Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hello. My son-in-law opened a 529 account for our one and only grandchild. We will contribute to this every Christmas. However, I would like to find a separate mutual fund or other vehicle to open for him for his birthday. When our kids were young, we opened one or two mutual funds via 20th Century Investments and also The Janus Fund which we cashed out to help pay for their college. We are pretty much out of the loop now because we do have most of our investments under one umbrella.
How old is he? Provided he is relatively young, a total stock market index fund like VTSMX should suffice. If he’s older and you want a more conservative fund, I like VWELX; it’s a balanced fund.
Are you at Fidelity? They have some zero fee index funds you might look at that are set it and forget it. I have a couple of them in my IRA there.
FZROX - Fidelity ZERO Total Market Index
FNILX - Fidelity ZERO Large Cap Index Fund
FZILX - Fidelity ZERO International Index
FZIPX - Fidelity ZERO Extended Market Index
I'd probably just go with a total market index fund, and maybe mix in a little international if you like.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,751 posts, read 58,116,312 times
Reputation: 46242
Don't forget to open and match fund a Roth, as soon as minor has earned income
(IRA is not considered in student contribution to FAFSA, as will be any savings or investments)
We started our kids at age 12, and it was adequate to fund college (which they wisely took zero interest loans, and stayed fully invested during college)
Since they were selling eggs at age 6, and helping to operate our farm, I should have started the Roths at age 6, and contributed always (past age 18, when I stopped).
One kid active traded his Roth since age 12, others did MF
The active trader went into finance, and has a business managing high wealth clients. I will guess he's financially better off than other kids. But all are far ahead of me. That's great. A good start was educating them and giving them much responsibility early.
Hello. My son-in-law opened a 529 account for our one and only grandchild. We will contribute to this every Christmas. However, I would like to find a separate mutual fund or other vehicle to open for him for his birthday. When our kids were young, we opened one or two mutual funds via 20th Century Investments and also The Janus Fund which we cashed out to help pay for their college. We are pretty much out of the loop now because we do have most of our investments under one umbrella.
I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.
Find out what your SIL has in the 529 account. If it is mostly cash you can do Total Stock Market with some international. If it is mostly stock do Total Bond Market & some international.
Maybe have 10% in a set of stocks he picks. Maybe have some Disney, some Hasbro, some Kellogg, General Mills, Kroger that he may be familiar with.
I had two of my children open Charles Schwab accounts so that we could fund 529 accounts for our four grand children (two each). Once the 529 money lands there, each child puts the money into SCHD, a Schwab low-fee (0.06%) mutual fund that holds dividend-paying large cap stocks. The historic return on that fund is High and historic risk Below Average, which will be good for the long haul until the 11, 9, 8, and 3 year old grand children reach university age.
Consider and ETF fund as opposed to a mutual fund
Consider opening your own 529 plan for them. Yours would not be considered in a financial aid application. The father's will be and the stock in their name will also be considered.
they had to pick a stock the and give a reason. then we have been adding to it every month .
the two youngest boys went with tesla since they liked cars .
the youngest girl went with netflix since she wanted to own cocomelon.
another went with target since they are always busy and mommy spends all their money there .
we had another who picked hershey since he likes going as well as eating chocolate
the oldest went with disney .
so the 6 grand kids all had their reasons as young as they were
I prefer a more diversified approach. Kids at these ages are too young to be adept at picking individual stocks, something most adults have trouble consistently doing. With that said, some of these have obviously done well, but it could go in the opposite direction as well. Their education may depend on performance. It would seem a diversified portfolio would be more appropriate.
I prefer a more diversified approach. Kids at these ages are too young to be adept at picking individual stocks, something most adults have trouble consistently doing. With that said, some of these have obviously done well, but it could go in the opposite direction as well. Their education may depend on performance. It would seem a diversified portfolio would be more appropriate.
this was just fun and really had no other purpose but to let them pick .
they all got 500 to start and we add 20 bucks a month to each of the 6
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
