<p>I think THIS is what did it to us (see lines bolded) :
</p>
<p>[Filing</a> Taxes for Kids: Does My Child Have to File a Tax Return?](<a href=“http://www.moneycrashers.com/filing-taxes-kids-tax-return-child/]Filing”>Should You Pay Taxes With a Credit Card?)</p>
<p>Okay, that makes sense. Oops, kid #2 filed an extension, and it sounds like he doesn’t even have to file a return anyways. That will probably flag him for something.</p>
<p>As far as, “both were camp counselors as well, and said it was the best form of birth control out there”. I don’t know…the male/female ratio is about 1 to 5 there, very good for the guys. And my son just loves, loves the kids. They think he is Harry Potter, some of them really believe it. But he was amazed at how many times he actually had to clean up feces last summer. So I can see the support for birth control there.</p>
<p>The toilet cleaning detail at the slepaway camp was a definite turnoff for s#1. And he came home with lots of great euphemisms that he had to use on the counselor reports to the parents: Things like “high spirited”, and “enjoys taking on a leadership role” (translation: “wild hooligans who wouldnt listen to the counselors and thought they were in charge”). Younger s was at a science daycamp. That was a whole different experience…</p>
<p>Yes, that would be an entirely different experience.</p>
<p>And unfortunately for my son, the feces cleanings were not contained to the toilet.</p>
<p>I was a daycamp counselor for 5 years. Thisis causing flashbacks…</p>
<p>jym: that combination of earned and unearned income means the kids have to file but does NOT mean the parents can’t claim them as long as they are either under 19, or under 24 and full time students. Also, child shouldn’t have had to file a return for $50 of earned income unless that income added to the unearned is what did it. Earned income under $400 does not incur self employment tax. </p>
<p>When my kids were teens there was an article in the paper that said that if first 18 year old twin deposits $2,000 (max at the time) in a Roth IRA for six years then stops, how many years does twin 2 need to contribute into Roth if he starts when first twin stops. Answer, assuming average earnings, was that second twin woul never catch up. I showed that to the kids and it was enough incentive to make them start contributing. All three have substantial balances in their IRA’s now. Some more than others.</p>
<p>I don’t know why this information isn’t readily available to everybody. My friend just got her 17 yr old to contribute this year by offering to match.</p>
<p>Now, I don’t believe in contributing for them, because it doesn’t teach them the main point which is to contribute themselves, but YMMV</p>
<p>I don’t recall the specifics but I do recall that there was some tax deduction we were unable to take. This was about 14 years ago, so who knows if tax regulations have changed. It’s possible that the deduction had to be taken on their taxes. Don’t know-all I recall is that it was annoying that we lost the Deduction. As for the Roth, we were happy to handle it for them. They both earned their income. In fact we probably underpaid them. They have both worked since high school and have good financial heads on their shoulders. This was just part of that life lesson.</p>
<p>Good for you! My kid is so uniinterested in money, I am pulling out my hair. She doesn’t need much money either that I don’t know how to motivate her to pay attention. When she was in kindergaten, she could add number without difficulty but as soon as anyone asked her how much $1 + $1 was, she was lost.</p>
<p>Sooner or later the interest in money will probably occur. They will eventually get hungry!</p>
<p>Do you have a link to that article you mentioned, 3bm103? Sounds really interesting.</p>
<p>Agree that the decision/involvement in funding the Roth was part of a fiscal lesson. They were totally on board with putting the income directly into the Roth. We didnt ever offer to match other Roth contributions, but that’s an interesting idea.</p>
<p>No. Sorry. It was in a column in the Oakland Press by Sid Mittra which appeared more than ten years ago. I cut it out and share with anybody I know who has kid. It was entitled “When it comes to IRAs, it’s simple, start 'em young”</p>
<p>“When it comes to IRAs, it’s simple, start 'em young” </p>
<p>I just talked to a friend, who said she has been paying her daughter to help with her work, and has invested that money in a Roth since she was nine. Probably not huge amounts when she was younger, but she is a very bright young woman, so I’m sure mom gets her money’s worth. Still…I could kick myself for either not doing this for the kids or talking them in to putting their own money in it.</p>
<p>Our friend who invests for us is not willing to take on my kid’s Roths, he hasn’t taken new clients for two years. But he said there is no problem with the backdoor Roth (we have no pre-tax IRA’s to complicate things). Just fund the non-deductible every year and convert it to the Roth right away…until they change the rules.</p>
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<p>“This American Life” was probably my favorite radio program. I really liked the way he created programs with unusual themes - whether it was “rubber room” in NYC or an abandoned house in New England hiding a strange history. Would have loved to have seen how the guy was in the flesh. I’m sure Glass IRA was a whole lot more interesting than Roth IRA.</p>
<p>He did the first part of the show in the dark, as if we were listening to him on the radio. All we could see was his ipad glowing in his hand as he walked around. That was amusing for a few moments. Then it got a bit old. He explained how he wove a story and kept the audience captured, with snipits from his shows. It was well done. BTW, his cousin is Philip Glass, the composer.</p>
