*This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Tia Gao.*
Imagine a living room scattered with toys. Toys that captured your child’s attention for a few hours before they were tossed aside. Many of the pieces are missing and in random corners. Sound familiar? With birthday and holiday gifts given through the year, every family falls into the cycle of collecting new toys, many of which get broken and forgotten.
I recently came across a new type of gift that really inspired me. Imagine a gift that was not a toy, but a financial investment in your children’s future. What if your children received investments that grew year after year and didn’t clutter your playroom! There is a new site called Spark Gift that makes it easy to buy stocks and index funds as gifts.
For me as a parent, I think it would be nice for someone to have given financial gifts for my young children. It’s hard to set-aside enough savings for children’s futures. By having family and friends give investment gifts, we could have been growing a great nest egg for our children year after year.
For older children, investment gifts can really act as teaching tools. For example, instead of giving your 12 year old niece a $50 itunes gift card, you could give her $50 of Apple stock. The process of receiving an investment gift can spark incredibly valuable discussions about saving and investing at an early age.
Tia Gao, who works at Spark Gift, told me that the startup was created on the belief that one financial gift can spark a lifetime of saving and investing. Once you have your Spark Gift account, it’s easy for you to add to the account and for others to give more investment gifts so the account continues to grow. Spark Gift uses a new technology called fractional shares which let you buy a fraction of a share of stock or fund. This means that, although a share of Disney is currently $106 and Apple is $127, using Spark Gift, you can give someone a $20 fractional share of Disney or Apple as a gift.
When someone asks what they can buy for your children, you can tell them to give an investment gift using Spark Gift!
Here’s how it works:
- Go to www.sparkgift.com
- Choose the stock or index fund. Some popular brands:
- Disney
- Apple
- Vanguard
- Pay with a credit or debit card. You choose the amount, anywhere from $20 to $1,000.
- When the recipient receives the gift via email, Spark Gift guides them through the process of creating a brokerage account on their website. It takes 2 minutes and it’s 100% online.
- The recipient holds on to the account, adds to the account and watches it grow over time
Use it now! Here are some ideas for when to give an investment gift:
- For no reason – Just to get someone started in saving and investing
- Birthdays or holidays
- Graduations
- Baby showers
- Weddings
This is totally awesome information I will be checking this out for sure because my son is graduating in June. Thanks so much for sharing.
Hi Rebecca, glad to hear that you like this concept of giving investment gifts! And I hope you check it out for your son’s graduation gift. I work at Sparkgift. If you or your son have feedback/questions about the product, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (tia@sparkgift) Congratulations on his graduation!
I love this. My kids get spoiled by their grandparents and aunts/uncles with so many toys & clothes. This would be a great alternative!
Hi Debra, I am thrilled hear that you like the concept of giving investments as gifts! I work at Sparkgift. If you have any feedback/questions about the product, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (tia@sparkgift)
I am definitely going to recommend this to family. I love the idea of giving an investment gift for the future.
Hi Carlee, It’s awesome that you want to recommend the concept of giving investment gifts to your family ! I work at Sparkgift. If you have any feedback/questions about the product, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (tia@sparkgift)
This is really great information! I’ve never heard of Spark Gift before.
Hi Leah, glad to hear that you like this concept of giving investment gifts! I work at Sparkgift. If you have any feedback/questions about the product, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (tia@sparkgift)
This is really a great idea. I was just talking with my sister about how many toys my nephew has sitting unopened in the box. It would be so much better to invest gift money in something like this!
Hi Chrysa, glad to hear that you like this concept of giving investment gifts! Hope you end up giving a gift like this to your nephew. I work at Sparkgift. If you have any feedback/questions about the product, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (tia@sparkgift)
I work at Sparkgift. If you have any feedback/questions about the product. I work at Sparkgift. If you have any feedback/questions about the product. I work at Sparkgift. If you have any feedback/questions about the product, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I will be checking this out for sure because my son is graduating in June.
Hello!
This will male a perfect pica dip to kick off family gatherings/reunions while waiting for the main course. This sounds so good. I gotta try it out, awesome recipe. I had pumpkin hummus at an event last week and loved it. will totally be making this. If you don’t have a food processor, you can also use a blender.