Inspiring Teens To Financial Greatness
Do you know a teenage girl who could use a little financial inspiration? How many times have you said I wish I knew in my teens, what I know about money now… . I know that if we had started saving in our high school years we’d be retired and lunching on yachts by now. The trick, of course isn’t just talking to teens, its connecting with them and we have a few tips on how your converstaion can really inspire change.
Girls are emotional throughout their life when it comes to investing. In the end, it means they make better financial decisions.
Recent studies show that, as with other areas of business, women make investment decisions differently from men. They consider contradictory information and study company fundamentals more carefully before investing. Over the long term, funds run by women, who tend to be more risk-averse in general, outperform those of men. The Hedge Fund Research Diversity Index, for example, which has 50% female managers, returned an annual average 8.21% since 2003, while the broader index returned 5.98%.
It also mean girls think and learn about money differently, even at a young age. Consider this, once a teenage girl reaches high school, she is evaluating almost everything you say with the question, how will this help me in the real world? So even your best efforts to inspire her to save for college, or for a rainy day sometime down the line, may not be tangible enough for her to grasp right now.
Generation Y has also been coined the generation of entitlement “ you can use this to your advantage. Use your daughters emotional triggers to connect with her. Talking about freedom, independence, and playing on feelings on entitlement are effective methods. How will investing now give me the life that I feel I am entitled too? The real questions for girls are these: What type of lifestyle do you want to live? What are your goals and dreams? Where do you see yourself in five years?
The good news is that girls do have an appetite to learn about investing so challenge yourself to adopt a positive and committed attitude towards money, and watch the difference you can make in the lives of the teens you know “ they are absorbing more than you think.
