Monday, December 18, 2006

Tips on Giving Gifts of Money to Children

Source: Philly.com, Jeff Brown, Dec. 10, 2006

With the holidays upon us, lots of financial gifts - money, savings bonds, stocks and so on - will be ending up in little hands. And lots of givers have some sort of personal-finance goal on top of ordinary giving.

So I have a suggestion or two.

For starters, it isn't necessary for every financial gift to contain a life lesson. If the idea is to give a young person money in lieu of an iPod or scarf, just give it - no strings attached.

I've seen all kinds of tips from experts about how every dollar a child gets should be divided among spending money, college savings and charity. The idea leaves me cold. If you gave a $50 badminton set, you wouldn't expect the net to be set aside for grad school.

On the other hand, many parents - and especially grandparents - want to make gifts whose primary purpose is financial training.

Read Jeff's complete article HERE.

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