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Hey, this is Shiran Srivatha. Welcome back to the Business School Podcast. In this episode, I'm going to talk to you about my son who's an 11 year old investor. I'm going to show you how we took a portfolio and grew at 600% in three years. I'm going to give you the exact breakdown of exactly what we did, what we invested in, and how you can do the two for yourselves, for your children, for your family, and the lessons around why this is important and my gift to you in this process. So I break this all down step by step, starting right now.
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One thing is for certain, just because it's tried and true doesn't mean it's working right now. So the big question is this. Where can you learn what is working right now? The strategies, the tactics, the psychology, and.
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The exact how to.
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How to grow your business, how to blow up your personal brand and supercharge your personal growth. That is the question and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Sharan Srivatha and welcome to Business school.
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So most parents give their kids an allowance, which I think is totally fine. But three years ago I had a different deal with my then 11 year old son, Neil, and he loved to read. So I said, if you read a book, I'll give you $50 now. Not because he begged for it, not because he asked for anything, just because I knew that books are worth it and I knew that he read. So I wanted to reinforce a good habit. By the way, it's a really good thing. You always want to reinforce good habits. But here's kind of where it gets interesting. I know his friends, while his friends were blowing their money on Robux. By the way, if you don't have children, Robux is the Roblox cash or more iPad time. Neil was learning something else. Every $50 that he earned went straight into investing. I didn't give him the $50 in cash. I gave him the $50 to invest. And three years ago, what I did was I opened a Robinhood account for him. And because I wanted to give him the app so he could actually invest himself, he could learn investing. And instead of giving him an empty app with $50 in it, I put a thousand dollars to show him how it works. I took the first thousand dollars and I said, all right, here's a thousand dollars, let's actually show you how to invest. But here's the crazy part. That thousand dollars that I invested today is worth in just three years, over $7,000, over a 600 but the real story is not about the money. It's what happened kind of along the way, which is what I want to share with you. So today I want to break down for you the four investments that I made for this thousand dollars, why one of them went insanely crazy. And the father son lessons that I learned with Neil, maybe about patience, maybe about risk, but more about working together on something as a father and a son, but building wealth together. Something that I got to teach him in a very simple way. So let's break it all down for you, and I'm going to give you the exact details. And maybe this is interesting to you, maybe for yourself, maybe for your children, maybe for whoever. The book deal, right? So the reason I started this was Neil just loved reading, but every other kid was getting paid in screen time and like video games and Xbox. And so I thought, what if I turn his love for books into something that compounds, something that I could teach him, something that could be a father son thing overall. So the deal was super simple. I said, hey, hey, you read a book, you tell me that you read the book and you get $50, no strings attached. But how he. What he got was not $50 in cash. What he got was $50 in a Robinhood account. So the reason I went with Robinhood is I just didn't want to hand the cash and watch it disappear. I want him to actually see the money work. I wanted him to give him. I wanted to teach him delayed gratification. I wanted him to understand how it works. So, so I opened his Robinhood account. I put a thousand dollars of my own money in it, and then I wanted to show him how the first few investments worked. So I showed him the trade. So I set the expectations. It was not going to make him rich overnight. I wanted. That's what I explained to him. Because $50 invested in the market today is, you know, just $50. And so I wanted him to realize that the money could be in a cougar, it could be a crock pot. And it was about showing him that it could, you know, it could grow if you're patient and smart. And so I picked four investments and I explained why, what they were to him. And I called this the thematic approach. So a thematic approach, you know, based on my, you know, just for background. I am not your financial advisor. I am my own. I have been on Wall Street. I. I was a banker at Goldman Sachs on a Credit Suisse. I've structured extremely complex deals. I've invested in over a hundred plus deals. I built $2 billion companies. And I understand every fancy investment vehicle out there, almost all of them. I also know the other scams and investment structures. Maybe everything from 529 plants or Roth IRAs to custodials to mutual funds. I know all of it. Right, I get it. But what I did instead was I threw all of that complexity kind of out the window. I didn't want to overload Neil with some random account or products or that he couldn't understand or, or. Or do something extremely dumb. Like, what did. What. What did our parents do? Like, what did the last generation. They said, oh, let me buy you one share of