Financial analyst teams up with former CBS News head to share surprising family finance tips

Matthew Ankrum knew he wanted to build generational wealth for his daughters while teaching them about financial stability. He just didn’t know a coffee can would be the key to those lessons. 

Ankrum, a financial analyst from Kansas City, Missouri, started “thinking about the world differently” as his family grew. He now has three daughters: Peyton, Morgan and Pierce. 

“When you actually start thinking about creating a legacy, or kind of generational wealth, for your kids … you don’t think about it as in quarters or even years,” Ankrum explained. “You start thinking about it in the decades.” 

He started studying “100-baggers,” or stocks that have multiplied in value 100 times over the decades. He tried to figure out what those companies had in common, then used his conclusions to buy shares in what he thinks will be the breakout companies of the future. The strategy relies on compounding interest to leave his daughters a portfolio that he believes could someday be worth half a billion dollars. 

“The real story behind the book is about patience, and it’s about actually finding outstanding companies and being able to allow the power of compounding to do the heavy lifting,” Ankrum explained. 

To keep those stock certificates safe, he stashed them in a coffee can. The plan is to not touch the stocks until at least 30 years after they were purchased.

When former CBS News and Stations President Neeraj Khemlani heard about Ankrum’s strategy, he wanted to know more. The two met in 1999 and stayed friends over the years. After Ankrum explained his method, the two decided to share it with others.

“Following someone who is, in real-time, making decisions on which stocks to put into a coffee can for his daughters, was riveting,” Khemlani said. “That’s the ultimate lottery ticket, and I knew I had to write his story and his family’s story.” 

That story became Khemlani’s recently published first book, “The Coffee Can Investor.” The book is about more than Ankrum’s personal strategy, Khemlani explained. 

“It’s about the greatest gift: of imparting financial literacy,” Khemlani said.  

Ankrum’s daughters said they’re proud of him for setting them up for success and sharing his lessons with the world. But they were sure to add his parenting isn’t based on just stocks and growth. He went to see the “Barbie” movie with them, and is always down to listen to “all of our boy drama,” one said. 

Most importantly, he has given them the “flexibility” and “freedom” to live life on their own terms. 

“Today, (my daughter) loves nursing,” Ankrum said. “But, you know, at some point in the future, she might decide that she wants to do something different.”