<p>Looking for some good ideas re: memorable parental gift(s) for son’s 21st birthday. I was thinking of something that would be more lasting than cash even though cash is always in need at 21.</p>
<p>D was attending school in Arizona,we’re from NY. We met her in Vegas,baby! It was fun
Not a lasting gift but good memories.</p>
<p>If your son has been looking forward to age 21 for the implications of now being a legal adult (drinking age), then he might get a kick out of this. For my D’s 21st, I went to a website for a company called Signature Wines. When you order from them, you create your own wine label, with whatever you want said on it, i.e. - In honor of _____'s 21st birthday. You can also pick the graphics you want from a template of ones they offer; then they do the shipping. My daughter drank the wine, but has saved the bottle as a remembrance of her birthday.</p>
<p>More lasting than cash is cash compounded. Can you open an IRA Roth account for him in his name, seed it with your money but then say you’ll match (by a percentage you can afford) anything he puts in himself for the first year, just to get him in the habit of saving. He’s so young that a small amount of money will grow a lot by the time he retires.</p>
<p>21% match? for 21 months?</p>
<p>I’m liking this idea.</p>
<p>If you use a matching system, you can also cap it by some amount so it doesn’t break you on a particular month if he puts all of his bonus in at once, whatever.</p>
<p>The basic idea is to come up with a token matching system that will inspire them to begin saving, to motivate them to start saving for themselves (not to break you). Not all kids get set up with the kinds of jobs post-college that included benefits, bonuses, pension plans and so on. Mine work in the creative arts and we feel this is essential to begin now. They have the great advantage of many years to compound it.</p>
<p>For kids who earn very little money at first post-college, even if they put in $l0 a month and you match it by $40 (I think the minimal monthly contribution might be $50) you’re starting something good for them. Let them set annual goals to bring up their $l0 monthly to the $50 monthly so it’s off your back. Doing the compounding math in front of them also impresses their socks off.</p>
<p>Show them how $l00 started from age 21 would grow to when THEY are 65, then try the same $l00 from your own age up to age 65, and they’ll love the fact that they’re young.</p>
<p>There was a thread on this earlier which gave me lots of ideas. Here is what I did, largely inspired by the earlier thread.</p>
<p>Gave 21 gifts, mostly quite little but often symbolic, throughout the day. $21.00 in cash; $.21 in cash; 21 pesos (we were in Mexico at the time), a check in the amount of $19.86 and another in the amount of $20.07. All of these landed him some of the cash that they really like. Our one big gift was shares of stock (the one DH chose was so expensive per share that we didn’t do 21 of those). A book I found on a feature table at Barnes & Noble went over quite well “2001 Things to Do Before You Die” - it was in check-off form and had all kinds of elements from adventure to “bake a cake from scratch” - DS had some fun rifling through it and checking things off. My favorite was a Word document I made in nice font with “21 Great Things about you” - some humorous, some light-hearted, some serious. I forget all of the other 21 items, but they included some good dark chocolate and other small things.</p>
<p>We had a very special celebration that night, as we had 6 bottles of 1986 Napa and Sonoma Valley wine that we had saved all these years for just this day. Had several friends over to taste them with some good cheeses. They were all actually excellent and we all enjoyed comparing our favorites. It was a genteel way to mark the age of legality wrt drinking. And DS had no interest whatsoever in heading into town to some bar where any lunatic might have tried to interest him in 21 shots or whatever other insane drinking game marks some 21st birthdays. I hadn’t been sure whether he would be tempted into that, so I was quite pleased in every way with how the day went.</p>
<p>LOL, paying3, I was having what I thought was an important finacial-facts-of-life discussion with S the summer before college(which my parents never did) and was starting to explain the benefits of compounded interest and saving early. </p>
<p>“Mom, we did that the second week of calculus.”</p>
<p>jmmom- I’m guessing he had a summer or vacation-time birthday?</p>
<p>Christmas vacation time. In the “olden days”, it was a bit of a bummer as never had the “mom brings cupcakes to school” experience.</p>
<p>Now, it’s pretty good :D.</p>
<p>Here is the older thread. Even though it asks for “not so serious” gift ideas, in true cc fashion all bases are covered: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/349931-ideas-not-so-serious-21st-birthday-gift-out-town-son.html?highlight=21st+birthday[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/349931-ideas-not-so-serious-21st-birthday-gift-out-town-son.html?highlight=21st+birthday</a></p>
<p>My son asked for and received a gift substantially more expensive than what we usually give for birthdays – a bowling ball and bowling shoes and the bag that they go in. There’s nothing particularly 21-related about that, but it’s what he wanted.</p>
<p>S just turned 21 two weeks ago. I asked him what he would like. He said “cash”. Coincidentally, Spring Break is this week and he’s headed for sunny beaches with 40 of his best freinds,lol.</p>
<p>Vegas sounds like fun! These are all great ideas, the wines, the 21 small items, and the retirement savings - thanks for the link to the previous thread. Marian, I had a good chuckle about the bowling gear but it is a good reminder that it has to be meaningful to him and not just me!</p>
<p>jmmom -From what I hear, that tradition of 21 drinks, or at least multiple rounds of drinks, is alive and well (do they call it the crawl? or something like that?). We have been talking about this for a few months now - I imagine there is a lot of peer pressure and I am keeping my fingers crossed that he has more sense.</p>
<p>so he’s probably going to go barhopping with all of his friends, do the whole “21 shots” thing, and pass out pretty late.</p>
<p>a sweet (hummer/escalade/stretch) limo would be killer…not to mention helpful and memorable!</p>
<p>but they can be pretty pricey.</p>
<p>I made my son a money clip with his initials. He uses it all the time. My father carried one like it and I had the jeweler use (a photograph) it for inspiration.</p>
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Not to mention, enabling.</p>
<p>Rileydog, I will cross my fingers with you that the 21-shot crawl will not be on the agenda that evening.</p>
<p>dmd, what a meaningful idea. And obviously meaningful to your son as well, since he uses it constantly.</p>
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<p>It certainly is alive and well around these parts; recently a college student died after celebrating her 21st birthday. Both the bar AND the friends that were with her are now being sued by the family.</p>
<p>[Family</a> sues friends who partied with Jax](<a href=“http://www.startribune.com/local/16070272.html]Family”>http://www.startribune.com/local/16070272.html)</p>