Gerber Grow Up plan

Kitta+1

I got a piece of junkmail that I found kind of interesting for the gerber life insurance thing.  My grandpa had done something similar when he was really young, and ended up getting a huge payout when he hit retirement age.  I don't know much about this grow up plan thing, but I was wondering what kind of financial preps anyone else was doing.  I'd like to start a college fund now so that when she's older we'll have some money to put her in college, and I had planned on another savings budget for milestones (helping her get a house, buying her first car, etc) but I didn't think about stuff like this life insurance thingie.  It may be a good idea, though I know they really screw you if you ever miss a payment.  The nice thing is it's supposed to lock her into a cheap premium that can't go up as she ages - so if I get her like a $25,000 policy, the premium for the rest of her life is supposed to only be $15.70/mo and the policy doubles on her 18th birthday with no increase in premium so it would them be a $50,000 policy for %15.70/mo. Also, the plan is supposed to build cash value as well that you can borrow against, though I would hope she's never in such a tight situation she's got to borrow against her life insurance to get through - but stuff happens and it would be a nice thing for her to have I think.  Any thoughts?

KeHill08

We got something in the mail for that as well. We just tossed it. I talked to my husband about it and was pretty surprised when he said he already thought about life insurance for our little guy and figured we would just take it out through USAA instead. We will also start a college fund for him.

LauraK33

We work with a financial planner for our kids, he recommended not using the gerber plan (I think it converts to a college fund at age 18?) but I can't remember why. So we have life insurance, mutual funds and 529 savings plans. Not sure if that's helpful, but it helped us to talk with a professional to figure it all out!

JLW0504

We tossed it too. We were offered it when DD was born but we have life insurance through work. My uncle set up an investment for her first birthday through Raymond James financial services. We just contribute what we can, when we can. We'll do the same this for this DD.

Also, all of our loose change goes into her piggy bank and we save all the money she gets for birthday, Christmas and anything else that she may get money for. After 6months, we deposit it into her savings account. I would do it sooner, but I tend to forget about it.

ETA: Grammar is hard.

frasch21

A while back I took the class Financial Peace with Dave Ramsey and he was not for plans like the Gerber grow up plan. Here's some of his stance: https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/college-is-expensive-whats-your-plan/

CheeseSticksfor4

Love some Dave Ramsey! We are doing the educational ira as well as a 529. On top of that I have a savings account for each child. I have a certain amount taken out of each paycheck and placed in the account. I have also made it to where I don't get paper statements so it's easy for me to forget about the accounts to confirm that we don't touch them ;;)

Kitta+1

Yeah, as I research it, more than one financial writer has said it's a bad idea.  I hadn't heard of a 529 but the more I read about it the more I like it.  Of course, I suppose few things beat good ol' fashion savings accounts, lol.  Can't go wrong there.

It's good to know I'm not the only one thinking about it though - my sister (not the most responsible sort) looked at me like I'd grown two heads.  "She's not even born yet and your planning for her career?!" lol  She's still pretty young and doesn't really understand finances yet, lol.