Some of the players were doing just okay. Some were hot as pistols. Some were just duds. I said i wanted to figure out which were going to go higher, just like everybody else was going to find out. He said why dont you try . It seemed in my house the radio was always on until pop put the tv on for dinner. We always watched the news while eating. I hated it because most of the news was about the war, meaning the war in vietnam, and it seemed frightful and scary and very real life, even when i was 9 years old, my mom was worried that i might have to go to vietnam. Fortunately the war was winding down by the time i got my draft number, and it was a high one, so i was spared from conflict. Right after the world news, they always mentioned the Dow Jones Industrial average, and they either talked or showed the most active stocks, and then the ones that had done the best or the worst. National video was often on the worst list, i discovered, hence the anger. So what i did was write the names down that i heard and i tracked them. Kept them in well, believe it or not, this ledger that i still have. Here it is. What a terrific game. I was trying to figure out the next move of a stock, even as all i knew was the name. Polaroid, xerox, national video, panam, united. Most of them were defense stocks and they went up a lot in tandem with the war. Hey, so i followed a lot of those, and a bunch of others. Look at that. Con air. Eastern. Rca. Admiral. After a year, i decided this was about as cool a game as was imaginable. I wanted to introduce it to my fifth grade class, so i did, show and tell. Showing them my ledger. Inviting everyone to play to see who could find stocks that went up the most during the week. I have to admit that not everyone was as into it as i was, but the coolest thing happened ever. My dads company represented the 3m corporation in philadelphia, selling tape and a fancy ribbon that bowed easily. Satin ribbon. Had to make the bows. Triple m was always coming up with new product lines, which it still does, which is one of the reasons ive always favored it. You should too. About fifth grade, pop came home with a new line of 3m he was selling. Games. They got into whats called 3m bookshelf games. Perhaps i wanted to know more about how the stock market really worked. The Company Created two games about business. Acquire about takeovers, which had all been the rage at the time. And stocks and bonds of which i am fortunate enough to have gotten a copy right here courtesy of george, who is producing mad money, who gave it to me for the holidays. I almost cried when george gave it to me. Ive subsequently asked the ceo of em to bring it back. They dont own the rights anymore. But the point of mentioning this, the stocks and bonds which george bought off of ebay, is the stocks are fascinating enough to get your kids started in them right now. Its easier than ever. Pick some stocks. Maybe not of defense companies, although they are performing at an odd and positive way. But of companies that are familiar to your kids, and have them track them, and guess which will do better over time. Not the city transport. Not the Growth Corporation of america. Not the pioneer mutual fund. Not the central city municipal bonds. But stocks that are real. So heres the bottom line of my childhood stock market obsession. Get started early, and then they play for life, because the stock market is a longterm contest, and one i think the earlier you get in, the more you can win. Im going to mickey in new york. Mickey caller hey, jim. I wanted to thank you for all you do. Your books and your show helped me do that at a very young age, which leads me to my next question. Ive been investing since i was quite young, i was wondering what type of changes i should make to my investing process as i get older. Its a generational thing. I used to say when youre 50s, switch to 50 bonds. No more. Interest rates are way too low. What i need you to do is find some conservative stocks that give you a good yield, and shift over time from the high growth stocks. And then i think you will be able to pick up some income and do well. Rick in arizona. Rick . Caller hello, mr. Cramer. How are you . Real good. How are you . Caller im doing great, sir. I have a couple of young children. Im trying to get them started in investing. The question i have is what advice and what are the most essential items or ideas of investing concepts do people need to know when they start learning about the market and investing themselves . The first thing they need to know is what they own. The idea behind that is to own things like disney. Its why i always tell people start with disney. Dominos pizza if you like dominos. Mcdonalds if you like mcdonalds. Go to the mall. Go to costco. Go to places that youre familiar with. Read the annual. Buy a share. One share. Get him or her involved. Get them started early. Teach your kids about the market. It is a very valuable lesson, and there are many more coming up on this special edition of mad money. Well be right back. Dont miss a second of mad money. Follow jimcramer on twitter. Have a question . Tweet cramer, madtweets. Send jim an email to madmoney cnbc. Com, or give us a call at 1800743cnbc. Miss something . Head to madmoney. Cnbc. Com. Welcome back to a bizarrely special mad money, where im trying to teach you life lessons in investing from my life. While i am not a dollar sign represented by a man, or a stock symbol for that matter, ticker j. I. M. I have stumbled around the stock market long enough in life to learn a thing or two, and tonight youre getting some of that wisdom from the school of hard knocks. Dont you always love it at the beginning of a pro Football Game where they have the player say his name and his school, and some say the school of hard knocks. Thats what i attend when it comes to stocks. Youre getting the ontv version right here, right now. My fourth grade obsession with keeping a ledger to track stocks, and then ultimately to learn how they trade through the greatest game on earth. No, it wasnt monopoly. It was stocks and bonds. But with its little certificates and its game boards and its cards, it tells you