola crayons were not listed on the allbrands website as having a parent company because Crayola is not publicly traded. This provided me an opportunity to explain that not all companies are available through the stock market, and she cannot buy a piece of the company that makes Crayola crayons.
• Gage’s Triscuits choice spurred an interesting conversation; Triscuits’ parent company is Mondelez International, just like Chips Ahoy. I mentioned that Jojo also “bought” a share of MDLZ. Gage and I talked about how – when you buy a share of MDLZ – your money doesn’t just go to support Triscuits, but Chips Ahoy, too (as well as many other products).

I was a little worried about how this module was going to go; it’s more hands-on than most of them. But it went very smoothly, and the kids followed along well and really seemed to get it!

Next up, Module Five: Budgeting

Module Three: Debit vs. Credit

If your child would like to dive even deeper into personal finance, check out this app offered by Mint.com.