I do like the personal finance book idea. My only worry would be that, if the parents consider themselves trustworthy, responsible people, such a gift might come across as an insult.

Don’t worry, it won’t happen again; I’ve removed your blog from my feed.

The premise to this whole thing is that the giver is looking to give something to help secure the financial future of the baby.

I told the person offline, but didn’t put it in this post, that it would be uncomfortable gift to give publicly as it can be viewed as criticism.

Of course, they may never do anything about it. I offered something similar to an adult relative regarding investing in an mutual fund IRA. I even printed out the application, but he never did it.

So maybe to be safe, you also bring over a bunch of boxes for the kid to play with. :)

Still, this isn’t exactly like training a dog. The baby will be responsible for itself someday and will need to have some kind of finances at that point. A dog (who has owners) will not be expected to provide for himself.

I still give toys and books and so on from time to time but I made it clear to the parents that we’d give financial gifts, especially when we can’t be there for the celebration. If we are there in person, we bring a gift, but if not – financial gifts.

I wouldn’t feel embarrassed, anyway. It’s the gift-givers’ money. He/she can spend it as he/she sees fit.

My only caution on savings bonds… A few of my family members gave savings bonds off and on throughout my childhood. I always appreciated (no pun intended) them.

But about two years ago, I finally cashed them in and — despite having all of them for at least 10 years — several of them hadn’t yet reached full value. They accrue VERY slowly. I tried to read up (at the time) about savings bonds and figure them out. I was lost, but the gist is: If you’re giving the kid something at birth, chances are it’ll be at full value when he/she is ready for college (or even done with college). But past age, say, 6 or 8, there’s no guarantee.

Personally, I would think a financial gift would be a welcomed alternative to more ’stuff’, especially if it’s a second child, since most families already have a million toys. I know it is for me. Books are always nice too, if you still wanted to give something tangible, like Wayne suggested. But, when they are really young, like one, they don’t know any different anyway.

On to the article and the question at hand. Personally, I love your last and “best” suggestion. I think it’s a superb idea and would have been thrilled if someone had done so for my kids.

I don’t have other suggestions, especially in this economy, and with the condition that the gift giver doesn’t want a long term tie to the family. But I have seen many times people giving savings bonds as gifts. Yes, the parents or guardians can cash them in, but it behooves them not to…whether the parents/guardians understand that or not is another matter altogether.

Excellent article, I will be watching to see what others have to say.