about news and how that would send a stock higher or lower. Thats what this was all about. Now, i left the stock market games behind me by the time i got to middle school, which by the way we then called junior high. Where my obsession became sports and i was the second fastest guy in the school for ages. I ran track, of course. And the other thing i cared about was girls, whose movements were more elusive than any of this stuff. And they were more elusive than the ranges of stocks. That was a random walk down main street. I couldnt win for losing. Thats the subject of a different show. Maybe entirely. However, my father did ingrain in me the desire to save. Early on, i learned that even in high school, youve got to save. I saved as i bussed tables at the old block and clever, which we called the block and cleavage, because we were hilariously stupid back then. As a vendor at Veterans Stadium i sold first cold soda. Hey, ice cold. And then ultimately graduated into selling ice cream. Now, very quickly at that job, i learned the value of market power. Specifically cornering the market, and i paid people to give me exclusive right to sell ice cream. Hey, ice cream here. Vanilla and chocolate. On the 600 and 700 level of the vet stadium. Can you imagine how much money could be made if you had the only franchise in the whole upper deck, even for a team as horrible as the phillies back then . By paying those guys not to sell ice cream against me, i made fortunes, except the one time they gave me only strawberry ice cream. Talk about having to run from a customer. Or maybe when Steve Carlton would pitch. He pitched so quickly that i would get stuck with unsold ice cream and i would take a genuine beating. Talk about learning how business worked. The shelf life of ice cream on a hot july night is about as short as short can be. I might jest with you about your name. Sometimes you hear me calling you hey skip, or chief, or hey come on, captain. I learned these names at the ballpark. Its what people called me to get my attention to buy ice cream. I loved it for the false intimacy and i never forgot the monikers bud, i mean, partner. I made a ton of money. I opened an account at fidelity and contributed a little every week of my ballpark winnings. It was run by the great peter lynch, whos written two investment books. Two of the best investment books of all time. Theyre the ones i usually tell people to get after theyve read my books and say i want to learn more. I didnt save enough when i got to college. The money paid was work study anyway and it went toward my tuition and room and board. But when i got out of college, and after a lot of attempts to get a job in the newspaper business, rejected by more than 50 papers, i had every single rejection letter in a trunk. I landed a position in tallahassee, making 156 a month. I still keep a tattered pay stub in my wallet to remind me of how hard it was and how poor i was. Nevertheless, poor, 156, i contributed even then. I put a few dollars away when i could. Not long after i applied to and got a job at the now defunct Los Angeles Herald examiner. It was a horrible job. I was making 179 a week. It was more than tallahassee, but it was in a town that was about as four times as expensive as living in tallahassee. I was living in the fairfax district. Pretty sketchy. Around the corner from pioneer chicken, which was way too expensive for me to go to. A few weeks later, i was stalked and ultimately broken into repeatedly. Something the cops were helpless to stop. At the time, i was assigned a story at san diego, a Horrible School shooting. When i returned, everything was gone. Everything i had. So it began. My terrible but thrilling six months of living in my car, basically trying to get by. The only real upside being when you met a woman, it was pretty easy to figure out the inevitable end of the night query. Your place or mine. Now, i know this isnt your normal behavior, but as much as i knew that my ultimate goal was to save enough to get an apartment, people would take me in now and then so i could get a shower, change, maybe even get a good nights sleep. But you know what . I still never quit saving. I remember cashing my paycheck every other weekend and writing a check to Fidelity Magellan Fund, for what i could afford. You only had your gasoline, car insurance, and food expenses if youre in your car. Terrific savings on homeowners insurance, rent, wow. How poor was i, yet still putting money away . When i ultimately got mononucleosis, i had no health care. When the company mercifully put me on the road so i could submit some expenses for my daytoday. So i had to go to a migrant farm workers clinic to get fixed up. I still put away money, though. Even as i was making my weekly trips to the doctor, who was one of the best i ever had. The upshot of investing when youre living in your car, amazingly, giving money to the best stock picker of all time, i managed, through the years, 35 years later, to put enough money away to take advantage of the great bull markets of our time. Not to brag, but to teach. That money ultimately amounted to a fund well into the six figures. Not because of my capital additions. I stopped putting money away in that fund years ago. But because of the power of compounding with an amazing investor at the helm. I never touched it. I just let it build. I think the takeaway here is that i want you to save no matter what. Obviously the earlier the better, through thick and thin. When cnbc has those allstar managers on, if you dont have enough money or time to handle your own stock portfolio now, or can only buy one or two stocks, send the money in. As little or as much as you can. And heres the real bottom line. If i can still send those checks to the Fidelity Magellan Fund when i was living in my car, sick as a dog with jaundiced liver, kept warm by a bottle of jack and safe by a pistol by my side, the most down and out that you can be in this great country, you can put some money away, too. After the break, ill try to make you more money. Easo why do you feel exso tired afterward . Instead of refueled and focused, youre foggy and sluggish. Its that 2 30 feeling again. So how do you get your clear, alert feeling back . Have a coffee. Then another . Do this instead. Take one 5hour energy. In minutes foggy and sluggish is gone. Hello clear and alert. 