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Investing & � Building Wealth

TO THE TEACHER

Students may feel like investing is out of reach for them financially; others might be intrigued by the hype surrounding the topic. This lesson will teach them about the stock market and the advantages of index funds, an excellent way for them to begin investing when they are ready.

When it comes to investing, there’s more confusing messaging out there than ever before, making bad investing ideas seem enticing (and simple ways to get easy money). This lesson will make it clear that students, when they are ready, should stick to the tried-and-true (and perhaps least exciting) advice: invest in index funds. We’ll also point out and debunk the many “get rich quick” opportunities on social media like cryptocurrency, stock picking, and even gambling and outright scams.

This lesson also aims to remove any sense that investing is only for professionals, just for rich people, or rigged. The truth is, once you remove the jargon and filter out misinformation, investing is very easy to understand, and students can start with as little as a dollar.

The student worksheet that accompanies this lesson is here.

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A QUESTION FOR EVERYONE:

When I say words like “investing” or “the stock market,” what thoughts pop into your mind?

. . . in a smart and low-risk way

. . . in a fair way that’s not rigged

. . . with just $1

You can invest . . .

First, write your name and grade on the top of your worksheet.

And let’s start with a question for everyone: When I say words like investing or the stock market, what thoughts pop into your mind? Write down some thoughts on your worksheet.

[Allow kids for a few minutes to write answers, then discuss.]

Okay, let’s talk through some things you said, as well as some other things related to the stock market.

Making a lot of money. You’ve probably heard stories of people getting rich in the stock market. [Teacher can ask: Do you associate the stock market with rich people making even more money, or with people who don’t have money suddenly making a lot?]
Losing money. This is when the stock market plunges, or goes down. People have also lost a lot in stocks.
Risk.
Gambling.
Cryptocurrency.
A rigged or fixed system/that there’s a catch.

[Click to animate below points on slide.]

But what if I told you:

You can invest when you are ready in a smart and low-risk way;
You can invest in a fair way that’s not rigged;
You can invest with just $1?

That’s what today’s lesson is about. But first we need to start with an understanding of what investing is.

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Investing can make you rich one day
It’s the idea of making money on your money
It works because of compound interest

INVESTING

DOING SOMETHING NOW THAT PAYS OFF IN THE FUTURE

You invest

$8.50/week

You do this for

40 years

The interest rate you earn is

Your money grows to � $105,695

Investing is doing something now that pays off in the future.

It’s the thing that can make you rich one day, because of something known as compound interest. Compound interest is when you make money on your money.

For instance, if you make 10% interest on $100 this year, you make $10. Then the next year, you make 10% interest on $110 (your $100 + $10), which is $11. And so on and so forth.

Let’s see how that works in our investing example. You can write down these numbers on your worksheet as we go along.

�Say you have a part-time job, and you earn $17/hour -- NYC’s minimum wage [source]. Say you took just a half hour’s worth of work per week, or $8.50, and invested it. So, how much do you end up investing each month? [Answer: $34.]

[Click to show $8.50/week.]

You do this for 40 years.

[Click to show 40 years.]

We’ll say you get an interest rate of 8% during these 40 years. This is a reasonable estimate for what you might earn on your money.

[Click to show 8% interest rate.]

One quick sidenote:

When we talk about earning interest, this means the good kind of interest that is paid to you, just like we talked about getting interest from a bank savings account.
In a few minutes, we’re going to talk about earning interest from the stock market.
That’s different from the bad kind of interest that you have to pay -- like on a credit card.

Okay, let’s look at this investing example.

[Click to show $105,695.]

$105,695. For just $8.50 per week, you’ve made six figures. [Source: investor.gov compound interest calculator. Initial investment is $0, monthly contribution is $34, length of time in years is 40, estimated interest rate is 8%.]

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INVESTING

DOING SOMETHING NOW THAT PAYS OFF IN THE FUTURE

You ended up with

$105,695

You invested �$16,320

In this example, the total amount of money you invested is $16,320 -- that’s forty years of $8.50/week.

And again, you end up with $105,695. That’s a pretty great deal for you.

Let’s look at a compound interest calculator to help you play around with other investing examples. There are additional spaces on your worksheet if you want to write down any of these scenarios we calculate.

