Teaching young minds investments

It is seminar organized by investors in Hawaii to teach young students from Iolani how to invest so that gradually they can join hands with current and future investors in building a better tomorrow for young minds, according to a recent story in the Honolulu Star Bulletin’s Business Section.

The seminar would teach students how to start stock-market investing clubs in school. They would be introduced to stock investing. “We’ll teach them how to use our tools,” such as the stock selection guide, said Ryan Muraoka, spokesman for the fair’s organizers, the local chapter of the National Association of Investors Corp.

“Typically, each member invests a set sum at the start, perhaps $1,000 or $3,000. The money is then pooled and the members gather once a month to decide how to invest it. Muraoka who helped start Millionaires in Training in 1994, said the clubs generally stick to a long-term policy–invest regularly, regardless of the ups and downs in the market, reinvest all dividends and stay with companies that show growth.

“That is some of what the school students will learn–how “the miracle of compounding” can enable them to build for a solid financial future by investing wisely and reinvesting their gains, Muraoka said.

Investors such as Alexander & Baldwin Inc. is providing valuable support for the youth project, paying supplies and providing people to help. A&B’s investor relations chief said his company is helping to sponsor students because of the company’s ongoing belief in economic education.

The people (experts) provided are “very well grounded. Their approach is very logical and orderly, so it teaches students more than a perception of the stock market as a place to make a quick buck”.

“Topics range from the fundamentals of how stocks are traded in the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, to how to analyze technology and high-growth companies, from how to use the Stock Selection Guide to using Value Line, economic indicators and a wide range of other information sources to make informed stock picks.”

I know that there’s the risk that this issue may fly well above most young people’s mind given our history of mastering everything that is government. And we’re still stuck or entrenched in the idea that money for public services usually rains from the sky (cargo cult mentality) whenever there’s a shortage of it in the local treasury. Wrong! It comes from the hard earned nickels and dimes of productive people in the private sector.

This is an issue that local investors may wish to take up on their own someday soon or when there’s in fact an economic rebound in paradise. I hate to recommend that it be done soon given that it will require donations in the forms of money and expertise. But it definitely is an issue that is worth trying if only to begin shifting the government mind-set that we so specialize or have received as an unearned trophy from the US Department of Interior. Think about it. It’s our future! Si Yuus Maase` yan ghilisow!

Strictly a personal view. John S. DelRosario Jr. is publisher of Saipan Tribune.