(MONEY Magazine) – ILENE MATTESON LITTLETON, COLO.

It's a record to be proud of: an eight-year-old family-and-friends investment club with 15 of the original 17 members still active (the other two have died) and a portfolio that boasted a profit every year until 2002. (Last year the club was down 10% through November.) The force behind these impressive numbers is club founder llene Matteson, aunt or sister to all but two members. "I wanted a positive reason for the family to get together," says the 71-year-old widow.

Matteson, a longtime investor herself, also uses the club to provide a financial education for the young members, who have full voting rights but contribute only a minimum of $5 a month, not the full $25.

Her monthly newsletter includes a Kids' Korner filled with the serious and the silly. ("Who's the best male adviser in the Bible? Noah. He prevailed while everybody else went under.") She takes her youngest charges on field trips--to the library so they can read Value Line or to Wal-Mart so they can spot the products made by companies they've invested in (AT&T, Motorola, PepsiCo--the store is full of examples).

Last fall her efforts paid off. When some club members were discouraged by the falling market, the younger heads spoke up in support of staying invested. "This is like a science project," said Matteson's nephew, Ben Dodson, 12. "If it's not working, you just keep going." His cousin, Caynen Wills, 13, added, "We should have sold sooner. But you don't drop everything when you make a mistake. You do better next time." Let's hear it for the new generation. --JOAN CAPLIN