Always the Grinch, My Kids Get Cash This Christmas

I am certainly not a child expert.  But I think that my two kids are just like most teenagers in Minnesota.  They don’t need more “stuff.” 

They have a cell phone.  They have a driver’s license and access to a car. They have clothes that they like to wear.  They have the equipment and costumes to play their favorite high school sports. What else is important when you are a teenager? 

Any gift I give my kids for Christmas this year is likely to be unnecessary. No gift that I can buy them will improve their daily life. 

I am not going to be spending my good money on a Christmas gift that is going to be taking up space in their vacant bedrooms when they both are in college two years from now. I would like to think that I am more intelligent and practical than that. 

I have been called a Grinch at Christmas before.  This year, I am going to leave no doubt. I am going to give my kids the gift of cash for college.  

The money that I give to them this Christmas is going to be set aside for student loan payments. In the next two years, each of my kids will have debt to pay.

The IRS rules state that I can give each of my kids up to $14,000 each in 2013.  My give of cash is going to be much less than that amount. I will not give my kids so much money that they would not qualify for financial aid for college. 

I will also give them a gift of cash when each of them is in college.  I can make a principal payment on each of their college loans. 

Teenagers don’t realize it now. But rapidly falling college loan debt will be a great gift for them when they can really appreciate it in later years. 

Ric Lager
Lager & Company, Inc.