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When I Grow Up I'm Going to Be a Millionaire: (A Children's Guide to Mutual Funds)
by Ted Lea; Illustrated by Lora Lea
52 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #00-0203; ISBN 1-55212-537-8; US$12.50, C$14.95, EUR9.80, £6.80
A children's guide to investing.
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About the Book
This book takes a very simple approach on investing and helps explain it in a story about two children. It is intended for children and teenagers aged 10 to 15, but also is a book that adults can use to easily understand concepts about investing. The basic premise of the book is that a child investing only $10 a month in mutual funds and adding more per month starting as a teenager can create wealth of about a million dollars over their lifetime, due to the length of time the money is invested. The book is intended as an educational source for both children and adults. Children and adults can learn that if they start investing early and regularly they can create significant wealth over their lifetimes. If children learn this lesson early they will develop good money habits and be investors throughout their lifetime. This book would be a great gift to a child to help them start to learn how to invest, which will be something that will stay with them for the rest of their lives and hopefully help them be financially independent.
The boy in the story is a child with an attitude. He loves ice cream, watching Star Trek and basketball, and watching his money grow. The story talks about why and how to invest in mutual funds, but also leaves the message that there are many more important things in life besides money.
Reviews
Book Review From The Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning- Winter 2005
Reviewer: Barbara M. O'Neill, Ph.D., CFP, Rutgers UniversityIt may seem a bit odd to be reviewing a 52-page children's book in a prestigious academic financial journal but When I Grow Up I'm Going To Be A Millionaire (A children's guide to mutual funds) is no ordinary children's book. Rather it is a valuable tool for financial practitioners and can be used in a variety of ways, including a class "handout* for programs for adults about children and money and a resource for clearinghouses and libraries of financial education materials for youth. The book would also make a nice holiday gift for financial practitioners to give to their clients who are parents of pre-teenage children.
Similar to books of the same genre for adults, such as The Wealthy Barber and The Richest Man in Babylon, the book teaches personal finance within the context of a simple story. In When I Grow Up I'm Going To Be A Millionaire, there are two main characters: Ellen, the clueless learner who soaks up personal finance information like a sponge, and Griffin, the patient teacher, who tells Ellen that he learned a lot about money and investing from his money coach. Like The Wealthy Barber, Griffin proceeds to teach Ellen (and, thereby, readers) a new topic in each of the book's eight chapters. Topics discussed by Ellen and Griffin include compound interest, the Rule of 72, characteristics of mutual funds, and the growth of money over time.
When I Grow Up I'm Going To Be A Millionaire (A children's guide to mutual funds) is geared for children age 9-15, making it an excellent resource for middle school and junior high school personal finance classes and extracurricular programs such as the national 4-H curriculum Financial Champions. It opens on page 1 with Griffin (nicknamed Griff) telling Ellen his secret to becoming a millionaire: save $10 a month, starting at age 10 from age 10-15, and $50 a month when you turn 16, and keep doing this until age 70. This projection assumes an average annual return of 10%. If the return is, instead, 12%, 7%, and 3%, a child would eventually have $3 million, $385,000, and $86,000, respectively, at age 70.
The dialog between Ellen and Griff is realistic and any corny-ness in the story is kept to a minimum. The emphasis is on teaching basic financial concepts to pre-teens and the book weaves in a number of significant financial concepts such as inflation, the rate of return on investments, and excellent definitions of different types of mutual funds. It also clearly describes the cost of procrastination (read: foregone savings) on savings for financial goals. In addition, the illustrations and tables used to teach financial concepts are excellent and very age appropriate.
Parents and educators will also appreciate the fact that the book directly discusses values, such as charity and the importance of human relationships. This is not a book that encourages greed and getting rich at any cost. Rather, it stresses life balance and concern for others. When Ellen asks Griff "What if you put in more [money into savings] each month?,* he replies "Then I'll have even more than a million dollars. The other cool thing I could do with that money is help less fortunate people, donate to charities, or help buy land for nature- I think that would be really cool, too.*
All in all, there is much to like about this very informative and well-written book and I highly recommend it to financial practitioners as both a reference and a teaching resource.
Children's Book On Investing A Must Read For Parents By Stephen Whipp CFP Island Parent Magazine, October 2001
You know the type of book I mean when I say,"You should read this book before allowing your children to read it." Well, I just came across another one of those must reads.I recommend that parents read this one first not because of the scariness, blood lust or other lusts that some books contain but because this book When I Grow Up I'm Going To Be A Millionaire:A Children's guide to mutual funds may answer some grownup questions on the topic. Believe me if you are not well versed in this area your child will be if they decide to read this book.
