Buy one stock each of the Magnificent Seven (minus Tesla if you don't like Musk). They are the ONLY companies in the S&P 500 that lifted the entire stock market and gave it the returns it has had in recent years. There is no reason to think that they will not continue to do well, unless, of course, we all go down with the AI bubble. In which case, we'll have bigger problems.

TTWO. If they know video games they know one game coming up will be huge for TTWO. It going to be something to not miss. Game of the century. Sales will be exceptional. Stock will spike

Anonymous wrote:A grandparent in our family opened UTMA acounts for all the grandkids over a decade ago and buys a stock for each birthday, etc. She always picks a reasonably priced stock that is related to something the grandchild likes, so they will be interested to follow it (for financial education purposes, even if the stock does poorly). One part of her theory is that if the kids are really into the company or its product for whatever reason, the company may be a good buy anyway, but even if it isn't, they learn a life lesson about value. This has resulted in a few duds (Underarmor), but some amazing early, low cost picks that paid off big time, like Disney, Apple, and Nvidia.

This is a really good idea. fwiw i started investing in an individal stock (after years of just doing an index fund) and it's amazing how much I have learned about the industry since, because now I check the price daily, follow any related news and its super interesting to see how it moves up and down.

In my case it was NVDA, so it's led do a lot of detailed learning about the actual worth of AI beyond the wild swings of 'its a bubble that will pop" and "it's going to take over the world."

(the return has been enormous, too, but it's all hypothetical since I don't want to sell any for a long time).

Agree that your teenager can be involved in the decision.

Have him research info about companies whose products he actually uses. My 13 year old made bought Spotify and Roblox.

Anonymous wrote:Terrible idea. If anything then do an index fund.

+1000 - give him the gift of smart financial fundamentals and do not buy him individual stocks, much less a large-cap growth stock, an asset class that has historically underperformed the market over time.

BRK.A or BRK.B

VOO

As a gift from you, choose long term hold, large cap tech stocks like GOOG, NVDA, APPL.

A grandparent in our family opened UTMA acounts for all the grandkids over a decade ago and buys a stock for each birthday, etc. She always picks a reasonably priced stock that is related to something the grandchild likes, so they will be interested to follow it (for financial education purposes, even if the stock does poorly). One part of her theory is that if the kids are really into the company or its product for whatever reason, the company may be a good buy anyway, but even if it isn't, they learn a life lesson about value. This has resulted in a few duds (Underarmor), but some amazing early, low cost picks that paid off big time, like Disney, Apple, and Nvidia.

Just give him cash to choose his own. Have a conversation with him and help him pick. Don't influence his picks, but talk about what you might consider (I've bought 2 ind stocks in the past several months, and both times it was based on something I heard in the media).

Terrible idea. If anything then do an index fund.

Have him put some in an index fund and some in individual stocks and see how they compare over time.
Apple, NVDA.

NVDA

If he’s adding $$ already, isn’t he buying his own stocks?

Teen DS wants for Christmas money to invest. A year or so ago we opened a custodial account for him thru Vanguard that tracks S&P. We put the initial $1000 in there for him, and he adds money he earns through his job. The purpose of the account is to earn returns over a longer horizon (~10 years) for him to use toward some adult purchase like housing, car, etc. For Christmas, I thought it may be more fun for some (in particular grandparents who like to pick stuff out) to gift him something a little more specific than just a wad of cash. Thought it might be interesting for him to receive some stocks for specific companies that he can track over time. I was thinking primarily Apple, but any other ideas?