For my son and daughter’s birthdays, they each get $10 for every year that they are old.  Actually, that’s not entirely true.  I’ve given them $50 for every birthday until their 6th.  On their 6th, I then give $10 for every year that they are old…  Once they hit 10 years old, I’m increasing the amount above age 10 by $20 instead of $10 per age.  So when they are 11, they will get $120 instead of $110 as before.

My Birthday Money Gift Schedule is below:

	Age	Money
	1	$50
	2	$50
	3	$50
	4	$50
	5	$50
	6	$60
	7	$70
	8	$80
	9	$90
	10	$100
	11	$120
	12	$140
	13	$160
	14	$180
	15	$200
	16	$220
	17	$240
	18	$260

this is simple enough, I’d like to make it more interesting.  So what I decided to do is start to invest my money into a stock that pays a dividend.  Then once the dividend provided by the stock is high enough, I’ll use that money to pay for my son and daughter’s birthday money gift.

I don’t expect to have enough money initially in the first few years, so that’s where the challenge will come from.  I need to find a source of money to put into the Stock Dividend Fund 🙂

Perhaps I will try to sell stuff on eBay again (I did this in the past).  That would be a fun challenge!  Or perhaps I’ll try to get a side job working at something.  What I don’t want to do is channel my earned income into the fund.  Between my kid’s 529s and brokerage accounts…  I’m pretty tapped!

Do you think this is a good idea?  And do you think that what I contribute for birthday money is enough?

-MR