How to handle financial gifts for LO?

RomeRomance06

DD has received random checks made out to her for presents. We don't have any bank account set up for DD yet - will do that when she gets older and can open it up with her - but we do have a 529 set up for her college. We'd like to put the money in there but, from what I understand, you can't just send in a random check. We can transfer money to it from our own bank accounts, but I'm not sure how to do that if the check is written to DD and not us...

bh2720

why not just open a savings account for her now?

Sofka

we have an ING savings account for each child as well as a 529k. For larger gifts, we put the money into the college fund. If the money is given to us in a form of check or cash, I put that money into our joint account and then transfer from the joint account to the college fund. It does not matter that the child's name is on the check.

for smaller gifts, I put the money into our account and then transfer that amount into their savings account.  Sometimes, the kids will get $5 for Valentine's day or something like that, in cash, in which case I keep the cash and transfer that same amount into the child's savings account.

the best thing you can do for her is to set up an account now, so it can start accruing interest, the magic of compound interest (even if it's less than 1%) is amazing. Some junior accounts will even give you a higher rate than a regular adult savings account.

tomandcourt

We set up an savings account for J soon after he was born. All financial gifts go in there. When he gets a little older, I'm sure we'll set up a system where a portion of his earnings goes there, and the rest into an account he can use for fun.

NicoNiko

We also have an ING account and a 529 for each of them.  Around Black Friday 2010, ING was having a special where if you opened a kids account, you got $25 in each account.  I think they have specials like that from time to time.

BirdGirl01

I just sign checks for DD and deposit them into our account.  It's never been a problem.  (Don't worry, I'm not stealing her money - it all goes to her 529.) 

Mrs.Handy

BirdGirl01:

I just sign checks for DD and deposit them into our account.  It's never been a problem.  (Don't worry, I'm not stealing her money - it all goes to her 529.) 

This is what we do. We deposit them and then transfer to DS' 529. Easy peasy.

inthewater

Mrs.Handy:

BirdGirl01:

I just sign checks for DD and deposit them into our account.  It's never been a problem.  (Don't worry, I'm not stealing her money - it all goes to her 529.) 

This is what we do. We deposit them and then transfer to DS' 529. Easy peasy.

Us too!

ch ch ch chia

We have DD's in a sub-account of our ING account.  We still need to set up her own account and a 529.

smacb

We opened a savings account for DS when he was born.  We'll do the same for this baby.  We got a lot of random checks made out to DS when he was born, and again when he was baptized.

MmeMaman

Bank of America told us to sign the back and write 'Mother of Minor' on it and we could put it in our account, so we did.