In the past twenty years, a far higher percentage of ordinary, middle-class Americans began investing in the stock market, either as individual investors or as part of retirement-related investment funds. Within a generation, investments have become a central component of the average family’s income, and an essential tool for its future planning. This includes saving for college, weddings, first house purchases, and retirement. This highly readable and comprehensible guide demystifies the terminology and mechanics of investments and savings for teen readers. It provides a superb grounding in the basic principles of financial planning, earning interest, inflation, banking and savings and checking accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, commodities, money market funds, savings bonds, debt, taxes, hidden fees and charges, and get rich quick schemes. Readers are provided with the information they need to manage their money carefully, wisely, and safely and plan for a comfortable and enjoyable future for themselves and their family.