Sectorseven

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Oct 25, 2017
6,560
www.reuters.com

Fidelity launches brokerage account aimed at 13- to 17-year-olds

Fidelity Investments on Tuesday launched a commission-free brokerage account for 13- to 17-year-olds that lets them trade stocks on a mobile app, as well as save and spend using a debit card, in an effort to capture the next generation of investors.

Fidelity Investments on Tuesday launched a commission-free brokerage account for 13- to 17-year-olds that lets them trade stocks on a mobile app, as well as save and spend using a debit card, in an effort to capture the next generation of investors.

Individuals have flooded into the market since October 2019 when large brokers like Fidelity and Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW.N) dropped their trading commissions, following fast-growing startups like Robinhood and Social Finance Inc (SoFi) that have courted young adult traders. read more

Boston-based Fidelity said its Fidelity Youth Account is the first brokerage account designed exclusively for teens.

"Importantly, our goal for the Fidelity Youth Account is to encourage young Americans to learn through action and foster meaningful family conversations around financial topics," said Jennifer Samalis, Fidelity's senior vice president of acquisition and loyalty.

The youth accounts are available to teens whose parents or guardians - who can monitor the accounts - are Fidelity customers.

Teens can access Fidelity's educational tools, and can buy and sell domestic stocks, including through fractional shares, which lets them buy slices of stocks for as little as $1, as well as most exchange-traded funds, and Fidelity mutual funds, through the accounts.

When the investor turns 18, the account transitions to a standard brokerage account that comes with more choice and flexibility, Fidelity said.
 
Oct 25, 2017
13,169
fidelity also just recently unveiled a beta to redesign their appp to look like robinhood
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Addie

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 25, 2017
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Great idea, but only if parents teach their kids to invest their monthly allowance into a total stock market index fund or ETF.
 

nsilvias

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,301
No.
Schools cant even be relied on to teach kids about finances and such and you want them to get in on this shit?
 

Annubis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,691
Train the cattle while they are young and highly influenceable in order to generate future profits.
 

Euphoria

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,644
Earth
Better than kids blowing their money on other stuff.

My daughter already has a habit of saving all of her money. Better to have it grow over time then sit in a bank account making nothing or sitting in a desk drawer.
 

Deleted member 9972

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
684
I don't think exposing teenagers to economics at an early age is a bad thing. Maybe not so much in being able to buy individual stocks, but an early understanding of index funds and compound interest can only help down the road.
 

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,217
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I do like the idea of kids being educated on things like this so they can use them in their future, but I don't know if I like the idea of a company like Fidelity pushing it especially when it involves them actually trading.

If it were an app that allowed paper money trading while being monitored/encouraging conversations with parents, that would be cool as this sort of information/skill is pretty great to have, especially if you can start young.
 

Mars

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,988
Is it purely a paper money based app? No?

Yeah, they will gamification the hell out this.
 

PeskyToaster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,323
It's a great idea for young people to invest in a bunch of consistent stocks because they'll be reaping compounding interest into an early retirement.

On the other hand they will be FOMOed in cummies or whatever stupid ass nonsense the crypto weirdos are on about this week.


As a Fidelity account holder though I'll just appreciate the app redesign regardless.
 

Lakeside

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,306
My kids each have $1100 or so at age 15. It's not a ton but I'm tempted to create accounts for them to begin investing for long term. They don't have any real short term needs that we can't meet.

That's just sitting in a savings account doing nothing today.
 

ToddBonzalez

The Pyramids? That's nothing compared to RDR2
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
15,530
I actually think this is a good idea to teach kids responsible investment practices. Pretty much no kid in that age range has enough money to fuck up their life or anything if they do invest irresponsibly.

Making a risky investment that doesn't pay off definitely stings but it's a better lesson to have early in life as opposed to later.
 

Cipherr

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,519
It's a great idea for young people to invest in a bunch of consistent stocks because they'll be reaping compounding interest into an early retirement.

On the other hand they will be FOMOed in cummies or whatever stupid ass nonsense the crypto weirdos are on about this week.


As a Fidelity account holder though I'll just appreciate the app redesign regardless.

Fidelity is my broker also, I was unaware they even traded crypto, let alone shitcoins. But I will agree that the app needs a redesign. Its functional, but in a 'office software' kind of way that's not going to attract the Robinhood younger crowd, that's for sure.
 

Dennis8K

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
20,161
Is it the same scam as Robinhood where they use the user data to screw the little guys on trades?
 

LakeEarth

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Oct 27, 2017
8,211
Ontario
Funny enough, if I had this at 13 I'd be rich. I wanted to invest in Research in Motion (later: Blackberry) back in the 90s but the investment guy my parents hired laughed at my suggestion and put my $2000 savings into a mutual fund instead. If only they listened!

But in actuality, I see a lot of lost allowance money with this move.
 

nekomix

Member
Oct 30, 2017
482
As an education tool for understanding trading and some parts of economy without real money? Why not. But automatically upgrading to a full brokerage account the minute the minor is an adult so basically grooming gamblers ? I have a problem with that

Their parents can teach them.

Not everybody has the chance to have parents who know how to manage money. Au contraire, many if not most reproduce their parents' habits whether good or bad. Who should really teach good money habits ? I don't know.
 

Deleted member 9241

Oct 26, 2017
10,416
Both of my daughters will have this. We will set them up with initial investment money too. They already have checking/savings accounts and debit cards (we co-signed on all, obviously).
 

Euphoria

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Oct 25, 2017
9,644
Earth
Fidelity is my broker also, I was unaware they even traded crypto, let alone shitcoins. But I will agree that the app needs a redesign. Its functional, but in a 'office software' kind of way that's not going to attract the Robinhood younger crowd, that's for sure.

