The Fortunate Son

Hi Scott,

I like reading your column, but last week’s hit me so very hard. I am currently having the exact experience with my 18-year-old son, who has lost some money through trading. He does not want any advice from his parents, yet still hopes to be a ‘trader’. We read your book as a family and did the three buckets with our kids for some time, but he now wants to manage all his own money (which I understand, as he is 18). But gee it’s hard to sit by and watch him make some not-so-good choices (and hopefully learn from them). Any suggestions?

Linda

Hi Linda,

The fastest growing segment of the gambling industry is young men. That explains those ads on the telly that show young lads gambling and having a roguish, laddy good time on the punt.

What I’d explain to your son is that if he gambles on sports or stocks he’ll end up a loser.

And the reason he’ll lose his money is quite simple: he can’t control the outcome. He has no edge.

He’s a patsy for the big professional investors, who will chew him up and spit him out, just as surely as the gaming industry is sucking dry the accounts of impressionable young gambling-addicts-in-training.

If he really wants to be a big man and chart his own course in life, he should gamble on himself.

Get a job, learn everything he can to start a business of his own, and then double down on starting his empire.

Take on the world and win! 

But do it in a game where he can tilt the odds in his favour.