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