<p>BTW, I asked my s#2 about how much he currently has in his Roth. Was a decent amount for his age.</p>
<p>“I’m sure Glass IRA was a whole lot more interesting than Roth IRA.”</p>
<p>Yep, but I’ll bet he won’t fund your retirement!</p>
<p>Talked to two people today who have funded their kids Roths for years. What, does everybody do this? So I’m wondering what other important things I should have been doing financially…but haven’t, what else have I screwed up?</p>
<p>We should have talked to a financial advisor long ago, apparently. But how do you find a good one? Seems most anyone can hang a shingle on their door and declare themselves an expert. Plus you hear horror stories of people churning your account and talking you into super risky investments. But it makes me wonder if there is a list of the obvious things out there. Anyone have a good book to recommend?</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think you need a financial advisor. You need to do exactly what you’re doing now: read and educate yourself. Most of the people I know who use a financial advisor are doing no better than those who aren’t. And if they are, it’s because they are paying attention not because they are paying somebody.</p>
<p>And no, most people are not funding Roth IRA’s for their kids. Most aren’t even doing it for themselves. The best thing you can do for your kids is not to fund it for them, but to teach them to fund it for themselves.</p>
<p>I agree with 3bm103. You don’t need to use an advisor, you need to care enough to learn about your investments. The people that get burned by their financial advisor are the people that don’t pay attention. I recall a broker who was trying to drum up business, who called my father many years ago. My father gave him $1000 to invest in some small medical company to get him off his back - considered it an investment in getting him to stop calling, and wrote it off as lost money. Well, turns out that investment did very well, but he still considers it much like a lottery. The broker probably had many clients who were invested in a variety if stock. He asks for referrals from those who did well… doesn’t mean all his clients do that well.</p>
<p>As for the kids, I wouldn’t fund an IRA for them. I would encourage them to find one, and perhaps provide some small incentives, much as my parents provided incentives for us to save when I was a kid (and the Roth IRA didn’t exist). Teach them not just about money, but about setting priorities as well. Make them choose - do you want to go to the ice cream shop once, or would you rather have 2 cartons of ice cream at home (or maybe even make your own)? Would you rather have than one pair of expensive sneakers, or 2 (maybe even 3) pairs that are much less expensive (but of equal quality) to change up your style? Many kids don’t understand money because they aren’t put in a position of making such decisions.</p>
<p>When we were first married and had some money to invest, we went to see a financial advisor to see what he could do for us. My husband insisted. I was skeptical. I asked the man what he could do for us that we couldn’t do for ourselves. He told us that while he agreed that my husband could probably do an adequate job of following our investments, “what would happen to you if he died?” My husband laughed and told him he had just lost a client. My husband couldn’t even file his own tax return.</p>
<p>I also agree with 3bm103. Learning about investing is much like learning about college admissions on CC. Look how much you now know about admissions, financial aid, SAT/ACT tests, etc., just from hanging around this site and reading the posts. You soon learn which posters to listen to and which ones don’t really have a clue. You can do the same thing with investing forums. Personally, I like the Bogleheads forum but there are many others out there. Read a couple of basic books on investing, too. The Bogleheads Wiki is a great place to get started. [url=<a href=“http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page]Bogleheads[/url”>Bogleheads]Bogleheads[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Like 3bm103, my husband and I also went to a financial planner when we were first married. All I knew about investing was what I had learned from reading Money Magazine (which wasn’t much) – my husband knew even less. This planner suggested a portfolio of mutual funds for us and charged us a percentage of our total invested assets each year as his fee. We paid it for about 3 years but after reading and learning more and more, we decided that it wasn’t brain surgery and we started managing our own portfolio. We made a few mistakes along the way but the important thing was that we learned from the mistakes and got smarter as time went by.</p>
<p>I’ll look into the Bogleheads forum, thanks. Yes, we should have been paying more attention and should be looking at things closer ourselves. I suppose it’s not too late. We have fully funded our 401K’s and they’ve done pretty well (though not great) since we started 18 years ago. But we only can choose between a limited number of mutual funds.</p>
<p>Our investor friend suggested that if my son didn’t want to choose his own stocks to put in a Roth, to just pick the eight biggest stocks in our account (that he manages), and put 2K in each of them. He does massive amounts of research on them and has been very successful, so I will definitely pay attention to his stock picks. Funny, my husband was the one who got him interested in mutual funds decades ago, and he became obsessed with it. Quit his job as an engineer to manage money.</p>