This is a subject that is dear to my heart. My family are not very wealthy, but when I was born they all put, what was a substantial sum for them, in a savings account for me. Obviously struggling that month to make ends meet. That is the good/touching part of the story. The sad part was 21 years later when I withdrew the money it only just covered the cost of ONE beer. I think anyone opening an account for a minor should try and find some inflation protected instrument.

The beer did taste good, but it broke my heart thinking what my family went without during that month 21 years earlier.

I asked this question because for some reason I got to thinking about my very first savings account that my mother helped set up for me when I was about six. I remember thinking that I was so cool to have my own "passbook" savings account. It was a special kid savings account too with its very own Squirrel mascot. You never see banks doing having mascots nowadays!

My father worked in a small town bank. I feel I always had a savings account when I was very young. He showed me the statements and the interest earned. The conversations have been far more important than the dollars. My parents rarely gave me much “spending money,” which was difficult relative to kids who seemed to always have cash. Yet, I felt security knowing about my account.

When my son was born, my mother gave him $500, for a savings account. It was moved to a mutual fund later. We made a graph for the fridge, with the ups and downs. Eventually, mother gave more for the account. When he started college, we started monthly withdrawals to supplement his job and other money. At age 25 he probably has about $500 in that account. Think about that experience.

For Christmas 2007, just after the stock market peak, I started dollar-cost-averaging for my three grandchildren. One of them is old enough to show interest in the account. I will talk with them anytime on this. They have been through a pretty tough market so far, which is discussed on my blog at http://www.resourceadv.com/blog/grandchildren-and-401k-contributions/. The follow-up post is at http://www.resourceadv.com/blog/revisiting-grandchildren-401k-contributions-with-positive-dollars-of-return/.

Start saving early!

I was about 7 years old, and I too remember the passbook. Because I was so young, I was quite proud to have such an adult possession. It was very exciting when I first began putting money into the account and wrote the numbers in the book.

Pretty good as far as todays compared to baby-boomers will show remote control compared to do-it-yourselfer's.

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