Happy Holidays!
December is a special month, and we have so many holidays to celebrate in December. We have Hannukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. All these festivals believe in peace, joy, and unity all over the world. With all the craziness going on in the world currently, these holidays are awaited so eagerly.
With holidays comes the gift-giving. We need to be mindful of giving gifts to our loved ones. Sometimes, the gifts we give are returned or not liked. A unique and different way of gifting is financial gift-giving, which includes contributing to college costs, giving charities, cash, stock and impact investing.
Gift as Stock
Many parents and grandparents like the idea of ushering their children or grandchildren down the path of financial literacy and financial responsibility. Giving kids a financial gift starts the conversation of how much to spend on something for myself, how much to save toward a major goal, and how much to share with others in need. You can give by purchasing stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or ETFs as a holiday gift to children. It helps if the stocks are in companies, such as Apple, Disney, or Facebook, that they know, understand, and get excited about. Stockpile is one such company which allows you to buy gift cards that recipients can redeem for fractional shares of stock in over 1,000 companies and ETFs.
College Savings
If you have younger children on your list this year, but you still want to give the gift of education, look into opening a 529 plan or contributing to an existing account. These are tax-advantaged accounts specifically designed to help families save for education costs.
Student loan debt
While saving for college can make a great gift, paying off student loan debt is also a worthwhile approach to holiday giving. There is company called Gift of College which has its gift cards available to make the payments for the student loans.
Job skills
Help your friends and family sharpen their skills or expand their knowledge base this holiday season. You never know; it could lead to a promotion or a better paying job in the new year. Online learning websites like Udemy, Coursera, and LinkedIn Learning provide gift certificates to offer someone to take courses.
Charity as a gift
The season of giving is upon us, and this year especially, the need is great. Consider giving a donation or making a charity as a gift this year — it’s a great way to give back to others. It also demonstrates how well we know our loved ones by supporting the causes they care about. In addition to charitable giving being a rewarding experience, it comes with tax benefits.
Impact Investing
If you’re currently assessing your budget and have extra dollars you’d like to spend this year investing in your family’s future…Or if you’re looking for a fresh, new idea for how to spend your EOY budget allocation for investments…
Right now *might* just be the perfect opportunity for you to invest in CoPeace before the end of the year. Investing now is an opportunity to use your dollars for good — by supporting causes you care about and earning financial returns.
I believe, there are so many ways to make gift-giving in a real sense meaningful and purposeful.
Aarti Karnik is the Director of Web Development with CoPeace. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.
