Students Learn the Power of Investing
Students in Sabbath Middle School's Afterschool Program learn from Gail Perry-Mason
What would you do with $100,000? What would you expect to hear a 11-13 year-old say they would do with $100,000? The answers just might surprise you!
Sure, there were some students that would spend the entire amount on clothes, shoes and video games but many of the Sabbath Middle School students that were asked this question explained that they would save it for their education, while some would spend it to start a business.
Gail Perry-Mason, First Vice-President of Investments at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. visited the Sabbath after-school program in River Rouge on Thursday, March 12 to speak to students and their parents about savings, investments and budgeting.
Gail has presented socially responsible investing strategies for youth and their families for over 18 years. Her program, Money Matters for Youth has instructed over 3,000 youth in the Detroit-Metro area.
She explained how her 3 sons participated in some creative approaches to start making money at the age of 11 and 12. For example, one son got paid $75/hr. to eat cereal and find other kids his age to try the cereal for their comments. Her youngest son visited a GameStop store a few communities away and was unhappy with the service. He came home, bought a few shares of stock and wrote the company a letter explaining his experience He recommended the company move the store to his hometown because of the many “gamers” he knew and the opportunities for growth. GameStop contacted him for more ideas and is going to fly him down to their offices in Houston to work with him on relocating the store.
Both adults and children can take advantage of the experiences that Gail shared in her presentation.
She gave students a list of Marketing Research Companies and suggested they call and ask to be put in their database for focus groups. Whenever companies need to have a product tested or need customer feedback, they look to focus groups of specific ages & demographics for more information.
Adults can also become “Secret Shoppers.” Secret Shoppers go undercover in a store, apartment or restaurant and ask for services to evaluate performance and customer service.
For more information on this program, contact Jami Willingham at (313) 843-2550 or jwillingham@waynemetro.org.
The students enrolled in Sabbath Middle School's afterschool program
learned i important facts about money management and investing from Gail Perry-Mason, First Vice President of Investments at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
For more information please contact:
Erin Evans, Communications Manager
2121 Biddle, Suite 102
Wyandotte, MI 48192
734-246-2280 x 123.