That's because they don't really. I think at most they may have their own ETF that tracks Bitcoin. I would need to check again to be 100% sure.

I mostly only do crypto on Robinhood because I didn't have the options at the time for my Fidelity or Merril Lynch account.
 

Addie

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 25, 2017
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Their parents need to be Fidelity customers, so I'd hope they would have some knowledge.
Aha, good point. Yeah, I'd hope so.

For everyone naysaying this, you're completely correct that something like this would lead to kids chasing the next DOGE or GME, but... I sure wish I'd contributed money into an index fund starting at a young age instead of blowing my grandparents' Christmas and birthday money on dumb shit.
 

Euphoria

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,644
Earth
For those saying this is bad or wrong, could you explain why?

What's the negative about parents who are already existing Fidelity customers opening accounts for their kids and more than likely showing them how it all works?

Whether you like it or not your retirement is locked up in this market. Why wait until 18+ when they are tossed out in the world to begin learning?

I don't get it.
 

jon bones

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,230
NYC
Great, I already have a portfolio for my daughter who is a little over 2. When she hits 13, I'll start teaching her to be more hands on with her investments.
 

spootime

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,443
I actually think this is a good idea to teach kids responsible investment practices. Pretty much no kid in that age range has enough money to fuck up their life or anything if they do invest irresponsibly.

Making a risky investment that doesn't pay off definitely stings but it's a better lesson to have early in life as opposed to later.
Yeah this is a good thing. Better to learn your lesson losing your lawn mowing money at 14 rather than your life savings on GME in your 30s.
 

PeskyToaster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,323
Fidelity is my broker also, I was unaware they even traded crypto, let alone shitcoins. But I will agree that the app needs a redesign. Its functional, but in a 'office software' kind of way that's not going to attract the Robinhood younger crowd, that's for sure.

I don't think they do. I just FIdelity for stocks, mutual funds, and the like. Nothing weird. The UX of Robinhood is great but I've had a lot of other issues with it. I've found it a lot quicker and easy to get money in and out of Fidelity probably because they are much more financially secure. And they don't seem to have the issues during hyped up trading times while Robinhood is the first to crap out.

this is of course wrong, but when has that stopped banks before

It's not wrong, it's really smart for a young person to start investing. They'll reap far greater rewards than an older person from the power of simple mathematics. The wrong part comes from them investing in meme stocks and getting FOMOed by reddit and influencers etc. etc. It would be nice for the young person's account to come with easy to understand investing guides, simple instructions, and maybe some actual limitations on what you can buy. I don't know if that's legal though.
 

Ultima_5

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,684
I️ think this is great. Wish I️ was able to invest more when I️ was younger.
I'm not sure why everyone's upset about this. There's ways to responsibly invest and this is providing an opportunity. Especially at a young age where it's mostly inconsequential

better than having them throw it at YouTube streamers so they can hear their name on cam

really wonder how people who areupset about this handle their money. Y'all just have it sitting in savings?
 

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,349
It would be nice for the young person's account to come with easy to understand investing guides, simple instructions, and maybe some actual limitations on what you can buy. I don't know if that's legal though.
Don't they already do this? Investing restrictions exist, though I don't know if they are applied at the institution level or if it's for any investing done in the US.
 

Sensei

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
6,641
i might look into this for my cousin, i want him to have a better start than anyone else in my family had
 

demosthenes

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,719
No.
Schools cant even be relied on to teach kids about finances and such and you want them to get in on this shit?

My school did. I know I'm in the minority on this but not all public schools are bad.

And this is a good idea but it has to be handled by parents.
See this:
Great, I already have a portfolio for my daughter who is a little over 2. When she hits 13, I'll start teaching her to be more hands on with her investments.

Yeah this is a good thing. Better to learn your lesson losing your lawn mowing money at 14 rather than your life savings on GME in your 30s.

I started working at 14 and regret not putting even like 10% of my money into investments even though at the time I was already studying markets in school. You want to help set your kids up for their future, do this.
 

Jersey_Tom

Banned
Dec 2, 2017
4,764
Knee-jerk reactions here by people who likely didn't read the article.

Can only be done by children with their parents' permission who must also be Fidelity customers as it stands.

Providing an early tool for teenagers to understand the importance of not just a savings but investing in funds that will build interest over their lives reads to me like a pretty good service. I wish that was available to me at 16-17.
 

Kamek

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,985
I think it's a great idea. Obviously you'd need parents permission but so many kids are smarter than you think and absolutely capable of doing these things. I used to fuck around with stuff like this as a kid myself paper trading for fun. I'm all for it.
 

demosthenes

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,719
For those saying this is bad or wrong, could you explain why?

What's the negative about parents who are already existing Fidelity customers opening accounts for their kids and more than likely showing them how it all works?

Whether you like it or not your retirement is locked up in this market. Why wait until 18+ when they are tossed out in the world to begin learning?

I don't get it.

They don't understand and they don't do it. They see the market as a giant casino.
 

Kuga

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
2,300
More participation in the financial system and more people exposed to financial literacy is a good thing, IMO. There are a lot of unknowns about how Fidelity will run the program, but in principle this is a strong net positive. Like it or not, young Americans who want a middle or middle-upper class lifestyle will benefit immensely from learning how to invest at an early age. I wish I knew at 18 what I know now.
 

m_shortpants

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,518
That's good, the more alternatives to get people to stop using Robinhood, the better.

We need better financial literacy in this country, if you can get kids to save $50 a month into index funds it should be a good learning opportunity and encouraged. There's probably way too many people in this country who don't understand interest, tax brackets, the time value of money, and so on.