The Media Got It All Wrong on Fidelity’s Latest Move

Andy Snyder|May 21, 2021

The mainstream media is run by a bunch of non-thinking, agenda-pushing idiots.

They hit on a topic this week that’s close to our heart… investment education.

For years, we’ve said social media platforms should come with a surgeon general’s warning. They’re bad for your health.

Need proof? See 2020.

Now we’re upping our game. Every news site and every TV channel that is run by the latest monopolistic conglomeration of phone companies, TV channels and cable providers should come with a warning of its own.

“Caution,” each piece should start out, “the following content has been found to be harmful to your financial, physical, social, cultural, moral and intellectual health. You and the generations that follow will be dumber and poorer for wasting your time on it.”

We’d push the idea harder… but we reckon a warning like that will simply draw the intellectual midgets to their screens like a lightbulb teases a mosquito to its death.

Here’s our problem…

Earlier this week, Fidelity announced that it has created a new “youth account” product aimed at teenagers. It can be used to purchase stocks, ETFs or mutual funds.

The mainstream media – which apparently feeds on ignorance and poverty – latched onto the “greedy” side of the move. We read several reports that compared Fidelity’s move with the tricks used by social media sites to get kids hooked.

Status Update: Imma Be a Millionaire

“It’s basically hook ’em as young as you can, period,” the head of a child advocacy group told at least one outlet. “They market to kids and teens because a) you hook them at a young age, and b) you get their parents.”

We’d love to show this fella some of the many notes we’ve gotten over the years – including tear-filled notes from folks in their 80s who can’t afford to leave their houses because they came to the idea of investing for the future 65 years too late and don’t know where to start.

Forget sending men to Mars (well… maybe just send Elon Musk). Instilling the value of a dollar in our children’s heads is the most valuable gift we can give them.

Sure, some kids will find a way to do dumb things with their newfound power. And, yes, some kids will lose money.

Good.

We’d rather it happen when they’re 14 and have their whole lives in front of them… than when they’re 40 and making stupid money moves, hoping to find a quick way to pay the mortgage next month.

“So, Son…”

Here’s something we didn’t see or hear in any of the media’s reports. They all point to Fidelity as the troublemaker… as if it is solely responsible for teaching kids about money and its power.

But there’s no mention of parents… teachers… or mentors.

Imagine the effect on tomorrow if part of a kid’s weekly routine was sitting down with his old man to discuss the latest moves in junior’s new account.

Oh… we can dream.

But meh, we hear there’s a hot new Netflix series that will likely keep the voices quiet.

“Shhhhh, son. This is the good part.”

Interestingly, the financial advisor crowd is protesting the news too. From our takes-one-to-know-one stance, we can tell you advisors don’t like all these fancy new apps and programs.

They’re stiff competition.

“It’s not practical,” one of them said, according to CNBC. “As advisors to clients, we don’t even buy individual stocks – we buy ETFs, funds, managed accounts, things like that.”

“So why are we spending so much time trying to teach kids how to buy and sell an individual stock when they’re never going to be using that in the future?”

Ummmm… maybe because mediocrity is a curse.

Teach a kid how to find a good stock and you just taught him how to rise above the poor and huddled masses.

The earlier we teach our kids that they – and not the government – are in control of their own destinies, the better off we all will be.

But that doesn’t make for a good news segment.

P.S. The big announcement we made yesterday just got a whole lot bigger. The company at the center of it all just revealed that June 10 is going to be a very big day for shareholders. Click here to learn how you can get in on the action… if you act today.