I don't see how that could hurt! Sounds like a good idea. My parents did something like that for me and my 3 brothers. My great aunt passed away and left each of the great nieces/nephews equal amounts of money, so my parents invested it and let it grow. It sure was nice, and I'm glad they did that. My Grandma has gotten a few bonds for my daughter as well...so they are cookin' away at the bank!

it sounds like a good idea to me.

i don't really know what savings bonds are, but my mother-in-law has sent a bunch to finn. i put them in the firebox since i don't really know what to do with them. sometimes i wish she'd just send checks that we could deposit into his account, but i'm assuming savings bonds grow more?

yea i think it's a good idear. My husband said that they should be in the kids' names though, so I probably should have the babies and then buy one? I just wanted to start it now, the sooner the better ya know, but I agree that it should be in the child's name so that they have access to it if something happens to me or him.

yeah, to explain it better, say you buy a bond for $50 and it is for 30 years. Over the course of that 30 years the government will use that $50 and the interest for their purposes and your bond will also collect interest over those 30 years. When the 30 years is up, you take it to the bank and cash it in and you'll get the $50 plus the collected interest. So the bonds that your g-ma got for Finn will be worth more when he's older and actually will need the money to start his life after he graduates or gets married or whatever.

hmm... i wonder how much more they'll be worth in the end. i just looked at them, there are 2 (one for $100 and one for $50) and they're in his name and it says interest will cease after 30 years. i take that to mean that he can actually cash them in whenever he wants? or does he have to wait 30 years?

i'm sure there's a website explaining this somewhere... it's not something i've ever dealt with, i guess that's why it's such a foreign concept to me. actually, i didn't think they still did them, i thought it was an old-fashioned type thing.

Christy, I think you need a social security number to buy a bond. I've never bought one, but my grandma needed my daughters SS# to get hers.

yea i think you have to wait the 30 years. I'm just learning this stuff, so I might be wrong. I bet you are right about the SSN.

You can cash them in whenever, but they don't fully mature until the they expire. I think that it means that it won't be worth $100 until the 30 years are up. My in-laws gave us some that his grandparents had given him when he was younger, but we didn't get the full value because they weren't up yet. There is a website that you can look at that will show you the value of the bonds at given times. I cant think of it right now, but I think I googled savings bonds.

It all dependes on what kind of bonds you get I grew up getting EE savings bonds so thats the kind I know about and thats the kind I will talk about.

You can buy them on line for face value i.e. Buy a $50.00 doller bond for $50.00 or you can buy them at a bank for 1/2 value i.e. $50.00 bond for $25.00 (much better deal) If the person is under 18 you can (maybe need) a adults name and social security number on them (I don't think you have to have the childs social but you do have to have their name). They will mature for 18 years and at that point they will be worth the face value ($50.00 per my example) after the 18 years they will continue to collect intrest untill it has reached its limit at 30 years. Here is the tricky part, if you cash them in before they mature you get penalized, I don't think you ever get less than you paid but you don't get the intrest you have earned so if you only paid $25.00 for a $50.00 bond then you will only get $25.00 plus a small amount of intrest.

Personaly I think they are great I got a $75.00 every birthday and a $50.00 every Christmas since my grandma bought them for 1/2 price it was the best thing she could afford for her 13 grand children. So far I have purchased a prom dress, wedding dress, and a video camara for school... I still have over $1200.00 worth Maturing in the bank. I think they are great and starting on my godson's 1st birthday he is getting them.

My husband received several savings bonds when he was a child and they really pulled us through a pinch about a year ago. They weren't worth as much because we cashed them 5 years too early but they still were worth more than his aunt had paid for them.

My sister asks that people give her children savings bonds instead of toys for her kids birthday parties. She says she is sick of her kids having so many toys

so for sure I'm going to do this for my kids.

My best friends mom did an awesome thing and when he turned 18 and got a job, she made him pay like 200 dollars for "rent" and he thought it was soooo unfair. Well, the day of his wedding she handed him a check for all the money he ever gave her for "rent" as a wedding present (she had been saving it all along). She did the savings bond stuff too, and all this other stuff as a surprise. I think those were such good ideas and want to do like she did for my kids.

I want to think about this stuff now, cuz I want to have something special to give them when they are older. Who knows what will happen in the future, so I want to start now, and be prepared.

Thanks for all the ideas, and information!