Editor’s note: Below is the an excerpt from the children’s book, “Danny Dollar, Millionaire Extraordinaire, The Lemonade Escapade, ” written by Ty Allan Jackson and reprinted with permission via Newspaper in Education. To catch up on the story, read the previous excerpt in the e-paper edition of Monday, March 23.
Every Saturday I’m off to my favorite place in the world, THE BANK! Yep, the bank. The people there are crazy cool. As soon as I walk in, the security guard, Mr. Block, always says, “Dollar Dan, the Man with the plan.” And I say, “Mr. Block, got the bank on lock.” I really like that dude.
Then I go to the same teller, Mrs. Susan Anthony. She always greets me with a
“Good morning, Mr. Dollar.” Mr. Dollar! Man, do I like the sound of that! I deposit all I’ve earned throughout the week, except for ten dollars that I keep for playing around with. After Mrs. Anthony updates my bankbook, I give her a little wink, she winks back, and it’s a wrap. I’m done. I’m almost floating on the way back home thinking about how much money I’ve saved. And what I’m saving for is awesome. It’s big, it’s huge, it’s colossal! It’s part of my goal to becoming a millionaire. Okay, okay, okay…I’ll tell you.
You know how some kids want to be a big-time basketball player? Well not me, I want to be a big-time basketball team owner, just like my idol Rocky Austin. Mr. Austin started out flippin’ burgers as a kid and now owns a billion dollar fast food chain called “Flippin’ Burgers” and he owns the Texas Mustangs basketball team, too. So, now you’ve got it. I want to own a basketball team. That’s my dream! How am I gonna get enough money to own a basketball team? I told you earlier—INVESTING!
Here’s the plan, so pay attention: investing means taking your money and buying something that will make you more money, like a stock or a bond. With stock, you pay money to a company and then you actually own a small part of that company, for example, the Yola-Cola Company. They make my favorite soft drink. Let’s say I own stock in Yola-Cola. When they make a lot of money I get a piece, so the more stock that I own, the bigger the piece I get. If Yola-Cola doesn’t make money, I could lose some of the money I’ve invested. Sounds risky I know, but like my Dad always says, “No risk, no reward.”
A bond is a little less risky than buying stock. With a bond, you let a business or the government borrow your money and they promise to give that money back with interest. Interest is money they give you for letting them borrow your money. Sometimes, I loan my big-head sister five bucks and I charge her two bucks to borrow my five bucks. When she pays me back, she has to give me seven bucks. I just made two bucks in interest for loaning her only five. Get it?! Sounds cool, right? (Although sometimes she tries to jerk me out of my two bucks, so I hold her diary hostage. HAHA, it works every time).
So, I take most of the money that I earn and put it into the bank or invest it into stocks and bonds. The money I earn in interest or by investing, I reinvest into other things. That’s called diversifying. Diversifying is when you invest your money into different things to try and make more money. ARE YOU GETTING ALL OF THIS?!