Hats off to local author Ted Lea for having the determination to take some very complex money issues and make them digestible for children. I haven't had the opportunity to meet or speak with Ted or his partner Lora who illustrates this book but they've mapped out the basics of mutual fund investing very well.
I had the good fortune of recently meeting a client's 12 year-old son who read the book. He had saved a good sum of money and wanted to invest it. I was most impressed by the questions and the confidence he showed during our discussions and in fact understood the principals of investing better than most adults.
Now, most children may not actually read this book from cover to cover but it is an excellent introduction for everyone on how if you invest $10 a month from childhood until you retire, you could end up with $1 million.
Some of the concepts that all investors should know such as the rule of 72 and the real rate of return, taking into consideration how much you really made on your investment after you deduct taxes and inflation from your growth , are simply explained.
This book also contains a good list of other books that everyone should at least spend a few hours looking through.
Don't let your fear of financial investing influence your child. When I Grow Up I'm Going To Be A Millionaire is well worth picking up and spending some time reading to yourself and possibly reading to the younger ones. Although it is aimed at children 10 to 16 I'm not sure how many 14 to 16 year olds would maintain an interst in the book's story line. However, having said that, the message and content is great and certainly there are some people in the financial industry who could benefit from reading this book as well. Who knows-maybe your millionaire children will share some of their wealth with Mom and Dad.
Hey, kids! You can be a millionaire by Michael Kane, Vancouver Sun, Monday September 3, 2001
As children head back to the classroom this week, few are likely to be taught they have the potential to be millionaires when they grow up.
Yet it's true. A child investing only $10 a month in mutual funds can create wealth of about $1 million over a lifetime.
Sure, it will take about 50 years for a 10-year-old and he or she will need to earn 12 per cent each year, but it's possible.
More importantly, the investor who starts young will likely grow up to be a bigger and better investor, accumulating wealth far sooner than those who wait until middle age. The challenge is to show children the enormous benefits of time and compound interest.
Enter Victoria's Ted and Lora Lea who have written and illustrated a children's guide to mutual funds called When I Grow Up I'm Going To Be A Millionaire.
The 45-page book is aimed at children and teenagers aged 10 to 16 and was inspired by the easy- to-read manner in which David Chilton explained money and investing , in The Wealthy Barber.
In addition, the Leas read a short column that talked about the concept of investing $10 a month to create $1 million over a lifetime.
Ted Lea says he wrote the book when he realized that most books on children's finances are written for parents to help teach their children, but there are very few books explaining investment concepts for young readers.
The story involves straightforward dialogue between a child who has a money coach and his friend. Although they briefly discuss other forms of investment, the focus is on mutual funds offering a balance between safety and long-term growth.
The book also offers a sense of perspective with the advice to enjoy the important things in life like friends and family.
Winnipeg Free Press, Friday, July 13, 2001 by Sarah and David Christiansen
If you want to be a millionaire, start young
The book is clear and informative. it's interesting enough that a child wouldn't throw it on the floor, but certainly wouldn't be enthralled by it. For a younger child, it would be better read with a parent.
The book's "story" about two kids ... gives the reader breaks between the money talk ... The book is also appropriate for older people -- not just children -- who are interested in investing.
The book also explains different types of mutual funds and how they work...
Not only are mutual funds and investments explained, but the book also explains how banks work. I never really understood that completely or as well until I read it. The book describes a savings account as a good place to "hide" your money so that you won't spend it.
Then inflation rates are explained. The inflation rate is subtracted from your rate of return, which means you could lose money. So, the bank may be a good place to park your money, but it won't grow there.
The book has tables showing you how much your money will grow if you put in $10 every month with different rates of returns over several years. Griffin (the boy in the story) tells us his little sister was given a mutual fund of $1,000 when she was a baby. We're told that with a rate of return of 12 per cent and a time period of 75 years, she'll have $4,913,000. With a rate of return of 15 per cent, she will have $35,000,000 when she is 75. (I'd like to be her heir).
I have been inspired to save money, especially now that I have a job. Half of my paycheque (as my parents have suggested) seems a little much. The book suggests saving 25 per cent of your paycheque when you're young and 10 per cent when you're older. This seems much more realistic. I could manage to save much more than $10 a month for a mutual fund, but I will try to save at least that.
Overall, this book was well done. It's a great introduction to investing and planning for the future.
Canoe.ca Money, Thursday, June 14, 2001 by Tim Whitehead
Fund fun for kids?
The magic of compounding returns means that time is extremely important in investing ... start early, and how much earlier can you start saving and investing than childhood?
That's the message of Ted and Lora Lea's book, When I Grow Up, I'm Going to be a Millionaire...
