It all began after her mother, Ann McNeill, started taking her young daughter to her weekly investment meetings and classes. Ionnie, who was 7 years old at the time, would help Ann with her homework researching and analyzing companies from which to buy stock. After that, she was hooked.
“What really interested me was the fact that I would be part owner of whatever company I bought stock from,” she said. “The ownership part was big for me.”
The Howard University junior bought her first stock at age 9 in Citrix, a computer software company based in Florida, also where she is from. She incorporated her own business, Speak 2 Share, when she was 15, and now she travels around the country teaching children and teens about investing and how to get started.
“My mother often tells a story about how after a meeting I came out and told her, ‘Now I understand why having Nike stock is more important than having Nike shoes,’” she said. “And really, it’s true. I sometimes tell the students that if you forfeit in buying that pair of Jordan’s, you can spend that $120 and buy two or three shares of stock.”
McNeill believes that investing education and saving should begin at an early age, just as it did with her. Her father, she said, was very frugal when she was younger and this started to build her mindset to be money conscious. Her mother, who also owns her own business, inspired her to pursue her career in finance and business.
Although she is not entirely certain on her plans after college, McNeill said that she wants to be in corporate America, possibly working in consulting or financial services. Until then, she plans to focus on her business and educate the youth about making their money grow.
“My mind isn’t always on making money,” she said. “It’s on enjoying life, being with family and friends and having the financial freedom to do whatever I want. And I see it as my passion to teach young people about it and how to get it, and letting them know that it’s not hard at all.”
Recently, McNeill spoke at the Essence Young Women’s Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.
Sidebar:
Ionnie’s Tips for Making Your Money Grow
• Believe that you can invest at any age and whatever financial status you’re at. No one is too young. The earlier you start investing, the better.
• If you are interested in buying stock in a company, contact its investor relations department and ask if they have direct stock purchase plan.
• Take advantage of your job or internship’s 401K plan.
• Open a Roth IRA.
• Don’t let your money just sit in a bank account—invest. “Even if we save the money, the amount they give you in interest is not enough to get you above inflation every year; therefore you’re losing money when it’s just sitting in the bank doing nothing,” McNeill said.
