Comments on: Great Financial Gift Ideas For Kids

By: Money Reasons

Money Reasons — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:17:12 +0000

Hehe, I remember getting those such sweaters from my grandmother. :p

I think it’s a female thing to buy cloths for boys at Xmas, my wife was going to buy my son a lot of cloths for Xmas too. If I didn’t intervene in her buying plans, who knows… maybe my son would be wearing a pink bunny costume to bed like Ralphie in “The Christmas Story”…

By: Money Reasons

Money Reasons — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:04:22 +0000

I’m pretty sure you can withdrawal the contributions at any time. The 5 year hold period doesn’t apply to contributions (but it does to conversions and earnings).

Schwab’s sites does a good job of summarizing the rules in a short read:
Schwab Roth IRA summary.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:55:11 +0000

DB, I believe contributions must be in the Roth IRA for 5 years before they can be withdrawn without penalty; but any gains must be left in the Roth IRA or they will be subjected to early withdrawal penalties.

By: DB

DB — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:23:02 +0000

Regarding the Roth IRA – while it is true that you are not permitted to withdraw any of your earnings prior to age 59.5 (unless you use them for a first-time home purchase), you are certainly entitled to withdraw your contributions *at any time.* This may present quite a temptation to a young adult just getting out in the world!

By: ken

ken — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:13:35 +0000

I like the progression you do in the post. With any gift for kid you have to make sure it’s age appropriate. Good post.

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:09:03 +0000

As a kid, any sort of cash or gift card worked great with me.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:59:55 +0000

When I was a kid, my grandmother told me she opened up a checking account in both of our names. I felt kind of important that I was going to have a checking account, because only grownups had that. But I didn’t really appreciate it until I went off to college and grandma handed me a checkbook to an account that actually had money in it. That’s how I paid for my books.

The clothing comment was funny. I’m always trying to be the best gift giver for my 5-year-old nephew. This year he wanted a “Ben 10″ jacket. I had no idea what it was, and it turned out they weren’t for sale in stores. Ebay, however, had the jackets. I ended up paying more money for that jacket than any piece of clothing I’ve bought for myself in the past year. But, my nephew was so excited. He slept in his jacket that night.

By: Sandy L

Sandy L — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:23:45 +0000

When people gave me cash, my parents took it and spent it on necessities. I always hated getting cash because it was really a gift to my parents and not to me.