Disney. Like that means nothing. Like that means. That makes no sense. Like that's cool that they got you a share of Disney and you got a stock certificate and put you on your door. I love my parents for doing that, but that was idiotic. Like, they should not done that. They didn't me anything. They got me a share of Disney for vanity purposes instead. They should have taught me what to actually do with it. And that's what I want to do differently here. Now. I'm not throwing shade on anybody. I got a. I got a Disney certificate too. I told my parents the same exact thing. And so after like learning all these complex structures, I realized something. The best investments are the ones that you can actually explain. And if I can. If Neil can't tell you after I explained to him why he did what he did, then he's not learning anything. If he's confused, I have totally failed. If you ask Neil today, hey, Neil, what do you believe in the future? He'll say, I think technology is going to do well in the future. The tech powers are everything that I use. The tech powers, my games, my phone, my AI. And that's the point. He gets it. And so he's like, dad, how do I invest in technology for the future? So here's what I did. I took the thousand dollars that I seeded the account with and I split it into four pieces, $250 each. And I made three safe themes. Three themes overall and one wildcard. And this was September 2022, three years ago, when the market was kind of shaky. It was kind of interesting. Crypto was in the. In the gutter. So here's how they all kind of shook up. So here's what we picked, by the way, let me tell you exactly. So we picked four investments. Theme number one was the. We bet on the future of technology. So we invested in all the technology companies. I like this technology ETF called XLK. We put $250 in it. And so this is the kind of the AI and chip revolution, right? You got Apple and Microsoft and Nvidia. And I told Neil, hey, these companies kind of, they are the backbone. They power everything that you love from your games to your phone to your, you know, what have you. And he got it immediately. He realized that in the future tech would be bigger than it is today. So he's like, oh, I get that. I get to invest in the future. I get to the growing version of tech overall. That's cool, right? And the second is spy, which is essentially a ETF for the S&P 500. Now why am I investing these ETFs and non mutual funds? I'll tell you the story later. But these are just low cost ways of getting some kind of thematic exposure to something. So essentially I was like, hey, if you don't own a company, you might as well own pieces of the 5, 500 biggest companies. That's one other way to do it. So I said, this is kind of like this, this steady approach, 500 of the America's biggest companies. I explained it like this. Hey, if America business, if American businesses win, we win, right? So Neil was like, okay, I get it now. I'm investing in like all the businesses in America. I get to wake up in the morning and cheer for America to do better. That was the S&P 500. That's number two. The third is a little bit different one. Not a lot of people know about this. This is the SCHD. This is a Charles Schwab dividend ETF. And I just put another, you know, 25% into it. I think of this as the boring pick. I could have easily gone with a long term pick, but I wanted to teach Neil something. I wanted to teach Neil what a dividend was. And a dividend, as you know, is a little bit of cash flow paid back to the owner of the stock. And, and so essentially when they distribute a profit or cash flow to the owner of the stock, that's what a dividend is. And so I wanted to explain to Neil what a dividend was, otherwise he would never understand that concept. So I said, hey, think of it like getting paid to hold the stock. He was like, okay, that's interesting, but if you're going to do that, then you're probably not going to get growth simultaneously. So he understood that it was kind of slower but more reliable. And you know, if he got, if he got his trading the growth for a Little bit of cash flow. And he wanted to see how it works. So he understood the concept of what I always call getting paid to wait. And so that I explained that this was the defense in his portfolio. Now as, as at that point in time, Neil was starting to get into football and sports. And I told him, I said, hey, listen, this is like having defense on your football team, right? You need somebody to play defense and if something happens, this will kind of balance out your portfolio. And he started to get the idea with it. So now we have xlk, which is the growth function, which is the, the technology ETF. We had the S&P 500, which is the broad based steady ETF. We have the boring pick, which is the schd, which is the dividend ETF that pays a dividend every quarter. And last but not least, I was like, okay, how do I throw a little spice into all of this? How do. What is the gamble here? How can I, how can I take a flyer on something? And I invested in the last $250 into MicroStrategy. Now if you don't know what MicroStrategy is, it is a company or stock that goes out and its underlying security is bitcoin. The company bet on everything Bitcoin. And it's actually leveraged too. So it actually does better than bitcoin. I told Neil, I was like, hey, this could crash or it could go to the moon. And I explained the idea of bitcoin and I said, hey, we're taking the risk. I don't know where it's going to go, but we gotta, we gotta take a little, we gotta take a little risk here. And I explained to him what I thought of bitcoin. I know, I don't believe that it's going to take over. I'm not