Corporate quarterly earnings might not sound like an exciting topic for eight and nine year olds, but when they own a few shares of Target stock, suddenly they’re interested. This morning Target (TGT) reported quarterly earnings that blew away expectations, and they also gave strong forward guidance. The stock jumped 10% in pre-market trading, meaning my kids accounts were set for a $50 boost. Fifty dollars! Remember, when you are eight, that means you could afford just about anything in the Target toy aisle. Kids’ investing metrics are measured in toys.

The best part about investing with kids is the chance to talk to them about all of this financial gobbledygook. Stuff that normally wouldn’t get discussed much around a dinner table, but that adds to their understanding of how business works, what being a public company means, how they are affected by that with their ownership in stock, etc..

We sit down every Friday for maybe fifteen minutes and go over their portfolio and look at charts. Every week, so far, we pick a new stock to buy (we’ll eventually end up with about 10 stocks in their first year). This involves lots of back and forth conversation, mostly centered around trying to think of companies that my kids actually know, or care about. We’re quickly running out of those, actually, so will move on soon to more general concepts like finding a solar energy company, or a space exploration company—things that they can get their heads around and be interested in following along and discussing.

So, it’s been about a month since we started the Stockpile accounts for my kids. Let’s have a look at what we’ve done so far.