Considering this is a Pirate-free, Transformer-free, Harry Potter-free summer, the news for middle-schoolers is about as good as it gets.It’s never too early to start saving money. And local financial whiz – and teenager – James Langford knows this better than most people.
When he was only in second grade, Langford’s parents helped him open his first bank account.
By middle school, he was delivering newspapers and saving every penny.
Eventually, he opened a certificate of deposit, which helped him make money just by investing the money he already had.
Now Langford, 19, is a freshman at IPFW, paying for college with his own money. And he’s done it by following three simple rules:
Make it.
Save it.
Invest it.
“Saving money enables you to achieve both your short-term and long-term goals,” Langford says. “So you can go to a TinCaps game or buy a video game, but you can also wait to spend money on things that are more important to you, like a car or college.”
For young people, Langford suggests finding entrepreneurial ways of making money, such as baby-sitting, dog walking or raking leaves.
But after you make the money, you should put a certain percentage in your savings account every week, he says.
“Have a savings game plan,” he says. “That’s how to build a significant savings over time.”
Langford started his own business, Financial Education Solutions, when he was 16 with help from the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center. The company provides financial literacy curriculum – videos, worksheets and lessons plans – to schools.
He started the business after he noticed that his peers in high school weren’t getting much of a financial education and were curious about how to invest their money, he says.
“I would talk to them about savings, debt and investment, which are really important topics to learn,” he says.
For many people, learning how to invest money is the hardest part of Langford’s lessons. He suggests putting money into something that earns interest, like stocks and bonds. An index fund, which invests your money in the entire market with few fees or commissions, is a good idea too.
“People think of investing as something risky or dangerous,” Langford says. “But your bank, credit union or an investment firm like E*Trade can help walk you through it. Investing is a way to grow the money you already have. And that’s really going to help out in the long run.”
