[Sizhong]

FBTC and teach her what is money and history of it.

[Philip]

Sorry. No ETF is interesting. Let her try small amounts of actual stock that she knows – Netflix, Apple, Amazon. Use the ETFs for S&P…

[Mindy]

For a kid, I wouldn’t do an ETF. I’d do an actual stock to a company she’s familiar with and likes. Even better if it’s a store she can walk into, like Costco or Chipotle.

This way, you can tell her she owns a part of that company, have her keep track of the stock price, and give incentives to keep checking it, like a meal or shopping trip when the stock goes up by X%.
As kids, our girls LOVED going to Costco. You can easily eat up two hours going and coming back, plus samples, lunch, etc.

Suggested: Replace bond funds with dividend ETFs?

[Steven]

By “interesting” do you just mean something’s the teen would recognize and understand what is being invested in? If so, I’d recommender identifying industries that they understand what they are and find an associated ETF.

For example, if they understanding (or can learn generally about the solar industry), consider TAN the Invesco Solar ETF.

[Jen]

A 14 year old is old enough to understand that not everything has to be interesting. Teach her the value of total market index funds. It’s the greatest gift you could give her.

[Charlotte]

Start her out right and stick with index funds. Then she’s holding 500 or 3,700 different companies which I’m sure there will be some in there that she likes.

When our kids were teens they found compound interest very interesting and that’s what really sucked them in! Compound interest calculators are fun to see how their money can grow and very motivating to start investing early and often.

[William]

I agree that a core holding like VTI should be part of her education (and a bigger portion of her portfolio), but I also can see the value of her having a personal connection to her portfolio. My suggestion for a “fun” holding to have isn’t an ETF, but is BRK-B. Berkshire Hathaway owns substantial bits of Coke, Apple, Bank of America as well as complete ownership of GEICO, Dairy Queen, fruit of the loom, Brooks running, Duracell, SiriusXM and numerous other instantly recognized companies.

One of the nice things about Berkshire for her would be lots of educational materials such as Buffet’s welcome letter to new shareholders as well as his annual letter to shareholders. The annual meeting could be a fun event to attend in person, or is generally something that can be watched live over the Internet.

I definitely don’t think BRK should be the only holding of her portfolio, but I think it is likely to be far more educational and provide a far bigger “hook” into investing than most any niche ETF would, and has an annual expense ratio of 0.00% with an unbeaten long-term rate of return.

[David]

SPY is super interesting. The concept of the total market (well, S&P) is incredibly valuable to grasp and it’s likely the best buy and hold – and then you can teach options someday!

[Scott]

If it’s interesting, you’re doing it wrong. Look up “myopic loss aversion”. Basically, the more you look at your portfolio, the more likely you are to see small losses and disinvest, or see “outperforming funds” and performance chase. Both behaviors lead to underperformance and cost you money.

And for all that is good in the world. DO NOT INVEST IN “DIVIDEND STOCKS”!!! This myth needs to die that stocks that pay you, make you more money. They DON’T. Definitively. The academic research is 100% clear. At best they make you the same amount of money, and at worst they cost you more in taxes.

[Tracy]

I can’t imagine that any 14 year old is going to find any ETF to be interesting. 😀

[Author]

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