Post by @greatinvestments

What’s the Best Investment You Can Make for Your Child? People ask me all the time, “What’s the best investment for my child?” An ISA? An ETF? Nvidia? Bitcoin? No. The best investment isn’t a stock. It’s teaching them how to think about investing. Here’s why. If you leave your child £100,000 but they don’t understand money, they’ll probably lose it. If you leave them £10,000 and teach them how to compound wealth, they’ll probably turn it into far more. Warren Buffett bought his first stock at eleven. Not because eleven is a magical age. Because he learnt the habit of investing before the habit of spending. Research by the University of Cambridge found that many money habits are largely formed by around the age of seven. That’s astonishing. Long before children understand balance sheets, they’re already learning whether money is for consuming or building wealth. So here’s what I’d do. Forget buying them the latest gadget. Open them a Junior ISA. Buy one low-cost global equity ETF. Then every birthday, every Christmas, sit them down for fifteen minutes. Show them what happened. Why did it rise? Why did it fall? What does the company actually do? Teach them that volatility isn’t danger. It’s the price of long-term returns. Then give them a challenge. Ask them to find one company they love. Apple. Nintendo. Ferrari. Microsoft. Then ask them one question. “Would you still want to own it if the share price fell 30% tomorrow?” Congratulations. You’ve just taught them more about investing than most adults ever learn. Because investing isn’t about picking the next winner. It’s about understanding businesses, probability and patience. The greatest inheritance isn’t money. It’s the ability to create money. And here’s the irony. Parents spend thousands teaching children algebra they’ll never use. Yet almost nobody teaches them compound interest, investing or how pensions work. Which subject do you think will make the bigger difference to their life? If you want to make your child wealthy, don’t just leave them investments. Leave them the ability to understand investments.