[Becky]

My elementary aged kids have been doing some pet sitting and getting mail or trash cans for neighbors this summer.

They’ve made a teensy bit of money.

How little is too little to start their ROTH IRA journey?

We’re talking less than $100 each.

[Patrick]

$0 is too little and anything above that is a great start.

[Le]

Assuming that one kid is 10 years old, let their $100 grow for 55 years, and withdraw it at 65, its supposed to
$4k per.

[Linda]

Its not worth the hassle for that little money. Ideally your child should have a W2 or a Form 1099 to show evidence of the earned income.

Its not a must do but just not worth it IMHO.

Instead you could open an after tax brokerage account in your name earmarked for your child.

Fidelity has some no fee options that are great and no minimums.

I use my son’s account to teach him about investing.

As soon as he got a W2 job we also opened a Roth.

He knows more about investing at 20 than I did in my 40’s.

Good for you for trying to get your kids started young!

[Nicole]

I started a Roth IRA for my little sister (from BBBS program) about two years ago.

She has off and on contributed (at my prompting to do $10/month).

She’s got over $700 now! For a 15year old who doesn’t save anything, it’s really exciting for her to know she has that in a bank account.

I would say less than $10 is too little because Fidelity’s minimum to buy is $10 (we tried to do $5 once).

[Victoria]

My son earned $50 shoveling snow this winter and we put it in a Roth. If nothing else it will show him the power of compounding.

Took about 5 minutes to set up through Fidelity

[Chris]

I started my kid’s Roth IRA right after she had her first babysitting gig.

I document all of her work and income in a spreadsheet and I also document contributions to her Roth IRA.

She has had one W2 job but I match everything she makes, including babysitting and pet sitting jobs.

[Christopher]

On its own, it might cost more time than it’s worth. However, a lot of the hassle is a one-time thing to set up the account – once that’s done, future deposits are substantially less effort.

So, I’d eat the cost now unless I had reason to think there wouldn’t be any additional income to save and invest for quite a while (many years).

[RubyExima]

My kids earn $100 a month each, and it gets invested on their IRA. WORTH IT!

[Author]

Posts