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It goes to his bank account.
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oddly, our gifts have been extreme - either $5/$10, or $100s/$1000s...the big gifts go to education funds, and the small ones I've recently started letting DD1 (3 years) spend on herself, since that was usually the giver's intent. She had a blast picking out a doggie purse at DSW a month or so ago and was soooo proud of her purchase
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It goes into her savings account. Or it will once I open one! Right now I've got a stack of cards for her sitting on my desk. I need to figure out the best place for a long term savings account/college fund.
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College fund.
When LO is a bit older we will let her spend some and save some.
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We put ours into savings account for K...will one day become the starting point for her 529 I believe.
Interesting tidbit. When my aunt married my uncle he came to the marriage with two sons from a previous marriage. Their Mom had a philosophy that any monetary gifts were deemed to the family and the boys had to hand them over. They went into a generic household account which was used for everyday items. This family was not necessarily in financial needs either. We thought it was very odd. So my mom started giving them giftcards instead!
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@Bao: our income goes mostly for things she needs. gift money usually goes toward more fun stuff like toys or a weekend out doing something lo really enjoys.
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@rosegold: unfortunately our income doesn't always allow for that, so this is the alternative. It has gotten better as DH advances in his career though.
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@Bao: have definitely been in that boat. hard work will pay off!!
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In his bank account. But he's only 19 months old. When he's older we will let him keep some to spend as he chooses.
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it goes into a savings account for now, but when he is aware of what money is, we thought we would let him decide what he wants to do with it since it is his gift money.
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Savings / college fund.
Although recently relatives gifted her some money while we were in Korea. The exchange rate sucks for won --> dollar so we let her go on a spending spree at a toy store.
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We opened savings accounts for both of them, and any money goes straight into there.
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at this point he isn't getting much money so our standard practice is to match and put in his college account but if people amp up the monetary generosity we'll have to cut matching!
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We've only gotten small amounts and less than $100 total (in over 2 years), so we just use it to buy him things. If we ever get a more substantial gift we will open an account for him.
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It goes into a savings account. I keep track of how much he's been given, because we plan to open him a college savings account with it. When we're given cash (which isn't too often, like $20 in a birthday card or something) we put it into his account too. And we agreed that we'd put 1/3 of any tax refund or windfall we get aside for him too.
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I contribute to DD's registered education savings plan monthly, and at 3, she has enough money for her first year of tuition. So often when we get $20 from a grandparent for her birthday or something I use it. She always needs a new pair of leggings or is growing out of shoes - it all comes out in the wash to where the money I spend on her comes from.
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It'll either go into savings (ostensibly for college), or towards things like zoo memberships and special outings. Once she's a little older small amounts we'll probably let her spend (maybe at the dollar store?). I honestly don't know what we'll do later. Generally I think if it's given to her, she should be allowed to have it, but I'm not sure how to balance that with good saving/spending habits.
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Cash can't be sent to their 529s, so it goes to their piggy banks, or to something they really want. Otherwise, to their 529s.
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Right into the college fund. Sometimes we'll keep a small amount if we're looking at a bigger purchase like a new car seat.
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Generally, I've asked the giver what they would like us to do with it. My grandmother asked us to put it in her RESP, and my FIL, wanted to get LO's playhouse.
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We pretty much just put it into his college fund. If it's a gift card, I might use it on household stuff and then put the dollar amount into his college fund.
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We have money set aside to start a college fund but I need to find time to research our options. So far he has only been gifted a few hundred so we opened a savings account. When he is older part of it will go into savings and the rest he can use for things he wants to buy.
On a side note, I got savings bonds from an aunt when I was growing up and I'm still waiting for them to mature! I don't remember getting monetary gifts. Or maybe my parents just kept them.
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College fund or savings account depending on the amount
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Her savings account
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I put it in his savings account. He's already got about $125. Not bad for a two-year-old!
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I just spend it on things that she needs/ wants.
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I'm surprised at the number of people who have bank accounts for their LOs! Mine don't have their own accounts or college funds, but they likely (hopefully) will go to university in Europe, where it is "free". It is very rare that we receive monetary gifts for our LOs, and my DH's side of the family never gives cash. The rare times we do receive cash, I just use it towards something they need.
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Straight to the bank for college/a future home.
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College fund. I imagine as she gets older and gets small monetary gifts, we'd let her just use/save it for things she wants. Probably anything over $40, I'd encourage her to save at least a portion in her college account.
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Savings account!
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@lamariniere: as soon as DH gets their SSN he sets up 529 account and savings account.
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@BandDmommy: that's great that he's so proactive! A 529 is unlikely to be useful for my LOs, but it would be a different story if we knew we were going to be living in the US long-term.
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@lamariniere: We have this exact same situation. I would love for my son to attend college abroad where he has access to a tuition free program (as does pretty much anyone that enrolls, even Americans, little known secret), but if I know him, he won't want to.
We'll probably go with just a regular investment account and 529 combo. Gifts of cash right now are comingled in our savings accounts now.
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@looch: oh, we definitely have savings and investment accounts, just nothing specifically for education or in our LOs' names. And man, I wish I had known about the European education system back when I was looking at universities!
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@lamariniere: my high school self wouldn't have wanted to go...I wanted the American college experience, which I have. My middle aged self sees the benefits of a tuition free experience.
I think it's pretty common in Europe not to have a college savings account, because there is no tuition that has to be paid, just fees. I think in Switzerland, it's less than $500 per semester. And employers pay a lot of it when apprentices go to school part time.
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@looch: oh, my high school self would have jumped at the chance, I just didn't know the opportunity was there! And that's true about fees. My DH got his master's in France and paid about that much. He only had to take out a (very small) loan for his study abroad semester to pay for living expenses. This is also why he is not interested in setting up these education accounts for our LOs, when he knows that they will have ample access to nearly free education opportunities here.
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