When I Grow Up, I'm Going to be a Millionaire is a short book - 45 pages including some illustrations and charts - and most of it is in 'tween' conversational style. (Ellen: "Inflation. Isn't that when you blow up a basketball?" Griff: "Funny girl. It's something like that though,...") It's certainly not a challenging read for a youngster.
The critical messages are: (1) compounding makes starting early a big help in investing; (2) investing in mutual funds is more profitable in the long run than saving money in a bank account and less risky than investing in individual stocks; and (3) picking the right mutual fund(s) requires some advice from a knowledgeable person.
Given that I'm Going to be a Millionaire aims to encourage young people to invest at a young age, there are really two questions to ask of the book: Does it explain the basics of mutual fund investing well? Would a pre-teen read it and learn from it?
The basics of mutual fund investing are there. Pooling your money, using the expertise of a money manager and the benefits of starting early and investing regularly are all covered in Griff and Ellen's discussions. The book's assumption of 15% long-run annual return isn't reasonable, but it does serve nicely to translate a regular $10 monthly investment, begun at the age of 10, into a million dollars at the age of 60.
As for the second question, the answer is mixed. My pre-teen daughter couldn't be persuaded to finish it; she said that it wasn't 'exciting'. Personally, I found the dialogue stilted but it was certainly faster paced than The Wealthy Barber was. I think the explanations were at an appropriate level for a tweener and I appreciate the ending message that money isn't the most important thing in life.
For a tweener who is interested in money - for investing and not just for spending - I'm Going to be a Millionaire is a safe introduction. By itself, it probably wouldn't turn a spend-spend-spend tweener into a lifelong saver, but it might induce a saving-oriented pre-teen to consider long-term investing. With its kid-friendly format, I'm Going to be a Millionaire might just do that trick in one rainy afternoon in a log cabin.
National Post, Saturday 3 March 2001 by Helen Chevreau
Who said money is boring?
FP Money recently received a personal finance book aimed at children. When I Grow Up I'm Going to Be A Millionaire. Instead of assigning one of our own grown-ups to write a review, we decided to seek the insight of a child -- someone who is expected to read this book, after all. So we've asked Helen Chevreau, nine-year-old daughter of Jonathan Chevreau, FP Money's On Funds columnist, to tell us what she thinks. Here's her review:
Wouldn't it be cool to be a millionaire when you grow up?
If you think so too, get the book When I Grow Up I'm Going to Be A Millionaire by Ted and Lora Lea.
Even though I think money is boring, this book has a story that is interesting. And it's not too long: only 45 pages.
The book is about a boy and a girl, named Griffin and Ellen, and they are both 10 years old.
Griffin has a money coach and he tells Ellen about all the stuff he's learned about how to get rich with mutual funds.
Mutual funds are interesting because they are a way you can buy parts of interesting companies.
If you keep your money in a bank, you get interest -- but not much. Interest is when the people at the bank give you a few pennies every year for the dollars you lend to them. You can do better than that with mutual funds, but you have to know which ones to pick.
There are different kinds of mutual funds. If you get one that gives you a 10% rate of return you can double your money a lot faster, maybe in seven or eight years. But you have to be careful because if you pick a bad mutual fund you could lose your money too.
So if you're worried about losing money, maybe you should try a balanced fund, which is a safer one because it owns some companies but also bonds. Bonds are like bank accounts but better -- they pay you more interest.
There are eight chapters in the book. I think it's a good book because there are pictures and graphs of people's money when they are at a certain age -- and it shows how much your money can grow by saving and having your money in a good fund.
In conclusion, I liked the book because it was interesting for kids.
from The Globe and Mail, Tuesday 27 February 2001 by Rob Carrick
... folksy and conversational in approach... endearingly sincere.
Saanich News, Wednesday 21 February 2001 by Alanna Jorde
Couple unlocks the million dollar mystery in kid's book: short story teaches children to amass wealth
As far as interview subjects go, Ted and Lora Lea are a reporter's dream, ... articulate, accommodating and prepared.
Ted skillfully explains what mutual funds are while making a persuasive case for investing rather than saving money through a running dialogue between the book's main characters, Ellen and Griffin, which is not coincidentally the name of the Leas' own son.
Ten-year-old Griffin piques Ellen's interest in mutual funds when he tells her that by putting $10 a month "into a special fund" until he is 60 he will end up with $1 million. He advises his friend that money grows "from a little bit to lots ... based on something called the rate of return". He tells her that time is on their side and because they are young, they have more years for their money to grow.
