Child is on the way, invest for college and car fund options - opinions
Look at your options with a 529 program. If the money is used for education expenses: that currently includes tuition, room & board (even if living off campus), books, transportation; it grows tax free. Earnings are not subject to federal tax and generally not subject to   state tax when used for the qualified education expenses of the   designated beneficiary, such as tuition, fees, books, as well as room   and board. Contributions to a 529 plan, however, are not deductible. If it is a 529 associated with your state you can also save on state taxes. You can make contributions on a regular basis, or ad hoc. Accounts can even be setup by other relatives. I have used a 529 to fund two kids education. It takes care of most of your education expenses.  529 programs are available from most states, and even some of the big mutual fund companies. Many have the option of shifting the risk level of the investments to be more conservative as the kids hit high school.  Some states have an option to have you pay  a large sum when the child is small to buy semesters of college. The deal is worth considering if you know they will be going to a state school, the deal is less good if they will go out of state or to a private college.  The IRS does limit the maximum amount that you can contribute in a year an amount that exceeds the 14,000 annual gift limit: If in 2014, you contributed more than $14,000 to a Qualified Tuition   Plan (QTP) on behalf of any one person, you may elect to treat up to   $70,000 of the contribution for that person as if you had made it   ratably over a 5-year period. The election allows you to apply the   annual exclusion to a portion of the contribution in each of the 5   years, beginning in 2014. You can make this election for as many   separate people as you made QTP contributions One option at the end is to take any extra money at graduation and give it to the child so that it can be used for graduate school, or if the taxes and penalties are paid it can be used for that first car. It can even be rolled over to another relative.
"John's answer is similar to what I was thinking. You should invest in insurance ""because there's an insurance salesman who needs to pay to send his kid to college."" I will never be a fan of any type of permanent insurance, and I think it wrong to sell a single person with no dependents such a policy. I've used the expression ""Variable Annuities are sold, not bought."" I feel the same about these insurance policies.  The best advice I can offer in a short reply is this: If you need life insurance, buy term. Save as much as you can, 10% minimum, more if you are able. A young person should be saving for retirement and to position them self to buy their first house, if that's what they wish. What good is a full up Whole Life policy when you need to raise $40K to put down on a house? Sorry to sound like I'm lecturing, this is one of my hot points." If you're looking at colleges to expand economic opportunity, then it will never be solved.  By the time someone goes into college it's too late.  If you want to give a kid the best opportunity in life, make sure it's born into a stable two-parent family environment.  The statistics don't lie. "The 529 plan does outline your scenarios. There are stipulations for providing the funds should the child get the scholarship. If the child decides not to go into further education (vocational and community schools count), the money can be withdrawn with a 10% penalty and taxes paid on interest earnings. Taxes wouldn't have to be paid for contributions as taxes were already paid on that money by the gift giver. The 529 could also be transferred to another child in the family (including grandchildren).  Here's an excerpt from www.savingforcollege.com: You'll never lose all of your savings. A 529 plan offers tax-free earnings and tax-free withdrawals as long as the money is used to pay   for college. If you end up taking a non-qualified withdrawal, you'll   incur income tax as well as a 10% penalty - but only on the earnings   portion of the withdrawal. Since your contributions were made with   after-tax money, they will never be taxed or penalized. You can avoid the penalty if you get a scholarship. There are a few special exceptions to the 10% penalty rule, including when the   beneficiary becomes incapacitated, attends a U.S. Military Academy or   gets a scholarship. In the case of a scholarship, non-qualified   withdrawals up to the amount of the tax-free scholarship can be taken   out penalty-free, but you'll have to pay income tax on the earnings.   