Give the Gift of Stock

Preteen children can be tough to buy for, they’re too old for this, too young for that and it seems like no matter what you give them, it’s stuffed in the closet not even a month later. Yes, kids are a finicky bunch, but one thing they understand is money. They may not know how to balance a checkbook, but they know that money buys things, including companies. This year I will be giving the young people in my life stock, so they can be part owner of their favorite company.

I’m going to do this by opening a custodial account under the child’s name and myself as the custodian and then it’s a simple trade. If you want to put money aside for educational expenses you could also look into doing an Educational Savings Account which has some added tax benefits.

I use ShareBuilder and if you have a ShareBuilder account or would like to open a new one, you can click Open A New Account and check the box that says “I’m responding to a promotion” and enter the code 3FREETRADES to get, well, 3 free trades! Make sure you read the fine print at the bottom, this offer expires in April.

This is such a great educational opportunity to teach them about investments and the value of long term savings. Not to mention, what better gift than a company? “I bought you a toy truck,” “I bought you a new sweater,” “I bought you Microsoft.” Yeah… My gift is gonna kick butt this year.