Guidant Financial Group Blog

After seeing the picture of the baby duck we put on our 6.13.08 blog, Guidant’s president and COO, Stephan Roche, was inspired to share some photos with us that he had taken at his home. The photo you see here is of a mother duck and her babies, who were having a swimming lesson in Stephan’s swimming pool. (Yes, we also think it’s weird that he has a pool in Seattle.)

These photos did get us thinking, though. Not that Guidant should find some sort of mascot (a dancing lighthouse, maybe?), but that it is never too soon to teach your children the key skills they will need to be successful – like swimming, or investing their money intelligently.

There are several retirement accounts available to minors, the most popular being educational IRAs called Coverdell Educational Savings Accounts. Traditional, Roth and self-directed IRAs can also be set up for minors, as long as is there a guardian co-signee.

Once your children are old enough, you can start getting them involved in investing those funds to generate a return.

Doug Miller, one of Guidant’s senior consultants, has two boys, aged four and seven (see photo, left). Doug already has his kids investing their money in micro-loans through prosper.com. He says that, even though they have a tendency to want to lend to the borrower with the coolest photos, he has taught them to look at the borrower’s debt-to-income ratio, whether they are homeowners or not, and how much they have in savings before deciding to loan money.

"Our kids get $5 a week in allowance and, at the end of the month, they get to decide if they want to put the money in their checking account, savings account or to use the money for their investments,” he says. “Right now, my oldest is making a 17% return on his Prosper investments, and my youngest is making a 15% return.”

Not too shabby for a four- and seven-year-old!