Himes talks investment strategies with Stamford students
STAMFORD — U.S. Rep. Jim Himes gave Stamford High School students a brief lesson on civics and politics Friday morning and told them to beware of investment deals too good to pass up.
The lesson was part of a nationwide online competition that teaches students about personal finance and investing.
The annual event, dubbed the Capitol Hill Challenge, involves every American congressional district. Each district is paired with its corresponding congressperson, which in this case is Himes, a Democrat representing Connecticut in the House.
Students who take part in the challenge are given a hypothetical $100,000 online portfolio of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, cash and environmental, social and corporate governance investments, or ESG, and are expected to invest it into stocks. One caveat is that they can only invest up to 25 percent of their total into any one stock.
During a brief speech and a question-and-answer segment, Himes gave the students some investment advice.
“Higher returns tend to come with more risky investments,” he said to a small gathering of students from the high school's personal finance and entrepreneurship classes. “So you just have to ask yourself, ‘How much risk am I willing to take?'”
Another rule of thumb: “If it sounds too good to true, it probably is, because there are scammers out there,” said Himes, who was a banker for 12 years before becoming a congressman.
The Capitol Hill Challenge is organized by the Securities Industry and
Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Foundation, an educational nonprofit arm of the association. The umbrella organization is an industry trade group that represents securities firms, banks and asset management companies across the globe.
A trio of students at Stamford's Academy of Information Technology and Engineering, one of the district's three high schools, finished second place in the competition last year against a total of 10,000 students who participated in the challenge.
Each of the winning AITE students received a cash prize of $500 dollars for finishing in second place.
Sophomore Avi Shapiro was one of the students in the audience for Himes' visit and asked the congressman about the role of Congress in developing and building the United States economy.
Himes answered with an example.
“What value is it to have a movie theater if you can't drive there because the roads are terrible?” he asked. “Well, the city of Stamford needs to make sure the roads are good.”
After the event, Shapiro said he enjoyed getting to hear Himes in person.
“He helped explain some things that might have been complicated before and gave us good insight from someone who has experience in the field,” he said.