As Savingforcollege.com founder Joe Hurley likes to say, ""the   scholarships have turned your tax-free 529 investment into a   tax-deferred 529 investment"". Note, a 529 is ideal for the sum of money you are looking at. A proper trust, set up by a lawyer, will cost as much as $2000 to set up, and would require an annual tax return, both unnecessary burdens. To make matters worse, the trust counts as the child's asset where financial aid is concerned. The 529 counts, but to a much lesser extent." At this stage of the game your best investment is yourself. Rather than putting it in stocks, use any spare money you have to get yourself the best education you can. See if you can drop that part-time job and give yourself more time to study. Or maybe you can go to a better, more expensive college. Or maybe college will give you some opportunity to travel and learn more that way. You don't want to exclude yourself from those opportunities by not having enough spare cash. So in short, spend what you need to get yourself the best education you can, and keep any spare money you have somewhere you can use it to take advantage of any opportunities that come your way. "Well, I understand this forum is about money but I think you would be far better off if you invest the money in your daughters education or something similar that can bring much more significant future gains. I am a big fan of compound interest and investing in stocks but $700 sitting until she's 21 wont grow into a significant amount. When she's 21, what would you ""hope"" she'd spend the money on? something valuable like education right? so why don't you take the first step now so she will get a much bigger return than the monitory value. If I were you I'd invest in a home library or something similar." "While I can appreciate you're coming from a strongly held philosophy, I disagree strongly with it.  I do not have any 401k or IRA I don't like that you need to rely on government and keep the money there forever. A 401k and an IRA allows you to work within the IRS rules to allow your gains to grow tax free. Additionally, traditional 401ks and IRAs allow you to deduct income from your taxes, meaning you pay less taxes. Missing out on these benefits because the rules that established them were created by the IRS is very very misguided. Do you refuse to drive a car because you philosophically disagree with speed limits?  I am planning on spending 20k on a new car (paying cash) Paying cash for a new car when you can very likely finance it for under 2% means you are loosing the opportunity to invest that money which can conservatively expect 4% returns annually if invested. Additionally, using dealership financing can often be additional leverage to negotiate a lower purchase price.  If for some reason, you have bad credit or are unable to secure a loan for under 4%, paying cash might be reasonable.  The best thing you have going for you is your low monthly expenses. That is commendable.  If early retirement is your goal, you should consider housing expenses as a part of your overall plan, but I would strongly suggest you start investing that money in stocks instead of a single house, especially when you can rent for such a low rate. A 3 fund portfolio is a classic and simple way to get a diverse portfolio that should see returns in good years and stability in bad years. You can read more about them here: http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Three-fund_portfolio You should never invest in individual stocks. People make lots of money to professionally guess what stocks will do better than others, and they are still very often wrong. You should purchase what are sometimes called ""stocks"" but are really very large funds that contain an assortment of stocks blended together. You should also purchase ""bonds"", which again are not individual bonds, but a blend of the entire bond market.  If you want to be very aggressive in your portfolio, go with 100-80% Stocks, the remainder in Bonds. If you are nearing retirement, you should be the inverse, 100-80% bonds, the remainder stocks.  The rule of thumb is that you need 25 times your yearly expenses (including taxes, but minus pension or social security income) invested before you can retire. Since you'll be retiring before age 65, you wont be getting social security, and will need to provide your own health insurance." I am not sure whether this hold in all countries, but at least in the Netherlands my bank allows for investment in funds without charging transaction costs. The downside is that these funds charge an annual fee of about 1%, but for the amounts you are talking about this definitely sounds more attractive than the alternative. As an alternative, you could ofcourse just take care of the transaction costs. That way your child can see their funds develop as you put it into different stocks without being distracted by the details. Of course you feel the 'pain' but I believe the main lesson stands out most this way. It is not likely the YA would die in 10 years. Hence the investment the parents make in policy premiums would lose all of its money. Repeat: lose all money.  On average, you'll slightly lose with insurance. It's there for peace of mind and to mitigate a catastrophe. It's not an investment. Of course, if the YA is likely to die suddenly, that might change things. But concealing medical information would be grounds for denying the policy claim. First, don't borrow any more money.  You're probably bankrupt right now at that income level.  2k/month is poverty level income, especially in some of the higher cost of living areas of California.  At $2k per month of income, and $1300 of rent and utilities, you've only got 700 a month for food.  The student loans are probably in deferment while your husband is in school.  If so, keep them that way and deal with them when he lands a career track goal after grad school.   The car loan is more than you can afford.  Seriously consider selling the car to get rid of the note.  Then use the cash flow that was going to the car loan to pay off the 'other' debt.  