The book imitates the Leas' life in that the time they were putting the finishing touches on their manuscript, their son Griffin, then nine, had just become acquainted with his own financial planner or "money coach". Their daughter Janna, who is also the namesake of a character in the book, met her "money coach" when she turned 10.
Ted and Lora say their children enjoy receiving regular financial statements so they can see how much their money has grown and "compare the (totals) against each other, of course," jokes Ted.
Ted says he searched the library and bookstores in vain for a children's book on mutual funds. He did find some books geared for parents to teach their children about mutual funds but nothing for children who want to explore the subject themselves.
It was this lack of literature, his own experience reading David Chilton's hugely popular The Wealthy Barber and a short article in Island Parent magazine penned by a local financial planner that beckoned Ted to his keyboard...
The book is intended for children and teenagers from 10 to 16, but adults who are having trouble wrapping their brains around the subject would find the book useful, suggests Lora. The first copy sold went to a 33-year-old co-worker of Ted's and, the Leas happily report, it convinced her to begin investing in mutual funds.
The book is not all dry number talk and Ted makes an effort to infuse humour into the text with playful asides and amusing references to popular culture.
An ecologist who has mapped ecosystems throughout B.C., Ted also manages to insert a lesson in ecology when he draws a parallel between mutual funds and a healthy ecosystem and he may appeal to some readers' sense of social responsibility by making reference to "ethical funds".
The Leas say their book is a "wonderful launching pad for children to develop good monetary habits and to be investors throughout their life. But like any good kid's books, it concludes with a moral that is more ethereal than material and which Lora sums up simply as "money isn't the most important thing in life."
from The Ottawa Citizen, Sunday 18 February 2001
Raising a wealthy child
How do youngsters get the investment bug? Jennifer Campbell finds a mutual fund guide that could help
...A couple of Canadians have just published a mutual fund guide for kids entitled When I Grow up, I'm Going to be a Millionaire.
The book, written by Ted Lea and illustrated by his wife Lora, both of Victoria, opens with a young boy, Griffin (named after the Leasn) telling his friend Ellen about how he visited his money coach the previous night....
If he invests $10 every month for the next 50 years, he'll have $1 million by the time he's 60, provided he gets an average return of 15% every year.
...With market fluctuations, it's hard to imagine being that lucky with mutual funds every year, year after year. But the author defends the assertion.
"I just looked at the average rate of return for Global funds, which are the ones I recommend in the book and over the past 10 years, the average rate of return has been 12%," Mr. Lea said. "So the better funds are in and around 20%."
The book is simply written and explains the concepts in very basic language using the tactic of one knowledgeable character telling a less knowledgeable but considerably curious character how mutual funds, or any other investments, work.
It describes other investment avenues including straight stocks, bonds and RESPs. Within mutual funds, it explains ethical funds, mortgage and money market funds and boils down the mutual fund industry into categories: International or Global funds, Canadian funds, American Funds, European funds, and South Pacific, Latin and South American funds.
The book is simple enough for kids to grasp but also handy for adults who don't understand even the most basic facets of investing...
While the book briefly describes other forms of investment, it really only recommends mutual funds to kids.
"Mutual funds are fairly safe and yet they have a good growth rate, long term," he said.
As well as recommending other books on investing, the Leas' book includes a page of important tips for children. It suggests finding an investment advisor that your parents trust; looking at average rates of return for three-, five- and 10-year periods; never removing money from long-term funds; diversifying later in life and always investing at least 10% of earnings and 25% while you're young....
from The Ottawa Citizen, Sunday 18 February 2001
This book builds a sold foundation, by Sylvia Hughes, age 12
...This easy-to-read book can help teach children at any age to save money and use it wisely.
It says it is for children 10 to 16, but I think the average 10-year-old would not take a first, let alone a second, look at this book willingly, only because most kids at that age don't think about saving money as much as, say, a teenager would.
The author was clever in writing the book in the form of a children's story between two friends. It helps younger readers to learn while reading the information woven into the story line.
With three tables and suggestions for the best kinds of mutual funds for kids, the book leads the way for all, even adults who haven't started investing yet.
About the Author and Illustrator
The author and illustrator were both born in Vancouver, Canada and presently reside in Victoria, Canada with their two children, Griffin and Janna, and their dog Caly (Calypso). The author wrote the book when he realized that most books on money for children are written for parents to help teach their children, but that there are very few books written for children to read, to help them learn investing concepts. The author was inspired by the simple concept of David Chilton's book The Wealthy Barber and by a short column that talked about the concept of investing $10 a month to create one million dollars over a lifetime. The illustrator has enjoyed sketching since she was a child. This is their first published book.
Feel free to contact the author and illustrator by e-mail at tedloralea@shaw.ca
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