Today is our late founder's, Gregory Sensiba, birthday so I thought it would be appropriate to write a piece about what you should do for your child when they are born.
Get them set up
Fill out the necessary forms and paperwork to establish them as people. Social security, birth certificate, etc. The birth certificate will be held at your local municipality until you go and pick it up. When there, you can purchase one copy or multiple, depending on your preference. Typically, the original is more expensive than the subsequent copies. At my municipality, it was $20 for the original and $3 for every copy. The Social Security card will come in the mail.
Insurance
Add them to your insurance policy. Speaking from experience, the health insurance company wanted the birth certificate, but it wasn't totally necessary. Originally, they asked for it, but it took forever for it to be ready so they just pushed the addition through without it.
Savings
There are a couple of different approaches here, but the one thing I would definitely recommend is opening a bank account for your child. When friends or family give monetary gifts for Christmas or birthdays, you can deposit the money into their account and then transfer it easily to another savings vehicle (for college savings).
- UTMA/UGMA - Uniform Transfer to Minors Act or Uniform Gift to Minors Act. A way for minors to save and invest. The assets inside of these accounts, however, are factored in when applying for financial aid.
- 529 Plan
- Coverdell ESA
- Roth IRA - The Roth IRA might be a good solution because not every kid will go to college so they have a nice head start on retirement savings in case they don't. If they do, they can use $10,000 of their Roth IRA to pay for college, penalty-free.
On a Personal Level
If you haven't done so already, get yourself right. Heal the parts of you that haven't healed so your kids don't have to experience too much of the unhealed version of you. Work on developing solid habits that help you grow as an individual - read, exercise, and connect with people in your life on a regular basis. Figure out what matters to you as a person and as a parent, and create a life/plan that helps instill those values in your kids.