Suze Orman has a two-part rule for the children's investment accounts the federal government has now opened for nearly 70 million kids, and the second half is the part parents will not expect. “You should never turn down free money,” she wrote in an Aug. 27 post on her website, referring to the $1,000 the government deposits for an eligible child, and up to $2,500 a year that an employer is allowed to add. Then stop. "In other words: until your financial life is in great shape, I don't want you to contribute to a Trump Account for a child. Period."
The post, titled "Who Should and Shouldn't Open a Trump Account," is written in Orman's first-person voice. Of the government's $1,000 seed, she wrote, "That's free money no one should pass up." Orman, the personal finance author who told listeners that a Social Security agent was "100 million percent wrong" about a divorce benefit, has no quarrel with the account itself. Her objection is to what parents do after the free money lands.