sure. I don't know much about bitcoin. I don't think it's going to take over the world. I'm not putting my entire life savings in it. But I would be very, very upset that if I woke up in 10 years and I had zero bitcoin exposure and it had gone to a million dollars, like, I would be very, very upset. So even if it's just a flyer, growth play, a risk play, I gotta do it. But I wanted to teach Neil that. I want to teach Neil that you don't put 100% of your portfolio in bitcoin. You get some exposure to it. You manage your risk around it. You get a little piece of it so that you can win alongside everything else that is the All Weather portfolio in a lot of ways. So every as. As you can understand as I'm sharing this with you, every single one of these kind of picks that I made had a story that my son, who was 11, could understand. There wasn't like, complicated like funds or a 401k or a 529 or like tax optimization. Like, no, he was just investing in themes. And that's why I call this a thematic approach. So let me. Let me kind of break down for you what exactly happened three years later from September 2022 to September 2025. That. That $1,000 is now over $7,000. That's over 600% return. And Neil's eyes were nuts when I showed him that. He had no idea. He had just forgotten because he was just going on and buying more 50 worth of stock every time he read a book. So, super. Let me give you the background on exactly what happens. XLK, which is a technology ETF, went up over 125% in three years. So because the tech exploded, AI became the biggest story in business. Every time Neil played a game or used ChatGPT, I'd tell him, I'm like, hey, this. This is your portfolio. And he could see, like, what I meant by that. That was the cool part. The next was Spy, which is the S&P 500. It has 73% gain, almost 25% each year. The S&P 500 totally did this job. It was slow and steady, and this was our safety net. But it crushed. Like, this is. It had a. It had a blowout. Blowout. Three years. Then schd, which is the. The Charles Schwab dividend portfolio. Slow and easy, 7% gain, not much. The dividends kept rolling in, but the growth was slow. I told Neil, hey, I was like, listen, dude, this is what it feels like. Getting paid to where he was not impressed. He did not care. But he understood. He understood the theme of, like, the defense on a football team that felt like a safety net when everything else got wild. And finally, MSTR, which is MicroStrategy, that owned the underlying thing of Bitcoin. 2,200% gain. I will tell you right now, this was the wild card that went bonkers. Bitcoin went from 19,000 ish dollars to 63,000 ish dollars. Like, and now whatever it is, like, you know, $115,000 or whatever it is today as I'm recording this, and. And MicroStrategy just rode that wave. And Neil asked, he's like, dad, is this Real. I was like, yeah, kid, no kidding. It's totally real. So I bought roughly 107. Like, if you total up all of this, the microstrategies alone made up for 82% of the portfolio, which is crazy if you think about it, right? So The S&P 500 kind of returned 73% in that same period because that was the benchmark. We crushed it. And so let's be honest, I got super lucky with having Micro Strategies. So my, My point in sharing all of this with you is I want to tell you what we learned. So big, quick lessons. Lesson number one, the risk can pay off, but it's extremely terrifying, especially when you're trying to explain it to somebody. Micro Strategies was like betting on a horse that could win big or like trip halfway through the race or do whatever. I lost sleep during the crypto dips in 2023. Like, Microsoft strategy dropped hard. It was not a lot of money, but. But I sh. I had. I had some of my portfolio in it, but Neil wasn't paying attention. But I was like, man, this is crazy, right? So if you can't stomach the volatility, it's super hard. So that's lesson number one, which is risk can pay off, but it's terrifying. Number two, the diversification saves you. There's a lot of, you know, talk around like, you know, the Buffet Munger world about, you know, diversification is dumb. Well, it's. Diversification is dumb, and only if you control the risk. Otherwise, you know, buying the index is a good idea because very rarely, almost, you know, a very small percentage of active traders actually beat the index. And it's super important. Like the XLK and the SPY kept the portfolio growing even when this microstrategy wobbled. The. The dividend portfolio was slow, but those dividends felt like a safety net. It's like, think about this. It's like going on a picnic and you're packing snaps, snacks, and a map for the road trip. You don't. Just don't rely on just the gps. You got to have a few different things. So if, if microstrategies had crashed completely, we'd still be up 100%, thanks to the other three, which is crazy if you think about it, right? So number two, diversification saves you, especially when you're not actively managing this stuff. Here's number three. I wanted. Investing is the long game, right? I wanted to teach Neil that three years felt fast to him. But for, for. This is for Neil in his 20s or his 30s, where time is the secret sauce that time is the magic pill. I wanted to show him a chart of the portfolio's growth. Like I had AI simulate the growth of this portfolio over time. And I said, this is what patience looks like. And he started to get it. He was like, man, if I don't touch this for a while, I will have a lot. And he realized I was starting early was important. I showed him how him starting then and me starting now, what would actually happen. And it's crazy. Like that's when you know what's happening over