As we move from spring into summer, many of our young loved ones are entering their own transition periods and marking some of their own first real life milestones. It is graduation and graduation gift season.
If you hope to mark your loved one’s accomplishment with a sizeable gift, then how do you ensure that such gift is not squandered?
To mark a milestone with a financial gift can be something of a carrot-and-stick opportunity. If that is the case, then the trick is to ensure that the gift encourages positive possibilities instead of some shiny mess with a new car smell in Overland Park and elsewhere.
Reuters recently provided some advice on this timely topic in an article titled “Four ways to influence how new grads handle money.”
In some ways, the advice for giving money to young adults does not hinge on the number of dollars involved. In fact, from $100 to $100 million, and however you slice it, the goal is to ensure a responsible use of the funds.
Then again, with high-value gifts or full inheritances in the mix, there is that much more that can go wrong. Fortunately, there are more tools at your disposal to structure a successful gift.
The advice in the original article is well worth considering, whether your potential gift is imminent or not for another four years of high school, college, or an advanced degree. Knowing full well the value of an approaching milestone, a graduation gift is the sort of thing for which you can plan now to increase the likelihood of success later.
Remember: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” When making your financial, tax and estate plans, do not go it alone. Be sure to engage competent professional counsel.
Reference: Reuters (May 14, 2014) “Four ways to influence how new grads handle money”
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