Investing Activities: Projects from a savvy grandma show young people how to make their money grow      CHICAGO - Kids who baby-sit or have a paper route, teens who work at fast food restaurants-they don't bring home big bucks, but they still could be on their way to making a million dollars if they know the secrets of investing early on! In fact, young people who save $2,000 each year between the ages of 7 and 21 and place the money in a savings account that has an average interest rate of 7.25% until age 65 will then have $1,000,000! The new book The Young Investor: Projects and Activities For Making Your Money Grow (Chicago Review Press, $13.95, nine and up) by financial analyst Katherine R. Bateman explains everything young people (and their parents, too) need to know to be money-savvy. Originally started as notes to her grandchildren on saving and investing, The Young Investor grew into a hands-on activity book that explains the language of business and the skill of investing, so that children can grow up business-literate and get an early start at making their money grow.      Using terms and metaphors that kids can understand and easily relate to, The Young Investor teaches the concept of saving, investing, and economics. It explains where money comes from and how an ATM works; the benefits of savings and money market accounts; where Wall Street is; the differences between bonds, stocks, and mutual funds; and even what the words "macroeconomics" and "microeconomics" mean. Dozens of activities teach how to balance a checkbook, read stock tables, and know what people are talking about when they mention inflation, recession, and the Federal Reserve Board. Among the other fun educational activities: $$Make Money Circles - Kids will write down where their allowance comes from and where it goes. They'll go backward and forward in time as far as they can to learn about the flow of money that keeps our economy healthy. $$Practice Writing Checks - Kids will practice filling out checks with pretend checks in the book. They will fill in every line with required information and then record the amount in the register and balance their pretend account. $$Think of ways to earn money - Kids will use their imagination and write down all the things they are good at that could earn them money. Then they will follow up on at least one idea. This is a great way to assess personal skills, boost self-confidence, and help a relative or neighbor while making money at the same time! $$Search for Consumer Staples - Kids will search their homes for things they use every day and make a list of the companies that make those products. This will make them familiar with stocks in the consumer staple sector that might be good investments.      Informative sidebars, tables, a question and answer section, and a detailed glossary make The Young Investor a comprehensive guide to personal finances. It's a great book for adults to give to kids along with a gift of money or savings bond. Families will have fun reading the book together and enjoying the educational activities.      Katherine R. Bateman is the financial advisor to the Illinois Educational Facilities Authority. She was a vice president and senior research analyst at Nuveen Investments., a major investment firm in Chicago. She lives in Chicago. 10 TIPS FOR KIDS TO START A SAVINGS AND INVESTMENT PROGRAM 1) Get some odd jobs. Baby sit. Cut grass. Pick up trash. 2) Open a savings account at a bank or savings and loan corporation. 3) Put half your allowance and earnings in your savings account each month. 4) Put your birthday and holiday money in your savings account after you have bought something for yourself that you really want. 5) Find the business section of your newspaper or look for a magazine that has "business" or "money" or "investments" in the title. Check it out several days or weeks in a row until you feel like you know where the graphs and charts are. 6) Track the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the "Dow") and the NASDAQ over a month. Make a chart to show if the Dow or the NASDAQ went up or down. 7) Look in the business section of the newspaper or in a business magazine for words like Federal Reserve Board (or just the Fed), economy, inflation, recession, Bull market, and Bear market. Read a little of the article. Ask questions if you don't understand something. 8) Learn to read the stock and mutual fund tables. 9) Make a list of items that you think are big sellers - like clothes, food, or electronics - then find out who makes them. 10) Check under "brokers" in the yellow pages of your phone book then talk to your parents or grandparents about these tips and your investment goals. Title: Young Investor; Subtitle: Projects and Activities for Making Your Money Grow Author: Katherine R. Bateman Activity, ages 9 & up, 123 pages, 7 x 10 10 line drawings, 10 tables Paper, $13.95 1-55652-396-3 Publisher: Chicago Review Press Publication Date: December 2001 Contact: Kathy Mirkin, 312-337-0747 ext. 229 Available in bookstores nationally and through Independent Publishers Group, 814 N. Franklin Street, Chicago, IL 60610. Toll-free number for orders only: 1-800-888-4741. Please visit us on the Internet at http://www.ipgbook.com Return to Money Themed Review