Gift for newborn niece?

[LRAO]

I am about to see my newborn niece for the first time next week, and I would like to contribute to her financial future.

Any suggestions?

 

[Nords]

"If You Made a Million" by David Schwartz.

But I guess that's one for the "later much" pile.

After the happy parents get her a SS number then you can start buying EE or I bonds for her.

For now I'd just bring the biggest bag of disposable diapers that you can find. Or perhaps a couple months of a diaper service.

 

[newellcr]

LRAO,

I have two kids, a 2yo and a 4mo. When someone asked about a gift for the kids, I tried to encourage money gifts. With money, I could open a Education Savings Account with vanguard after I had $1000. I covered some of that with my own cash to hit the minimum. 529 plans are also great. You might want to look at this site, http://www.savingforcollege.com/ or kiplinger has some good stuff here http://www.kiplinger.com/planning/college/. Either the ESA or the 529 plans are great and most organizations have "mutual funds" of various sorts. The ESA plan becomes the kid's money and the 529 plan remains in the donor's control. ESA's are limited to $2k/year per beneficiary (child) so make sure your contribution wouldn't send the year's total over $2000 if someone else already funded an ESA. The 529 plans have much higher possible contributions.

I have Michigan 529 plans for both kids. It took about 20 minutes to set up the account and to set up a one time electronic draft to fund the account for my first child. It took about 3 minutes to add my second child and to fund her account too. The trick was knowing my bank's routing number and account number format and getting the social security number for the kids.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[brewer12345]

Speaking as the parent of a newborn, savings bonds make a nie gift. Naturally, if you are in a position to gift, say, a single B share of Berkshire Hathaway, I'm sure nobody would object.

 

[wabmester]

Re: "If You Made a Million" by David Schwartz.

After the happy parents get her a SS number then you can start buying EE or I bonds for her.

From the savings bond FAQ:

If you're buying an I Bond for a gift and you don't have the Social Security Number of the person you're buying the bond for, simply use your number. Even though your number will be printed on the bond, you'll incur no tax liability, and it won't count towards your annual purchase limit. The Social Security Number is used for tracking purposes only, such as in cases where the savings bond is lost, stolen, or destroyed.


(Note that this applies only to paper bonds, which you can buy at a bank.)

 

[LRAO]

Thanks everyone.

Here's what I did:

I opened a 529 account through the state of Iowa (www.collegesavingsiowa.com). The PROS:

1. $25 minimum
2. Managed by Vanguard.
3. It's linked to a program called upromise, which contributes a small % of what I spend (gas, groceries, credit cards, etc.) into my niece's 529.

So now, here's what my niece gets:

Every birthday and Christmas, all of my siblings (her aunts and uncles), will put money into this account.

Thanks for the heads up. Hope this info helps.

 

[yelnad]

We also started 529s for our nieces and nephews that everyone else can also contribute to. We even have one for our kids we don't have yet.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

And as absolutely everybody here knows, it's just the very best use of $ that one can make for a child this age. Think how LITTLE everyone will have to contribute if they are generous now, when she is newborn.

A 529 can be allocated to another family member (sibling, cousin, etc.) if little Jane Doe doesn't go to college.

I think it's the best idea. If it's too complicated right now, those bonds are always nice.

Anne