Plain-English guides for smart parents
UTMAs, 529s, Roth IRAs, the new federal Trump Accounts, and how to actually teach kids to invest. No jargon. No hot takes. Just the parts you need to make decisions.
Accounts
The account types that hold your kid's money — and how each one works.
How to Open a Custodial Account for Your Kid: A Step-by-Step Guide
No account yet? The on-ramp: what a custodial account is, what to have ready, how to open one at Schwab, and how to fund it.
529 Plans Explained: A Parent's Guide to Tax-Free College Savings
Tax-free growth for education, state deductions, the financial-aid edge, and the new 529-to-Roth rollover.
Custodial Roth IRA for Kids: A Complete Guide for Parents
The earned-income rule, what counts as income, how to document it, and how to think about contributions year by year.
UTMA Accounts Explained: A Parent's Guide to Custodial Investing
What a UTMA is, when control passes to your kid, and how it stacks up against a 529.
Strategy
How to choose between accounts and make the most of what you open.
Coast FIRE for Kids: Could You Set Your Child Up to Never Worry About Money?
The question every parent secretly asks — and the compounding math that gets surprisingly close to yes when you start at birth.
Trump Accounts vs. 529 vs. Roth IRA: Which One for Your Kid?
Three powerful accounts, side by side — on taxes, flexibility, control, and what each is actually best at.
How Custodial Accounts Affect Financial Aid (FAFSA)
Student vs. parent assets, how the new SAI treats each account, and why the wrapper matters more than the balance.
529 vs. Roth IRA for Kids: Which Long-Term Account Wins?
Both are tax-advantaged. They optimize for completely different futures — here's the honest tradeoff.
Taxes
The tax rules that quietly shape every custodial dollar.
Tax-Gain Harvesting in a UTMA: Resetting Cost Basis Tax-Free
Use the kiddie-tax thresholds on purpose — realize long-term gains each year to step up cost basis at a 0% rate.
The Kiddie Tax, Explained: What Every Custodial-Account Parent Should Know
Who it applies to, the 2026 thresholds, which accounts trigger it, and how to keep the bill small.
Basics
Investing fundamentals in plain English — simple enough to learn and teach at the same time.
Compound Interest for Kids: The One Concept That Does the Heavy Lifting
Why time beats amount, the rule of 72, and how to make the snowball click at every age.
What Is an ETF? A Parent's Guide to the Building Block of Kids' Portfolios
What an ETF is, how it differs from a stock and a mutual fund, and why it's a teaching tool.
Parenting
Turning the numbers into lessons your kids actually absorb.
Save, Spend, Give: The Three-Jar System for Teaching Kids About Money
Three jars — Save, Spend, Give. The simplest way to teach a kid that every dollar gets a job.
What to Tell Your Kid When the Market Drops
A red day is a lesson, not a scare. How to explain drops by age — and turn a downturn into the best lesson there is.
The Allowance That Actually Teaches
An allowance is a curriculum, not a paycheck. How much, whether to tie it to chores, and what it should teach.
What to Do With Birthday and Holiday Money
Gift cash is the easiest money a kid ever invests. A split that keeps the joy and plants a seed.
Be Your Kid's 401(k): The Parent Match
Match your kid's savings like an employer matches a 401(k) — the trick that makes saving feel like winning.
Teaching Kids to Invest, By Age: From 4 to 18
Concrete, age-appropriate ways to introduce investing — from compound interest at 6 to picking their first ETF at 14.
Milestones
What to do at the moments that matter — birth, first job, turning 18.
Your Kid Got Into College: How to Actually Use the 529
The payoff moment, done right: qualified expenses, the timing trap, scholarships, and what to do with what's left.
Your Teen's First Job: Earned Income and the Custodial Roth IRA
A first paycheck unlocks a custodial Roth — what counts as earned income, who can fund it, and why starting now matters so much.
What Happens When Your Child Turns 18: The Custodial Account Handoff
What transfers when — UTMA, Trump Account, Roth IRA, 529 — and how to make the handoff a milestone, not a surprise.
The Newborn Money Checklist: 7 Money Moves in Your Baby's First Year
A practical first-year checklist — the SSN, the right accounts, the Trump Account claim, and the habit that compounds.
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