5hour energy. Take it after lunch. Be clear and alert for hours. With hotwires low prices, i can cross even more places off my travel wish list. This year alone, i hit new york and texas. See, hotwire checks the competitions rates every day so they can guarantee their low hotel prices. Men hotwire, hotwire. Com. [ mixer whirring ] my turn daddy, my turn hold it steady now. I know daddy. [ dad ] oh boy, fasten your seatbelts everybody. [ mixer whirring ] bounty selectasize. Its the smaller powerful sheet, that acts like a big sheet. Look one selectasize sheet of bounty is 50 more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. [ humming ] [ dad ] use less with the small but powerful picker upper. Bounty selectasize. And try bounty napkins. We in the United States are competing with the best countries in the world. Look at the Global Competitiveness of American Companies by any measure. My life story can be your life story. You can start with nothing in america and create the american dream. Were riding the delicious magical money mystery tour tonight. I am giving you the life lessons i have learned the hard way, through decades of stock investing. I told you first how to get your kids started early. Then i told you about how nothing should ever stop you from investing. Listen, if i could do it living in a 1977 ford fairmont, you can put money away, too. Right now, i want to tell you about how i got started in an individual stock picking, something you know i still love and still believe in, after seemingly interminable periods of chaos. It is still totally worthwhile, if not lucrative. And yes, it is the reason i believe you watch. Certainly your inclination. That is much like the funny outfits, stream of consciousness references and of course the outrageous sound board, courtesy of when i used to have a radio show similar to mad money. It was called real money. If youre picking stocks, playing with real money, not just with a ledger, or with a game of stocks and bonds, you need to open an account. When i got started in 1979, there was no such thing as an online account. I had my money with fidelity, so i chose to put my money in an individual stock account there. When i first started, i didnt know where to look for ideas, so i turned to forbes. People at forbes, please do not take this personally. I read a nifty article about american agronomics. It seemed to be very compelling. So i bought first thing, ten shares, for nine bucks. A week later, frost hit and wiped out the whole crop. My investment was more than cut in half. I was completely devastated. The house of pain. But not defeated. I sold it out and took the capital. You know what i did . Went back to forbes. I bought seven shares of bobby brooks, a clothing outfit i had never heard of. Forbes said it would be a terrific buy. The Company Reported a bad quarter and my money was halved again. Fortunately, i had a decent job at a magazine called american warrior. I was making 20 gs and living at a less than swank studio. The cheap 400 a month rent with the sofa bed. Albeit twice the rent for a beautiful one bedroom in tallahassee. I was on the road quite a bit back then. After a particularly hard night on the town researching a story in kentucky, i fell in love with breakfast at bob evans farm. Finding out it was publicly traded when i went back home, i visited the huge fabulous midtown Manhattan New York Public Library and devoured everything i could about bob evans farm. They had magazines with articles, microfiche, a fourmonthold financials and investment publication with writeups that allowed me to compare with other companies in the industry. I bought 20 shares. E stock went up immediately on a good quarter and a stock split. I found out, know what you own. Like it even. What do i know about growing oranges . What do i know about womens fashion . But a good plate of scrambles and sausages served in an attractive setting with a nice waitress . A company that i found, a long tradition of good service. Nice enough growth in the midwest. Now that was for me. Next up, Standard Press steel. Now that became sps technologies. An outfit from my hometown. They made fasteners, screws for airplanes. Why sps . Because a buddy of mine from high school told me they were hiring like mad. Wanted to know if i was looking for a job. Paying good money. I had a job, but back to the library for more research. St technology. Solid company. No debt. But nothing in print about its hiring push. Ripe for a trade, right . No one had that skinny. You know it doubled not long after, and by that point i caught the bug for good. 23 years later, it wou be acquired by precision cast parts, one i still like and have liked for many years. Quality company. So now im figuring it out. The best investment ideas come from what you know, melded with the information gleaned from public sources, even as if they are as late and as hard to source as taking a surreptitious trip to the New York Public Library when i was supposed to be working. I didnt like the random way i was making money through this. I mean, you know, a friend from homes lucky call about jobs . So random. A hearty breakfast at Bob Evans Farms . I was thinking theres got to be a more methodical way, right . And then it hit me. Look around at work. At the time i was covering mergers and acquisition wars, profiling some, following the deals they were on, it seemed that every other deal was in the oil patch. One after another after another. Smaller to midsize Oil Companies were being acquired, and all i was doing was standing around writing about it. So i went back to the library, took out some editions of value line, a Stock Research magazine, and checked out the pages devoted to Oil Companies. I cross referenced them with other research to find out which could be acquired without problems. Even because they were public without a family owning them or because they seemed to fit the size and parameters of so many other deals that i was writing ab