Lesson sheet · Module 24
Investing: the basics — risk, return, allocation
The aim of the lesson
Invest only in what you understand, with money you won't need soon, with a clear plan and known costs — and remember that return is not guaranteed, and risk is the price of every chance of more.
- 👧 Child: a seed may grow, but there is no guarantee — so first we ask "what is this, and how much can it change?"
- 🧑 Teenager: risk and opportunity go together; don't put everything in one basket; fees and time change the result.
- 🧔 Adult: emergency fund first; goal, time frame and a bearable fall before a product; diversification with no promise of profit; read the KID and the fees; check the licence and the protection; the plan beats the emotion.
Your step in Pecuvo: open your portfolio and fill in, for one goal: "what", "when will I need the money", "how big a fall can I bear without selling". Then write down for each product you hold or are considering: category, risk, liquidity, total annual cost and time frame. If you cannot fill in a field, you do not yet understand the product (framework 188).
The topic (chapters of the module)
- Chapter 1 · Saving or investing — two different things
- Chapter 2 · Risk and return — two sides of the same coin
- Chapter 3 · Time, compound interest and inflation
- Chapter 4 · Allocation and diversification
- Chapter 5 · Types of instruments — as categories
- Chapter 6 · Costs and the key information document
- Chapter 7 · Investor protection
- Chapter 8 · Behavioural traps
- Chapter 9 · Sustainability and the "active or passive" question
For the youngest · ages 6–7
🐣 The youngest: A piggy bank keeps exactly the coins you put in. A seed is different — you plant it and wait. Sometimes it sprouts and becomes a plant. Sometimes it doesn't, and you try again. Growing takes time and care.
Play together (5 minutes): Plant 3 seeds in three cups and water them together. Every day, draw what you see. If one doesn't sprout, talk about it: what did we learn? When there are several cups, it is easier to end up seeing a plant.
A question for the evening: "What would you plant if you could wait a long time?"
Questions for the class — 3 per level
👧 Child
- What is the difference between a piggy bank and a seed?
- Why don't we put all the apples in one basket?
- Why does a long time help the "snowball"?
🧑 Teenager
- Name three types of risk and give an example of each.
- What is compound interest, and what does a fee do to it?
- What does "overconfidence" mean, and how can you protect yourself from it?
🧔 Adult
- Nominal return 5%, inflation 3%. Roughly what is the real return?
- An investment falls by 20%. By how much must it grow to get back to its starting value?
- What does an investor compensation scheme cover and not cover, and what do you check in the KID before buying?
Answers: (A) 1: ≈ 1.9%; 2: 25%; 3: it covers an intermediary being unable to return money/instruments, not market losses; in the KID — category, risk indicator, scenarios, holding period, costs, guarantees.
A 45-minute plan
- 5 min
- The question for the evening or one from “Check yourself” — what do the pupils think? No right or wrong answers.
- 15 min
- One or two chapters of the module at the level of the class (the “child · teenager · adult” buttons on the page).
- 10 min
- The game or the calculator for the topic — in pairs or on the board.
- 10 min
- The questions for the class. If you like, the open test — everyone writes down only their code.
- 5 min
- The iron principle in the pupils' own words and one small step for home.
Tools for the lesson
- The whole module on the website pecuvo.eu/en/modules/investing-the-basics/
- The open test (9 questions) — pupils write down only their code (e.g. K4B11), no names; the class distribution is shown on the same page pecuvo.eu/en/test/
- The Glossary — terms explained simply pecuvo.eu/en/glossary/