[Teacher to go to compound interest calculator, and encourage kids to throw out numbers of how much they might invest monthly, and how long they might be able to save. Or teacher can walk through scenarios. For instance:

See what happens if you invest a large sum of money once. Initial investment $2,000 (maybe birthday money), no further contributions, saved for 40 years, 8% = $43,000.
See what happens if you invest more per month. Initial investment $0, monthly contribution of $50, saved for 40 years, 8% = 155,000. (You contributed a total of $24,000 in this example.)
See what happens if you invest for more time. Initial investment $0, monthly contribution of $34 (same as prior example), saved for 50 years, 8% = $234,000. (You contributed a total of $20,400 in this example.)]

The point: Small amounts of money, especially invested regularly, can grow amazingly large over a long time. That’s how you build wealth.

(And remember what we said in the Budgeting lesson: People who have the most success are the people who make a very small change they can stick to.) [Source: BJ Fogg, Stanford Behavior Design Lab.]

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A QUESTION FOR EVERYONE:

Name some companies you know.

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Nike Company Stock

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Single Stock Ownership

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Stock Price Over Time

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May 2020

$81

May 2021

$127

May 2025

$57

fYearu

Price Per Share d

So let’s look at a real example of how Nike’s stock has performed.

Here is a graph of Nike stock’s performance, meaning how the stock price went up and down over a five year span -- from 2020 to 2025. You can also see this on your worksheet.

What do you notice? Even if you don’t exactly understand this completely, what can you tell me about the graph? [If students need hints: Is it a smooth line? Is it jumping around a lot?]

Let’s get into the details.

The X axis is the year, and the Y axis is the price of a single share of Nike stock.

So, say you love Nike shoes, and think it seems like a great company.

[Click to animate the arrow showing May 2020 purchase price.]

Say you bought one unit of Nike stock in May 2020. Back then, that would cost you $81. Write this down on the graph on your worksheet, like it’s shown on the screen. [Source; 5/1/2020 price is $80.69; chart generated via Yahoo Finance.]

[Click to animate arrow showing new date and price.]

The value of the stock fluctuates daily, and a year later -- May 2021 -- you see the stock is now worth $127. Write this one down too. [Source; 5/3/2021 price is $126.72; chart generated via Yahoo Finance.]

Yahoo! This seems great! Since you bought this stock at $81 and it’s now worth $127, you could sell it on this day and make a net profit of $46.

However, you decide to leave your money in Nike stock hoping it’ll continue to grow. Why not? It’s done so well!

[Click to animate arrow showing new date and price.]

When you take a look four years later -- May 2025 -- it’s a different story. The stock has dropped to just $57. You can write this one down too. [Source; 5/1/2025 price is $56.68.]

[To teachers: This is a good place to add topical note about Nike’s performance, if you think kids would be interested. Some ideas:

Nike stock has dropped consistently since 2021; due to increased competition and growth of fast fashion, Nike is making less money (see this source).
Nike launched a collaboration (see this source) with SKIMS, Kim Kardashian’s company, in September 2025; you could discuss how it’s hard to know what kind of stock impact this sort of thing will have on the brand.]

Remember that you invested $81 five years ago, and now it’s $57. That’s $24 less than the amount you originally put it. If you sold this day, you’d lose that $24.

As you can see, putting your money into just one company’s stock means you are placing a bet on that company only -- how do you feel about that? How would you feel if you actually did own money in a Nike stock during this period?

[Students can discuss the idea of it being unpredictable and risky.]

Clearly, putting money into one stock is risky.

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A QUESTION FOR EVERYONE:

Why is it better to put your money in 500 stocks instead of just one?

The good news: There is a less risky and much better way to invest that doesn’t put all your money in just one company, but instead allows you to invest in 500 large companies all at once.

A question for everyone: Can anyone guess why it would be better to put your money into 500 stocks instead of just one? Write down your thoughts on your worksheet.

[Allow students time to work, then discuss.]

Think of it this way: If you put all your money into one company, you are at the mercy of that one company, like we saw with the Nike example. If Nike does well, you make money. If it does poorly, you lose money.

But if you put your money into 500 companies at once, chances are some of those companies might lose money, but some of those companies might make money to balance it out. That is much less risky than placing a bet on just one company.

