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How to teach kids about buying shares on the JSE, so the brands they already know and love can become the very first things they own
Picture your mini millionaire ordering a burger from Spur before heading into Play Canyon (IYKYK), buying data from Vodacom, or watching the Checkers Sixty60 driver pull up to the gate with your order (and of course the collectible stickers)…
To them, these are just shops where they get the things they need (and want).
But further up the chain, far behind the till, sits a larger company that anyone can own a slice of through the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. This week we open the Sow Jar and show your kids that the brands they already know and love can become the first things they own.
Here is how to help your mini millionaires start thinking like shareholders, and how to teach kids about buying shares.
Owning a share means owning a real piece of a company.
When your mini millionaire buys a share in Woolworths or Clicks, they own a tiny piece of that business.
A share is proof of ownership of part of a company, so even one share makes your mini millionaire a genuine part-owner, with a stake in its shops, staff and profits.
Suddenly the Woolies down the road is partly theirs.
They start noticing whether it is busy, whether shoppers like the new products, whether the queues are long. And that same curiosity is the start of having an investor’s eye, and it grows when the company is one they visit every week.
Takeaway: Help them see their favourite shop is a business they can own a piece of.
The best first share is one they can explain without any help.
Before any share goes into the basket, make it a rule that your mini millionaire should be able to explain what the company does, who its customers are, and why it might keep growing.
One of the first questions to ask is whether you understand what you are buying shares in. Beginners should start with brands they already know, like the shops they visit or the phone network they use.
Turn it into a game. Before buying a Mr Price share, your mini millionaire finds out how many stores it has and who shops there. Understanding comes first, buying comes second.
Takeaway: Can they explain what the company does?
Help them buy a real share in a company they already love.
Let your mini millionaire pick one JSE-listed company they know, like Shoprite, Woolworths, Clicks, Mr Price or Spur.
Look up its share price together so they can see what a single share costs. These days you can open an investment account for your child and buy a fraction of a share, so they can own a slice without paying the full price.
Buy one together, jot down what they paid, then check the price once a week and talk about why it moved up or down.
Takeaway: A mini millionaire who owns a real share never walks past that shop the same way again.
Want to make shares feel real to your mini millionaire?
This week’s free Watch It Grow worksheet turns a share price into a scoreboard your mini millionaire actually wants to check.
They pick a company they know, like Spur, Checkers, Capitec or MTN (we’ve even thrown in a few international ones for fun), then track its price once a month for six months, marking whether it went up or down.
Watching those numbers wobble and climb teaches patience, curiosity and how ownership really works.
Print it out, stick it on the fridge, and let the tracking begin.
