One of the greatest gifts you can give your kids is to teach them about money. It has been shown many times over that while academic success can lead to higher paying jobs, it is financial capability that gives young people the ability to create wealth. The earlier you start teaching kids about money the better. It just got easier to do that with the launch of Sharesies Kids Accounts.

Sharesies is an App that makes investing in managed funds as easy as internet banking. For as little as $5 your kids can make their first investment, choosing from a range of funds. To begin with, the account needs to be attached to one operated by an adult, but you can arrange to transfer the account to the child when they reach a certain age. There are two main reasons why you might want to set up an account for your child. The first is to build up an investment fund they can use later in life to help them through university or to buy a house. The second is to use it as a means to teach them how to make investments.

Some of the lessons kids will learn from this are:

1. How quickly money can grow with regular saving and compound returns. For example, if you had invested $10 a week in the Sharesies NZ Top 50 Fund for the last five years, you would by now have $4,117
2. The difference in investment return and volatility between bonds, shares and property
3. The impact of market cycles on investments

Above all, kids will learn that investing is easy and it’s fun. For young adults over the age of 18, you can set up an account as a gift – a great idea for Christmas and birthdays.