For families
Most of what decides whether your child is good with money happens long before they own anything. This page is the plain version, sorted by how old they are right now.
Have more than one at home? Most parents do. Leave it on Everything and take what applies.
Habits
An allowance handed over with no strings teaches that money appears. Tie some of it to work and some of it to nothing, because both are true about adult life.
Habits
Three containers, decided before the money arrives. The point is not the ratio. The point is that the decision happens first rather than at the checkout.
Banking
A custodial checking account with a debit card, opened while you can still watch what happens. Overdrafting at fifteen costs thirty dollars. At twenty five it costs a car loan.
College
Still the most efficient way to save for education. Growth is tax free when it goes to qualified expenses, most states add a deduction, and there are no annual contribution caps.
New in 2026
Formally Section 530A accounts. Launched July 4, 2026 for any US citizen child under eighteen with a Social Security number, and there is free money on the table for the youngest ones.
Insurance
A policy on a child locks in insurability for life and builds cash value they can reach at any age. It is a real tool with a narrow job, and it is oversold constantly.
Work
The W-4, the gap between gross and net, and why a chunk vanished. Fifteen minutes at the kitchen table here prevents a decade of confusion about withholding.
Retirement
Once a teenager has earned income, this is the strongest retirement dollar available to them. Contributions come out tax free later and the runway is fifty years long.
Life skills
How to shake a hand, answer the question actually asked, write the follow up, and quit a job without burning the reference. None of this is on a transcript.
Health
The day they turn 26 they lose your coverage, and it is one of the few insurance deadlines with a fixed date years in advance. Almost nobody puts it on a calendar.
Work
A packet lands on their desk in week one with a deadline and no explanation. Most people pick whatever sounds familiar and live with it for a year.
Retirement
The custodial account converts to theirs at the age of majority. From there it is their decision, and the math will never be this favorable again.
Insurance
A twenty four year old in good health can buy coverage at a price they will never see again, and lock in the right to keep it regardless of what happens later.
Insurance
A marriage, a mortgage, a baby. The moment another person is counting on that income is the moment term life stops being optional.
Habits
Lifestyle expands to fill income within about two months. What gets automated before that happens tends to stick for a decade.
Straight answer
We sell life insurance. So here is the honest order of operations, including the parts that do not involve us.
If the goal is tuition, a 529 is built for exactly that. Tax free growth on qualified expenses, a state deduction in most states, no annual cap, and it moves between siblings. Leftover money can now roll into the beneficiary's Roth IRA within limits.
Where a policy could still play a part: cash value does not count against federal financial aid the way some assets do, and it is not locked to education spending. That is a secondary consideration, not a reason to skip the 529.
A custodial Roth IRA for a teen with earned income is the strongest retirement dollar available to them, and nothing we sell beats it on that specific job. Contributions come out tax free in retirement, they can withdraw what they put in at any time without penalty, and they have a fifty year runway.
Anyone who tells you a policy on a sixteen year old outperforms a Roth for retirement is selling, not advising. We are saying that on the page where we sell the policy.
If your child was born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028, there is a one time $1,000 federal contribution available and it does not count against the annual limit. Free money with a deadline is an easy call. Open the account.
Past that, be deliberate. Contributions are after tax but growth is taxed as ordinary income on the way out, and nothing can be withdrawn before eighteen. Analysts have pointed out that an ordinary taxable brokerage account may come out ahead after taxes for many families, and for education a 529 is still better. Treat it as a bonus, not a plan.
There are three real reasons, and none of them is beating the market. First, guaranteed insurability. A policy issued at five cannot be taken away if that child develops a condition at twenty six that would otherwise make them uninsurable for life. Second, cash value with no age 59 rule, so the money is reachable for a first house or a business without a penalty. Third, a small death benefit at a moment no parent wants to think about.
What to know going in: early cash value is limited and a policy abandoned in the first several years is a loss. It should come after the emergency fund, after your own coverage, and generally after the 529. If someone leads with a chart projecting your newborn's balance at sixty five, close the laptop.
No charge for this part
If you want to walk through what fits your family, we will do that whether or not anything comes of it. Half of these conversations end with a parent opening a 529 and a savings account and nothing else, and that is a good outcome.
