I Wish

that someone would have been thinking the very long game for me when I was ten years old. Don’t get me wrong, I was well taken care of growing up. I was loved, I had friends, and I was generally a happy child (yeah, yeah, I’ll admit to a few rough years but hey, that stuff happens!). Now that I’m an adult and have two little girls of my own, I’m doing something that I wish someone would have done for me – playing the long financial game with an eye on the future.

What Game

am I talking about? The investment game of course. I personally have two brokerage accounts that I invest through. One of these accounts I have had up and running from about fifteen years. I started with $500 and now I’m creeping up on about $10,000 in assets. This has been my “fun” account where I’ve invested in stocks primarily with a smaller portion of the assets in index funds. The other brokerage account I have had in place for about five years and have done some serious investing. This is the one that I’m planning on bridging the gap between early retirement and being able to access 401k funds with. But all of this is about me and what I have personally done after reaching adulthood. Now it’s time to talk about changing their future.

Time

is a very, very important factor when looking at building wealth. This is where I want to give my daughters a head start. If both have their “own” brokerage account by the age of ten and invest as they grow up, I think they are in a much better financial position that most. How much better? About $80,000 better with some pretty conservative investing. Let me explain a bit more.

The Plan

I am going to open up two new brokerage accounts in my name with each designated to one daughter. I will make the opening deposits of $500 per account. From there, I’m going to encourage each of my daughters to save half of any money they earn. Money earned will include birthday and holiday gifts, allowances, and eventually, paychecks. To help motivate them, I am going to match their deposits. Over a forty year period, if they contribute an average of $40 per month (with my match) and get a 6% return, they are each looking at ~$80,000. Not bad, not bad. If you are interested in a compound interest calculator, this is the one I used: Compounding Calculator

The Bigger Win

in this whole thing is if they catch on to the habit of saving half of their income for life. If they do that, then $80,000 could easily become $800,000 or more. By the time my daughters reach 45 or 50 years old, they could (and should) be set financially for the rest of their lives. All of it comes down to education and reinforcement. I’m happy that I’m in a position to help my daughters change their financial future!