A car is usually a luxury, but if it is necessary, be sure it is one that doesn't include a loan.   Budget all of your income (consider using YNAB or something like it).  Include a budget item to build an emergency fund.  Live within your means and look for ways to supplement your income.  With three of your own, you'd probably make an excellent baby sitter. As for the inheritance, find a low risk, liquid investment, such as 12 month CDs or savings bonds.  Something that you can liquidate without penalty if an emergency arises.  Save the money for if you get into a situation where there is no other way out.  Hopefully you can have your emergency fund built up so that you don't need to draw on the inheritance.   Set a date, grad school + landing + 90 days.  If you reach that date and haven't had to use the inheritance, and you have a good emergency fund, put the inheritance in a retirement fund and forget about it. Why retirement fund and not a college fund for the kids?  The best gift you can give them is to remain financially independent throughout your life.  If you get to the point where you are fully funding your tax advantaged retirement savings, and you are ready to start wealth-building, that is the time to take part of that cash flow and set it aside for college funds. A UTMA may or may not fit your situation. The main drawbacks to a UTMA account is that it will count against your child for financial aid (it counts as the child's asset). The second thing to consider is that taxes aren't deferred like in a 529 plan. The last problem of course is that when he turns 18 he gets control of the account and can spend the money on random junk (which may or may not be important to you). A 529 plan has a few advantages over a UTMA account. The grandparents can open the account with your son as the beneficiary and the money doesn't show up on financial aid for college (under current law which could change of course). Earnings grow tax free which will net you more total growth. You can also contribute substantially more without triggering the gift tax ~$60k. Also many states provide a state tax break for contributing to the state sponsored 529 plan. The account owner would be the grandparents so junior can't spend the money on teenage junk. The big downside to the 529 is the 10% penalty if the money isn't used for higher education. The flip side is that if the money is left for 20 years you will also have additional growth from the 20 years of tax free growth which may be a wash depending on your tax bracket and the tax rates in effect over those 20 years. 529 plans.  They accumulate earnings over time and by the time your child goes to college you will be able to withdraw funds for college TAX FREE.  The best part about 529s is that there are several different options you can choose from, and you aren't limited to the plans sponsored by your state, you can use whichever plan works best for you.  For example, I live in South Carolina and use Utah's Educational Savings Plan because it has no minimum amount to open one up and it has low fees.  Hope this helped. Good luck with your search! "As soon as you specify FDIC you immediately eliminate what most people would call investing. The word you use in the title ""Parking"" is really appropriate. You want to preserve the value. Therefore bank or credit union deposits into either a high yield account or a Certificate of Deposit are the way to go. Because you are not planning on a lot of transactions you should also look at some of the online only banks, of course only those with FDIC coverage. The money may need to be available over the next 2-5 years to cover   college tuition If needing it for college tuition is a high probability you could consider putting some of the money in your state's 529 plan. Many states give you a tax deduction for contributions. You need to check how much is the maximum you can contribute in a year. There may be a maximum for your state. Also gift tax provisions have to be considered. You will also want to understand what is the amount you will need to cover tuition and other eligible expenses. There is a big difference between living at home and going to a state school, and going out of state. The good news is that if you have gains and you use the money for permissible expenses, the gains are tax free. Most states have a plan that becomes more conservative as the child gets closer to college, therefore the chance of losses will be low. The plan is trying to avoid having a large drop in value just a the kid hits their late teens, exactly what you are looking for." Start a Roth IRA. Keep it in low risk, short term money market or CDs. At this stage, stocks may be premature. As you build up the account, up to $5000/year, at some point, you should start buying an index mutual fund, say one following the S&P.  When you are out of school and working for real money, save an emergency account outside the IRA and shift that Roth IRA to be fully invested.  My 13 year old has her emergency account, and her Roth IRA to deposit her baby sitting money. It's never too soon to start. "Uniform Transfer to Minors Act (UTMA) and Uniform Gift to Minors Act (UGMA) accounts in the United States are accounts that belong to your child, but you can deposit money into.  When the child attains his/her majority, the money becomes theirs to spend however they wish.  Prior to attaining their majority, a custodian must sign off on withdrawals.  