Answer:    

Note: Investment accounts are more accessible now due to commission-free trading, minimums as low as $1 and the ability to buy fractional shares of stock 

Question:

• What would motivate you to open an investment account? For those who have an investment account, explain your reasons for opening it. 
• How much money do you think you need to invest in the stock market to get started? 
• How might new investors that are 18 or 19 years old answer this question differently from new investors in their 40s? 

Here's the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (from FINRA study):

Striking differences emerged among race/ethnicity groups when we examined what prompted investors to open a new account during 2020. Saving for retirement prompted more than one-quarter (26 and 28 percent, respectively) of white and Hispanic/Latino investors and more than one-third (34 percent) of Asian investors to open an account. However, saving for retirement did not rank among the top five prompts for African American investors.

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Looking for more questions to get your class off to a great start? Check out NGPF's Question of the Day library. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.