Lifestyle

3 Financial Gift Ideas That Will Benefit Your Child Now And Later

Published

4 years ago

March 3, 2022

Watching your kids grow is one of the most exciting parts of parenthood. They will hit various milestones, such as going to their first dance and graduating from high school. You will probably have high hopes for their futures, but you’ll also realize that challenges await them as well.

Many of those challenges could be of a financial nature. When they’re in their late teens or early twenties, it’s hard to tell whether your kids will be looking at the pros and cons of consolidating credit card debt or raking in the earnings from a world-changing invention or entrepreneurial pursuit.

Assuming your child is not independently wealthy very early on in life, there are some financial gifts you might consider giving them that could help them a great deal. Let’s look at three of those right now.

1. Roth IRA Contributions

A Roth IRA is a retirement account that some companies will set up for their workers. The designation “Roth” means that the account’s owner pays taxes on the contributions before they contribute, instead of during the account’s distribution when the owner reaches retirement age.

If your adult child gets a job where their employer offers them a Roth IRA, it would benefit them to take it. A company will often match funds that your child puts into the account up to a certain point.

However, you can also contribute to that IRA, if you’re in a financial position to do so. Like your child’s employer, you might agree to match their contributions. That’s one way you can help your child prepare for their eventual retirement.

2. Stock

You might also consider buying stock for your child. If you start doing this for them at a young age, it’s a way you can teach them about the market’s potential risks and rewards. You could buy a stock for them in which they have a personal interest, such as Nintendo or Disney.

Stocks can be pretty pricey, so you might buy your child a portion of a stock instead of a whole one. Maybe when their birthday rolls around, you might offer them either the choice of a new toy or a percentage of a stock. Make sure you explain to them the inherent risks and potential rewards.

3. A Piggy Bank

Teaching your child about saving is something you can start doing when they’re very young. You might give them an allowance along with a money jar or piggy bank where they can keep their savings.

If they want something that’s on the more expensive side, you can explain to them that if they save up for a few weeks, they should be able to afford it. They can put this teaching to good use in later years if they want a video game system, a high-end TV, or something else for their college dorm or first apartment.

Financial Gifts Can Help Your Child

It can be hard to help your child reach maturity if you fail to teach them some financial basics. Giving them stock for their birthday or a holiday is one way to begin teaching them about the market, which they will probably want to invest in when they start a portfolio at some point.

Giving them a piggy bank is something you can do when they are very young, so they’ll start learning about the benefits of saving for a larger purchase. When they’re a little older, you can help contribute to their Roth IRA.

Remember that a child will watch what you do, and if you demonstrate financial responsibility, it’s likely your young one will follow in your footsteps one day.

Lifestyle

Wanda Knight on Blending Culture, Style, and Leadership Through Travel

Published

20 hours ago

December 24, 2025

Michelle Langton

The best lessons in leadership do not always come from a classroom or a boardroom. Sometimes they come from a crowded market in a foreign city, a train ride through unfamiliar landscapes, or a quiet conversation with someone whose life looks very different from your own.

Wanda Knight has built her career in enterprise sales and leadership for more than three decades, working with some of the world’s largest companies and guiding teams through constant change. But ask her what shaped her most, and she will point not just to her professional milestones but to the way travel has expanded her perspective. With 38 countries visited and more on the horizon, her worldview has been formed as much by her passport as by her resume.

Travel entered her life early. Her parents valued exploration, and before she began college, she had already lived in Italy. That experience, stepping into a different culture at such a young age, left a lasting impression. It showed her that the world was much bigger than the environment she grew up in and that adaptability was not just useful, it was necessary. Those early lessons of curiosity and openness would later shape the way she led in business.

Sales, at its core, is about connection. Numbers matter, but relationships determine long-term success. Wanda’s time abroad taught her how to connect across differences. Navigating unfamiliar places and adjusting to environments that operated on different expectations gave her the patience and awareness to understand people first, and business second. That approach carried over into leadership, where she built a reputation for giving her teams the space to take ownership while standing firmly behind them when it mattered most.

The link between travel and leadership becomes even clearer in moments of challenge. Unfamiliar settings require flexibility, quick decision-making, and the ability to stay calm under pressure. The same skills are critical in enterprise sales, where strategies shift quickly and no deal is ever guaranteed. Knight learned that success comes from being willing to step into the unknown, whether that means exploring a new country or taking on a leadership role she had not originally planned to pursue.

Her travels have also influenced her eye for style and her creative pursuits. Fashion, for Wanda, is more than clothing; it is a reflection of culture, history, and identity. Experiencing how different communities express themselves, from the craftsmanship of Italian textiles to the energy of street style in cities around the world, has deepened her appreciation for aesthetics as a form of storytelling. Rather than keeping her professional and personal worlds separate, she has learned to blend them, carrying the discipline and strategy of her sales career into her creative interests and vice versa.

None of this has been about starting over. It has been about adding layers, expanding her perspective without erasing the experiences that came before. Wanda’s story is not one of leaving a career behind but of integrating all the parts of who she is: a leader shaped by high-stakes business, a traveler shaped by global culture, and a creative voice learning to merge both worlds.

What stands out most is how she continues to approach both leadership and life with the same curiosity that first took her beyond her comfort zone. Each new country is an opportunity to learn, just as each new role has been a chance to grow. For those looking at her path, the lesson is clear: leadership is not about staying in one lane; it is about collecting experiences that teach you how to see, how to adapt, and how to connect.

As she looks to the future, Wanda Knight’s compass still points outward. She will keep adding stamps to her passport, finding inspiration in new cultures, and carrying those insights back into the rooms where strategy is shaped and decisions are made. Her legacy will not be measured only by deals closed or positions held but by the perspective she brought, and the way she showed that leading with a global view can change the story for everyone around you.