Now, they are not foolproof; legally, you can withdraw money if it is spent on the child's behalf, so that can be gamed.  What you can do to protect against that is to make another person the custodian (or, perhaps make them joint custodians with yourself, requiring both signatures for withdrawals). UTMA/UGMA accounts do not have to be bank savings accounts; for example, both of my children have accounts at Vanguard which are effectively their college savings accounts.  They're invested in various ETFs and similar kinds of investments; you're welcome to choose from a wide variety of options depending on risk tolerance.  Typically these accounts have relatively small fees, particularly if you have a reasonable minimum balance (I think USD$10k is a common minimum for avoiding larger fees). If you are looking for something even more secure than a UGMA or UTMA account, you can set up a trust.  These have several major differences over the UGMA/UTMA accounts: Some of course consider the second point an advantage, some a disadvantage - we (and Grandma) prefer to let our children make their own choices re: college, while others may not prefer that. Also worth noting as a difference - and concern to think about - in these two.  A UGMA or UTMA account that generates income may have taxable events - interest or dividend income.  If that's over a relatively low threshhold, about $1050 this year, those earnings will be taxed (on the child's own tax return).  If it's over $2100 (this year), those earnings will be taxed at the parents' tax rate (""kiddie tax""). Trusts are slightly different; trusts themselves are taxed, and have their own tax returns.  If you do set one of those up, the lawyer who helps you do so should inform you of the tax implications and either hook you up with an accountant or point you to resources to handle the taxes yourself." Thanks for your service.   I would avoid personal investment opportunities at this point.  Reason being that you can't personally oversee them if you are deployed overseas.  This would rule out rentals and small businesses.  Revisit those possibilities if you get married or leave the service.   If you have a definite time when you would like to purchase a car, you could buy a six or twelve month CD with the funds that you need for that.  That will slightly bump up your returns without taking much risk.  If you don't really need to buy the car, you could invest that money in stocks.  Then if the stock market tanks, you wait until it recovers (note that that can be five to ten years) or until you build up your savings again.  That increases your reward at a significant increase in your risk.  The risk being that you might not be able to buy a car for several more years.   Build an emergency fund.  I would recommend six months of income.  Reason being that your current circumstances are likely to change in an emergency.  If you leave the service, your expenses increase a lot.  If nothing else, the army stops providing room for you.  That takes your expenses from trivial to a third of your income.  So basing your emergency fund on expenses is likely to leave you short of what you need if your emergency leaves you out of the service.   Army pay seems like a lot because room (and board when deployed) are provided.  Without that, it's actually not that much.  It's your low expenses that make you feel flush, not your income.  If you made the same pay in civilian life, you'd likely feel rather poor.   $30,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it really isn't.  The median household income is a little over $50,000, so the median emergency fund should be something like $25,000 on the income standard.  On the expenses standard, the emergency fund should be at least $15,000.  The $15,000 remainder would buy a cheap new car or a good used car.  The $5000 remainder from the income standard would give you a decent used car.   I wouldn't recommend taking out a loan because you don't want to get stuck paying a loan on a car you can't drive because you deployed.  Note that if you are out of contact, in the hospital, or captured, you may not be able to respond if there is a problem with the car or the loan.  If you pay cash, you can leave the car with family and let them take care of things in case of a deployment.   If you invested in a Roth IRA in January of 2016, you could have invested in either 2015 or 2016.  If 2015, you can invest again for 2016.  If not, you can invest for 2017 in three months.  You may already know all that, but it seemed worth making explicit.   The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) allows you to invest up to $18,000 a year.  If you're investing less than that, you could simply boost it to the limit.  You apparently have an extra $10,000 that you could contribute.  A 60% or 70% contribution is quite possible while in the army.  If you max out your retirement savings now, it will give you more options when you leave the service.  Or even if you just move out of base housing.   If your TSP is maxed out, I would suggest automatically investing a portion of your income in a regular taxable mutual fund account.  Most other investment opportunities require help to make work automatically.  You essentially have to turn the money over to some individual you trust.  Securities can be automated so that your investment grows automatically even when you are out of touch.