RE: How Do We Get Kids to Invest?
Hah, ok!
On earning, I want to foster the entrepreneurial spirit in my kids as much as possible. So I'll push that more than wage earning.
Their business then ties into the budgeting and saving. Basic P&L and balance sheets here.
On the investing side, I'm not a fan of Coverdells and similar plans. The limits are too low and the restrictions are too high. There's a possible exception for pre-paid plans like Florida has if you are very confident in attending those schools. Instead, I use high cash value insurance plans. The potential returns are lower than an equity investment, but it's as close to risk-free as you can get and there are much broader limits on how much you can fund and no limits on what you can use the money for.
Charity I'm all for. Just be careful to do your research on how the money is being used and make sure you aren't being fooled by a name (looking at you Komen).
Big fan of life insurance. In fact, just bought my whole family a combo life/medical insurance package. The deals are quite nice in China, especially compared to the US. I can honestly say that I finally feel safe. Like I actually consider just walking across the street when it's red now. It's super nice.
Coverdells are awesome, dude. Just think that that $2k per year that you are putting away is just for education. And if they don't use it, they can roll it over to their kid. I love it. I'm all about pots of money for specific purposes. Of course, I also provide other pots of savings! The idea here is to just pick one stock per year with that $2k and let it ride until they're 18. Remember that it's not about returns so much as it is developing investing habits. (Although I've done this the past 4 years and the results have been great.)
As for charity... blockchain, baby! That's one of the better use cases of the tech, actually. Let's push this accountability thing out to all charities.
Call me cynical, but whenever the government creates a carve-out for a special purpose and then puts limits on it, I am leery. Look what happened to the Poles in 2013. If I can achieve the same ends with better methods, I'll do that.
Love the idea for blockchain accountability for charities.
I think you're missing the point. You can, of course, do what you want with your money in almost every account there is out there. But the cool thing about education savings accounts (and certain retirement accounts) is that they are tax-advantaged. It's silly to pay more taxes than you have to. Knowwhadimean?