In the latest GOP budget bill, you can get $1,000 per child born in 2025 through 2028. In an tax-deferred investment account known as a Trump Account, the Treasury would give your child $1,000 that gets invested in a diversified U.S. stock fund. The kid can’t access the funds until they’re 18, can’t access more than half before they’re 25, and get the rest at 31. Parents can contribute up to $5,000 each year into this account. If you use it to pay for a qualified expense (education, first time home, capital for a business, etc.), you only pay long term capital gains on the earnings. Anything else taxes the gains at ordinary income tax. It’s unclear where this fits with other accounts. With 529 plans you can contribute way more, get a tax deduction, and gains are tax free if used for qualified educational expenses. If you don’t use up your 529 plan funds, you can roll a lot of it into a Roth IRA. With Trump Accounts, you get $1,000 for free for each kid but it’s unclear if there’s any benefit to doing more with it. What do you think? (fb)

President Trump has told the Treasury Department to stop making pennies and they will once they run out of the blanks they have on hand. The Mint makes billions of pennies a year, which cost 3.67 cents each, and stopping production will save $50+ million a year. Companies and stores are expected to round cash transactions to the nearest nickel. What surprises me the most is that it was so easy to do - I thought perhaps it required an act of Congress but it appears that’s not true. If the Treasury wants to stop making pennies, it can just stop making pennies. Historically, it was Congress that made changes to currency, such as when they eliminated half cents in 1857. But this order by Trump doesn’t eliminate the penny, it simply orders the Treasury to stop making them. (fb)