MISSOURI CITY, Texas – At 16-years-old, Andrew Brierty of Missouri City looks like your typical high school jock.
He plays JV basketball and runs track at Fort Bend Christian Academy.
He enjoys hanging out with his buddies, and he loves the Houston Rockets.
Like I said, just your average kid — except when it comes to money and the stock market.
“When I was 15-years-old, I got my first share of Nike stock for my birthday from my parents, and that was just really intriguing. I loved it," Andrew says, smiling.
Now, fast-forward a year and a half and Andrew, a top student with a 4.2 GPA, now has authored his first book on finance called, “Step Into Wall Street”, and he writes his own financial blog called, “A Teen On Wall Street”.
“I want to help kids my age learn at this early age how to handle their money. Too many of us just don’t save anything in terms of money," Andrew says.
What Andrew tries to do in his articles is break down the complex language of money, markets and finance and translate them into terms millennials can easily understand.
“People think the stock market is this big, super complex thing that they can’t even think about trying to enter. It’s not true. Anybody can do this, it’s not that difficult," Andrew says.
Andrew's number one piece of advice for adults and teens is, "don’t be afraid."
“I think everyone has this misconception that it’s impossible, or it’s just too hard for us, and so we need to let the big guys on Wall Street do their job with our money, but really, it’s for everybody," he says.
As far as his own investing success, Andrew has been on target there as well.
His Nike stock climbed from $95.00 a share to over $130.00, and then it split.
He bought Under Armour at $36.00, and it grew to $39.00.
And he bought Newell Brands, which bought up Rubbermaid, and it has also grown from where he bought it.
Andrew says his goal is to become the creator of his own hedge fund someday, so he can help grow wealth for other people.
For the time being, he continues to work hard at his studies and his blog, and if Andrew himself were a stock being traded on the market, we think a lot of savvy investors would buy his stock.