Investing: Make Your Money Work
Money can be earned, spent, shared — or invested. Investing means using money to buy something that can make more money later.
Example: with a grown-up, you spend $5 on 10 snack packs and sell each for $1. You collect $10. Your profit is $10 minus $5, which is $5. Your money worked for you!
Rules matter. Always have adult supervision and permission, and only sell where it is allowed. Many schools have rules about selling, so check first or sell at a family event or stand.
Investing has risk, which means you could lose some money if things don't sell. Starting small keeps a mistake small.
If you reinvest — put some profit back into buying more snacks — your little business can grow bigger each time. Grown-ups do the same with businesses, buildings they rent, and stocks.
You, if you invested $5 with a grown-up's help, what would you sell, and what price would you charge?
Learning objective
Calculate profit on a tiny supervised investment and decide what to reinvest.
Understand the mechanism
An investment turns money into something that can sell or grow. Profit is what is left after you pay back what you spent.
Reinvesting part of the profit lets the next round be bigger.
Put it to work
Plan on paper first with a grown-up. Write cost, quantity, price and where selling is allowed.
Worked example
- 1
Buy 12 packs for $6.
- 2
Sell all 12 at $1 each: collect $12.
- 3
Profit is $6. Reinvest $3, save $2, share $1.
Profit that goes back to work can grow your business.
Your practice lab
You spend $8 on 10 cookies and sell them at $1 each. What is your profit? How much would you reinvest?
Personal scratchpad · not graded or saved
The Garcia Twins' Popcorn
The Garcia twins spent $4 on popcorn kernels and bags, with their dad's help, and sold 20 bags at the soccer game for $0.50 each.
They collected $10, so their profit was $6. They used $4 of it to buy more kernels for the next game and put $2 in their savings jar.
Reinvesting turned one small sale into a business that kept growing.
Illustrative example — names and figures are composites for teaching.
Write your mini investment plan: what you buy, cost, price, and how much you'd reinvest.
Example: Buy beads for $4, make 8 bracelets, sell for $1, reinvest $2.
Go deeper — outside resources
- Lemonade Day · Lemonade Day
- CFPB — Money as You Grow · Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- MyMoney.gov — learning hub · MyMoney.gov
Key ideas
- Invested money can earn more money
- Profit = money in − money spent
- Get permission and start small
Try it: With a grown-up, write a plan: what you would buy, what it costs, and the price you would sell it for.
Quick check
1. What does investing mean?
2. You spend $5 and collect $10. What is your profit?
3. What must you always have before selling?
4. What is risk?
5. What does reinvesting mean?