How We Taught Our Kids About Investing by Buying Budweiser When Everyone Was Selling

If you keep up with financial news, you’ve probably seen a lot of talk lately about Warren Buffett stockpiling cash and what that could mean for the direction of the stock market.

“We’ve put a lot of money to work during the chaos of the last two years. It’s been an ideal period for investors; A climate of fear is their best friend. Those who invest only when commentators are upbeat end up paying a heavy price for meaningless reassurance. In the end, what counts in investing is what you pay for a business—through the purchase of a small piece of it in the stock market—and what that business earns in the succeeding decade or two.” – Warren Buffett, Feb. 26, 2010

What I take from that is simple: be willing to buy when others are selling.

This is exactly the lesson we’re trying to teach our kids—how to get their money working for them while they go to school, play sports, and live their lives. Instead of just saving every dollar in a piggy bank or letting it sit in a savings account earning next to nothing, we want them to understand how to grow their money by investing wisely.

One of my daily habits is reading The Wall Street Journal. I’ve learned that many successful investors spend most of their day reading, so I figured it was a good habit to copy. On January 3, 2025, I came across an article about the U.S. Surgeon General recommending that alcoholic beverages carry a warning label stating they can cause cancer, similar to cigarettes. My first thought? This is going to cause a market overreaction—and that means opportunity.

The day before the article, Budweiser’s parent company, BUD, was trading at around $50 per share. By January 10th, the stock had dropped to $46. I scanned the 52-week low list and saw that several alcohol-related stocks were down, including Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams), Grupo Modelo (Corona), and Diageo (Guinness). My thesis was simple: back in 1964, the Surgeon General’s warning about cigarettes didn’t stop people from smoking. Today, smoking is still the leading preventable health issue in the U.S. Even if the alcohol warning labels were implemented, I knew people would still drink beer.

So, I started narrowing down my choices. With the current administration focused on supporting U.S. manufacturing, I ruled out Grupo Modelo and Diageo. Then, I considered Budweiser’s long history—over 100 years in business, consistently paying dividends, and generating positive free cash flow. To me, it was an easy decision: buy a stable, well-run business at a discount because of short-term negative news.

But this time, I didn’t just invest for myself. I used this as a real-life lesson for our kids. We took some of their birthday money and bought shares of BUD. I explained to them that we weren’t just saving money—we were making our money work for us.

A few weeks later, I checked in with them and said, “Guess what? Your investment has made $50 so far.” The best part? They didn’t have to do anything. They just went on living their lives, going to school, and playing with their friends. The investment did the work.

This experience has sparked their interest in investing. Now, they’re asking more questions, paying attention to news that might impact companies, and even thinking about what they’d invest in next. And that’s exactly the lesson we want them to learn: smart investing isn’t about chasing hype—it’s about spotting real opportunities when others are too scared to see them.