How would you start an investment portfolio for 2 kids if monthly budget is about $200 per child? Thanks!

First ask yourself what is the purpose of setting aside an investment portfolio for your children.

If its for their education then I would not invest in too risky assets as you will need a certain sum by then - ETFs are good or bonds if you have a lower risk profile.

If its just for the kids to have something in the future - is this even necessary? I think it would be better to let them experiment and learn with their own savings. This way they would not be reliant on you in the future to invest for them.

I was recently thinking about this. To clarify, I agree with others who mentioned that the purpose of the investment is important.

For me, one big part of the purpose was to use it to educate my children in the future about investing.

To that end, I actually explored different types of investing so that I could use these real examples to have a conversation with them about investing in the future.

So I looked at Robos, as well as passive ETF index investing. I didn't go into stock picking as I felt that would be more advanced. Just kept to the simplest methods of investing so that I could introduce those to them as well.

I won't touch insurance at all for the kid (as in no cash value policies for them, i only bought hospital and added MINDEF-AVIVA group critical and group PA for kid)

I actually opened an interactive broker for my wife, and stash money in it for the kid. since its going to be troublesome to open a stock broker account for someone... that young.

Stocks for the long run beats EVERYTHING. my kids are young, and they have a long way to go.

Putting a little in stock can give them a million bucks by the time they are 21.

before you go wow! million bucks! Look at inflation. by the time they are 21, a million buck means nothing much. maybe enough for school and 1 small hdb flat ba. shrugs

So my suggestion is open a stock broker in your own name, and buy stocks and keep inside meant for your kid.

In your name is good too, in case u need it in your own name for emergency purposes.

Hi,

Before starting an investment portfolio for them, it would be better for you to craft out the desire long term goal that you want for your family. Is the money going to be used for University? What is it going to be used for?

With that in mind, you can reverse engineer the required rate of return that you need. I would suggest you read up some financial education/investment books: Rich Dad Poor Dad, One Up Wall Street and 5 Rules of Successful Stocks Investing.