Why Aren’t You Investing in Your Kids?

Trust me, the more I thought about it, I wish that I could have offered a relatively simple answer to that question, but it’s just not that easy sometimes. Like most parents, we spend 18 years of our lives investing in our kids mental and emotional and physical well-being… but someone asked me recently why investing in my kids’ financial future wasn’t included way back when. I suppose it’s because my wife and I were just starting to secure our own financial future… so helping them learn to invest was at the bottom of the list and felt like a long ways off. In fact, it felt like just yesterday that I was taking naps or walks in Southern California with my oldest daughter, Ava.

But in all reality, 11 years have flown by and we’ve managed to jump from the West Coast back to the East and in the process, living in six different locations between four states before recently landing in Nashville, Tennessee. We purchased a home in a great neighborhood and have fallen in love with our community. It almost feels as if we’ve been running a long distance marathon over the last decade and finally crossed the finish line – catching our breath and enjoying that feeling of having chosen the place that we want to settle.

While that’s incredibly comforting  – we’ve also begun to realize that in that journey, certain things weren’t necessarily ‘neglected’, but rather pushed to the side while other items took priority. One of those things, was teaching our kids about investing in their own financial well-being.

Because there was always so much going on over those years, day-to-day priorities and survival were constantly on the menu. Time was standing still, but my kids were still growing up. This recent pandemic only exacerbated things. Those memories of cradling my newborns, teaching toddlers to walk and talk recurred like Groundhog Day every time my wife and I were expecting and here I am now with four kids – ages 11, 9, 7 and 3.

Last week, I watched my daughter ‘graduate’ from elementary school, with her eyes now set on trying out for the Middle School tennis team. As I sat there, watching her walk to the podium in the school gymnasium to collect her ‘Certificate of Achievement’, I began to think about the fact that high school and college weren’t that far ahead.

My wife and I grew up in an era where companies were free to prey on unsuspecting college students. An environment where credit cards were offered on the campus square in exchange for free t-shirts, a beer mug or keychain – and for some reason, we were happy to climb aboard. We weren’t the ‘best-equipped’ for that situation in the 90’s and before we started our family, we always talked about how we would do as much as we could to educate them about money management and give them a solid foundation to make educated decisions about their financial future.

What have we done thus far to teach them about money, investments and the cost furthering their education or pursuing other dreams? We’ve spent a lot of time prepping our own investments and retirement accounts, but sadly we’ve neglected to encourage our kids to think about their own futures. And I’m confident that we’re probably not alone…

It may sound cliché, but I am a firm believer in that things do happen for a reason. I believe in the idea that people, moments and opportunities present themselves when they’re most needed – so stand back, because EarlyBird has entered the chat…

EarlyBird is the simplest way for parents, family, and friends to collectively invest in a child’s financial future. It empowers families and children by providing tools that introduce investing, integrate financial knowledge into decision-making, and prepare these little ones for account ownership at age 18.

It’s the intersection where a gifting platform meets financial technology – allowing family and friends to collectively invest in a child’s financial future. It makes it personal, purposeful and timeless. They have essentially simplified the process for parents to open a custodial investment account (or UGMA account), while enabling those friends and family members to send financial gifts that are tied to video memories – lasting legacies of love all wrapped up into one seamless mobile app. It’s the reason that I enrolled my ‘young investors’…

The idea is that once your child turns 18, they’ll have a nest egg and investment account ready to ride with them on that journey into adulthood. Even more powerful, they’ll have a beautiful library of memories from those who invested in and supported them through their childhood and adolescence.

Things that make EarlyBird unique:

• The ONLY app that makes it easy, seamless and meaningful to gift a financial asset/investment to a child in your life
• Video memories associated with each gift, with the ability to archive and go back to watch them as the child grows
• Pre-created and curated investment portfolios by experts
• Easily invite others to contribute or gift directly to your child instead of giving them ‘more stuff’
• Simplicity of starting to invest in your child within minutes
• Customize portfolios with ‘belief based’ or ‘values-based’ ETF options, aligned with your family’s beliefs or values

The process of downloading the EarlyBird App took no more than ten seconds – and there’s NO set up fee. Your first $200 of assets under management is FREE.

After that, a $1 per month wealth management fee is assessed per child. For family members or friends sending a gift, there is just a simple $2 processing fee per gift.