It’s like friends: If you put all your stock in one friendship, and that friend turns his or her back on you, you’re alone -- you have no one to eat lunch with. But if you have a bunch of friends, you’re still okay even if one of your friends is down, or doesn’t feel like talking to you.

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Google

Amazon

The 500 largest companies in the US

S&P 500

CVS

Nike

INDEX FUND

How you’ll invest in all of them

There is a name given to the 500 largest companies in the U.S.

It’s called the S&P 500.
And the good news is that there is an easy way to invest in the S&P 500.

[Click to reveal graphic of S&P 500.]

This image represents those 500 companies.

This graphic may look complicated -- but if you look closely, it’s just an image showing the 500 company names, many of which you’ve heard of.

[Click to one-by-one reveal four companies your students will have heard of.]

There’s Google. CVS. Amazon. And, of course, Nike.

[Click to reveal text about Index Funds.]

The specific way to invest in the S&P 500 companies is to put your money into something called an S&P 500 index fund.

This S&P 500 index fund allows you to put a small amount of money in every single one of these 500 companies all at once.
It’s less risky than putting your money into one stock, like the Nike example we discussed before.
It will give you compound interest.
And you need just $1 to get started.

Here’s how to do this.

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THE ONE GOOD INVESTMENT: INDEX FUNDS

Name	Where to Invest	Expense Ratio	Minimum to Open

Schwab S&P 500 �Index Fund

Fidelity S&P 500 �Index Fund

Schwab.com

Fidelity.com

.02%

.015%

$1 minimum

No minimum

There are so many investment firms out there where you can find S&P 500 index funds. So how do you pick one?

The answer is, go with one that charges you the lowest fees for investing, and where you can invest with very little money.

There are two companies out there that have the lowest fees -- also known as the expense ratio -- and also allow you to start with just $1. The names of those two investment companies are Schwab and Fidelity. [Sources: Schwab SWPPX; Fidelity FXAIX.]

Schwab’s expense ratio is .02%, and Fidelity’s is .015%.

And the other point to make here about index funds:

Remember how we talked about the benefits of compound interest early in this lesson? How investing a little bit over time really matters?
What’s important to know: Over time, index funds have paid out about 8% a year.

In fact, over the last 10 years, these index funds have actually earned a little more than 10% per year. [Sources: S&P 500 general growth ; Schwab’s SWPPX 10yr rate here, Fidelity’s FXAIX 10yr rate here.]

That doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed, but it’s a reasonable estimate of what you might earn from index funds.

So remember these names.

And when you’re ready one day, just invest in an index fund.
Even if it’s a small amount.
And then you can let it stay there for many years and get the reward of compound interest.

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CRYPTOCURRENCY

So, we’ve discussed how S&P 500 index funds can be a good way to invest.

But there are plenty of people pitching other ways to make money on social media.
We are going to discuss some of them here.

I’m sure you have all heard of cryptocurrency, which is a digital currency that you can invest in. Unlike traditional currency, cryptocurrency is not tied to any central government and is not regulated by the same laws that oversee investments like stocks.

There has been so much hype about cryptocurrency over the last few years.
Let’s watch this video to see how influencers talk about crypto investing.

[Click to show video, which combines this, this, this, and this.]

What did you notice about the way they were talking? [Let students discuss this, and then mention the ideas below if they don’t come up.]

They make it sound so urgent, saying you need to invest now!
They use lots of jargony language, so it sounds like they are so smart and it’s super technical. Like you won’t really understand it, but they do.
They mention huge financial gains they expect, but do they ever actually show you any of these gains? And if they do, how do you know they’re real?

The bottom line:

Do not invest in cryptocurrency unless you are willing to lose all your money.
Many more people have lost money in crypto than have made money. [Source: 80% of Bitcoin investors have lost money.]

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CRYPTOCURRENCY

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GAMBLING

The more you gamble, �the more you lose

People who don’t have a lot of money gamble more irresponsibly

96%

of gamblers lose in the long run.

Another pitch you might have heard is making money by gambling.

Gambling is truly a terrible way to try to grow your money -- you’re almost guaranteed to lose.

Know why? Everything is working against you.

[Click to show stats on slide.]

