Inside Angle: Taking Stock
Small moments at peace on the boat can leave lasting effects in their wake. We were anchored off our local beach on an idyllic summer day seven years ago when my then nine year-old son climbed up the swim ladder and mentioned something about Tesla. One of our neighbors at the marina had been an early adopter and had given my smallest crewmember a brief tour of the Muskmobile the day before. This suitably impressed the little swimmer. “It’s like the future!” he exclaimed. We’ll see.
Sensing this as an opportunity, I opened his eyes to the concept of investing so that he, too, can one day anchor off the beach on a nice boat. In a simple-enough way that would hold his attention, I explained that one of the great things about our (relatively) free society is that anyone can participate in the success of attractive businesses by buying tiny slivers of them and profiting along the way if the company grows in value. “You can buy a little piece of the Tesla company and if they make money, you make money,” I said.
Yes, Jamie Dimon, this is a simplification but one teed up for a third-grader.
The sun glistened off the surrounding wavelets. “Think about the brands that you like and the companies that mom and I spend money with.” I rattled off household names a youngster would know. “Apple, Amazon, Ford. All those insurance companies that advertise on football games. You can buy little pieces called shares and own parts of each of these companies and a bunch of others and your money will grow over time. Probably by a lot, young man.”
He sat in the sun next to his wet dog and thought about it for a moment while the boat pitched lazily in the 6-foot deep emerald waters. “What about boats, dad? Can you make money on boat companies?” asked the kid who grew up on the water.
I wasn’t expecting that particular tack.
“Well, sure, if you do it right. There are a lot of boatbuilders, great ones, owned by single families. Moms and Pops. But plenty of other great boat companies are traded on the stock market. Chris-Craft, Boston Whaler, Malibu, boats like those.”
“Even the engines, pal. Mercury Marine is owned by a bigger company called Brunswick, which owns a whole lot of boat brands like Sea Ray and Whaler.” I pointed to the flybridge. “Our radar brand is owned by Brunswick. So if you like the chartplotter and Mercury outboards and Boston Whalers you can buy stock in Brunswick. Maybe someday you’ll make enough money that Brunswick will sell you a Whaler with Mercury outboards and a chartplotter. That’s how the system works. Everyone’s happy.”
He scratched the dog’s back for a moment and thought things through from his small but burgeoning worldview.
That evening at home he asked more questions, so I set up a Bloomberg watchlist on the laptop and gave him a pretend budget, which he could spend on stocks while we sat on the couch. Tesla and Brunswick were first, and then he said “I want to own a bank.”
I was grateful that the afternoon’s man-to-boy lesson on the boat in the glistening sun was holding course.
“Wells Fargo,” he said. This was 2018. Doh!
“Let’s, ahhh. Let’s get back to Boston Whalers and outboards, champ. Malibu ski boats are cool, right? Can you find their stock ticker symbol?”
From that day on we’ve had an ongoing conversation thread about money, investing and free enterprise. My son is 16 now and plans to study accounting, business and investing in college. We’ve begun touring business schools across the country. He’s made sure his liquid assets are earning as much interest as possible and he has a small investment portfolio.
It includes a few shares of Tesla, Brunswick and Malibu. We’ll see.
This article originally appeared in the August/September 2024 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
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