time, when you actually let time do its thing. That's why they say it's not timing the market, it's time in the market, right? And here's lesson number four. Simple beats complex. Because you gotta be able to explain what you're in when it's not your daily thing. Now if you're an active trader, and that's your daily thing, I get it, I understand it. But I've structured deals on Wall street that will make your head spin, right? But for my son Neil, I almost chose to keep it simple. I talk about it again. It's a thematic way. The themes that he could understand, the themes that he could explain back to me, the themes that he could explain to someone el saying why he did what he did. Complexity is the enemy of greatness. You need the clarity, you need the simplicity. If you can't explain your investment to an 11 year old, maybe you probably shouldn't own it if that's not your daily thing. So that was the big idea and I just wanted to show him that thing. So you may say, all right, Sharon, that's very interesting. Like, I'm not going to do that with my son. Like, what's in this for me? So I wrote down like a few lessons, right? So one, you got to just start small. I put a thousand dollars in. That's it. You gotta, you don't need to invest, wait to invest millions of dollars for your kids. Even a hundred dollars in an ETF can show them how all of this works. Number two, talk. Keep talking about themes you want to talk about. Hey, where is healthcare going? Where is AI going? Where is, where are these sports teams investing? And where is China going to do better? Is India going to do better? Is the US going to do better? Like what are the themes that you want to actually invest in? Not the, not products or mutual funds or whatever. The third is, I, I just talk about like balancing risk. And you can always say, hey, what if, you know, if you're flying like I, I'm, I'm a, you know, I'm taking flying lessons and I always tell my son, hey, if one engine fails, what happens to the other? You got to balance the risk in some way so he starts to understand, you know, balancing of risk. The fourth lesson is I think you got to te. We got to teach our kids early. The, the earlier you can introduce them to money, the, the less they are afraid of it, the more they are open to it, the more they understand it, the more they get interested in it, the more they feel comfortable around it. It's no different. I think about money and swimming the same exact way. The sooner you could introduce them to water, the less they're afraid of the water. The sooner you can introduce them to swimming, the less they're afraid of swimming, the sooner you can reduce them the money, the less they're afraid of money. You're just giving them, exposing them, explaining to them that they can have a healthy relationship with this. They can figure out how to make it. They're not scared about it. It doesn't freak them out. The numbers don't frequent. I just want to give them a good understanding and teaching them early on how it works. How does all this work? Give them the right terminology, give them the right understanding because they pick up the stuff early and it's really good. And the last part is I want to help them understand that this is, it's a skill. Learning is hard, right? Learning is hard. And so, but when you have time, it's a great journey to be on together. Making mistakes are okay, but time and the skill and research are actually really, really good. And that was the kind of the big, big idea in all of this. So the reason I'm sharing this with you is this quote, thousand dollar portfolio that became $7,000 started with a book deal that I had with my son for $1,000. It became 7,000 and you know, call it a lesson in the lessons that I shared with you in patience and risk and building something that lasts like a father, son relationship overall. So all I would ask for you to do is if, is to expose your children to money early on, because the more awareness you give them early on, just think about money being like water in a pool. The more you can give them exposure to stuff early on, the easier it'll be for them to understand it, to accept it, and to be comfortable around it. Because that is what makes them, you know, better investors, better operators, better fathers, better friends, better husbands, better wives, whatever, because they're more comfortable with the thing that we all spend our whole life trying to get more of. Hey, if that was like this can help you as well. If that was interesting to you, can you do me a favor please? One, send this to like another parent because I think that would be helpful to them. But two, if you like this, can you screenshot this and tag me? Maybe more of your audience can see it that way. I can make more like this for you. So if you like this, do me a favor, screenshot this and tag me and I make more like this for you.
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Hey, this is Sharon. I have an awesome free gift for you just for listening to the podcast. As you may know, I've got a chance to build two two billion dollar companies the hard way. So if you like this episode, you will love getting the exact playbooks from those wins. It's on my sub stack called My Next Billion. It has the exact frameworks I wish someone had given me when I was figuring it all out. Now you get the real lessons from.
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The trenches as I go for a.
- [19:33]
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Three peat and build the next billion. So everything's free atmynextbillion.com. please check it out. My next billion rebellion.
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Com.