96% of gamblers end up losing. [Source.]
The more you play, the more you lose. [Source.]
And people who don’t have a lot of money to gamble, but do it anyway, make the worst gambling decisions. [Source.]

Also, gambling is actually illegal until you’re 21 in New York, including online.

You might know someone who’s betting at 18 in NY, but they’re doing it illegally. [Note to teachers: 18-20 year-olds in NY can wager money, including on sports, via Kalshi and Polymarket, which are “prediction markets,” have federal approval (they area regulated CFTC-governed financial exchanges), and therefore don’t technically count as gambling. See here.]
And maybe one of those people told you he or she won big. But here’s the thing about gamblers -- you only hear about it when they win.

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SCAMS

Americans lose more money �to investing scams than �any other type of scam: �$5.7 billion lost in 2024
People who were scammed usually lost $9,000

Anonymous outreach

Person contacting you is from abroad

Odd grammar / language

Mismatching information

Then there are investing scams.

Investing scams cheat people out of more money than than any other type of scam. [Source.]
Americans lost $5.7 billion by giving money to investment scammers in 2024. [Source.]
The typical amount a person loses when they get scammed: $9,000! [Source.]

You won’t be one of them, since we’re going to look at how to spot a scam.

[Click to animate sample investing scam letter.]

Okay, I’m going to ask someone to read this out loud. This is on your worksheet too. [Let student read script.] So what’s off about this email? Circle things or make notes on your worksheet that are suspicious. [Let students work for a few minutes, then discuss.] Here are some signs to look out for:

[Click to reveal these one-by-one as you talk them through.]

First, it’s anonymous. This person doesn’t even have your name. That means they’re sending this letter to hundreds, if not thousands, of people, hoping to scam them all.
Second, the person is saying they are from abroad. That’s a classic scam setup -- that someone needs your help since they’re not from the U.S.
The language is just weird. What does this thing about “establishing in your country” even mean?
And some of the info doesn’t even match. This guy gives two different email addresses, for instance.

Bottom line:

Never invest with someone you don’t know.
And even if you know the person, be careful. If someone pressures you in any way to invest with them because it’s a great deal that’s about to go away, you should not do it; that is yet one more sign that it’s likely to be a scam.

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INVESTMENTS: THE ODDS

1 in 12,000

1 in 25,000

1 in 292 million

1 in 3.7 million

Being struck by lightning

Getting rich off crypto

Eaten by a shark

Winning Powerball lottery

After 15 years, you’ve had a �99.8% chance of making money

Index Fund

Okay, we’ve talked a lot about bad investments. So let’s take a look a fun look at some statistics.

[Click to animate odds. Sources: lightning, crypto, shark, Powerball.]

Your odds of being struck by lightning are 1 in 12,000. Your odds of getting rich from cryptocurrency are 1 in 25,000. That means you’re about twice as likely to get struck by lightning than to get rich off crypto.
And you’re more likely to be eaten by a shark than win the Powerball -- which is crazy low odds, at 1 in 292 million.

I think you get it by now -- these risky places to put your money are just plain bad. Don’t do them unless you are ready to lose lots, if not all, of your money.

[Click to animate index fund odds.]

And remember we discussed index funds? Historically, people who have invested their money in S&P 500 index funds for a 15 year period made money 99.8% of the time. [Source.]

That clearly has been a great way to invest.
So keep that in mind when you’re ready to start investing.

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FINAL REFLECTION

Name one thing you learned today about investing. Why does this, in particular, stand out to you?

For our final reflection in this lesson, name one thing you learned today about investing.

Why does this one thing stand out to you?

[Allow time for independent work, and either discuss as group (time permitting) or use as exit ticket.]

[Teacher: If kids need more prompting, you can remind them that this lesson discussed the following:

Investing works best if you let your money grow for long periods of time. (Compound interest, starting early -- see slide 3.)
If you can commit to putting aside a small amount regularly, you’ll be set up to grow wealth by investing over long periods of time. (See slide 4.)
It’s riskier to pick one stock than to invest in many stocks; you can invest in many stocks with an index fund. (See slides 11-12.)
Cryptocurrency, despite the hype, is very risky; many more people lose money in it than gain money. (See slides 13-14.)
People who gamble are almost certain to lose money long-term (96% do). (See slide 15.)]