24 | JUNE 8 • 2023 

A

t the height of the COVID 
pandemic in 2020, teenagers 
everywhere only had so many 
new TV shows to binge, video games 
to play and FaceTime conversations to 
have. Ian Weinberg, 17, of Birmingham, 
now a junior at Seaholm High School, 
was one of those teens running out of 
distractions. 
From a young age, he had heard 
from his father, David, about getting 
into investing. David would buy his 
son books or tell him to watch certain 
videos on the topic, but Ian always 
found a reason to put it off or not be 
interested. 
Bored in his room during the 
lockdown, Weinberg picked up one of 
the books his dad got him and started 
reading it. He applied himself and 
finally connected with it. Weinberg 
started to do more research, read more 
books, regularly turned into CNBC and 
other investing programs to find out 
more info.
“I fell in love with it at that point,” 
Weinberg said. “And I’ve been 
continuing to invest and expand my 
knowledge since then.”
The original investing book Weinberg 
read was targeted toward teens. While 
it helped spark his investing passion, 
there was something about the book he 
found peculiar. 
“It was a great book — nothing about 
the information was wrong — but I 
found that the author of this book was 
an older guy. And he’s targeting this 
book toward younger generations,” 
Weinberg said. 
The 17-year-old wondered if 
someone from the younger generation 
could connect better to the very same 
generation the book was trying to 
reach. He got an idea. 
Soon after, that idea came back into 
focus when he learned there were fewer 
young investors than ever. Making the 
connection between the two is when 
the fire was lit inside Weinberg and 
the idea of writing a more relatable 
investment book came to fruition. 

As a freshman going into his 
sophomore year of high school at the 
time, the question of how he was going 
to write this book weighed on his mind. 
He spent time researching how to 
write a book and did his due diligence, 
knowing he wanted to do it right. 
After spending considerable time 
organizing and planning what he 
wanted in each chapter, the process was 
completed when he finished writing 
in fall 2022. The book, Invest Early To 
Grow Your Wealth, was published in 
March 2023. 
The book stresses the importance of 
investing while you’re young and how 
anyone can invest even with a small 
amount of money and watch it grow 
over time. 

Weinberg has received a universally 
positive response to the book, even 
hearing from other students at school 
about how his book helped them get 
interested in investing. 
“And that’s really what I want to 
accomplish,” Weinberg said. “Just 
knowing I helped one person start 
investing was a goal. I’m happy that 
people are enjoying it and learning 
something new.” 
While other investing books may 
have similar information, the main 
selling point of Weinberg’s book over 
any other is that the voice behind it 
and the intended audience are made for 
each other.
“You’re going to find me, a relatable 
teenager, writing it, which hopefully 

A Teenage Investor 

OUR COMMUNITY

Birmingham’s 17-year-old Ian Weinberg 
has published a book on investing.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

Ian 
Weinberg

