What age to start Roth/ retirement plan for teen daughter?

[Anonymous]

Is 18 too young? What's the lowest you can put in? Is there a plan you can put in small amounts whenever you get money versus a regular savings account. DD is 18, i would like to get her started.

[Anonymous]

Retirement accounts or brokerage accounts? Does she have earned income?

[Anonymous]

oh please. pay for college, then let her fund her own roth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is 18 too young? What's the lowest you can put in? Is there a plan you can put in small amounts whenever you get money versus a regular savings account. DD is 18, i would like to get her started.

I don't think 18 is too young. It's good to get started early. Assuming that your daughter doesn't have a job that offers a 401k with employer match, then you can open a Roth IRA for her as long as she has income. You can contribute as little as you want, but the current contribution limit/max is $7,000 in 2025 as long as she's under the income threshold. So if you only wanted to put in $100 for 2025, you can do that. It's probably best to try to get as close to $7,000 as possible though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is 18 too young? What's the lowest you can put in? Is there a plan you can put in small amounts whenever you get money versus a regular savings account. DD is 18, i would like to get her started.

I don't think 18 is too young. It's good to get started early. Assuming that your daughter doesn't have a job that offers a 401k with employer match, then you can open a Roth IRA for her as long as she has income. You can contribute as little as you want, but the current contribution limit/max is $7,000 in 2025 as long as she's under the income threshold. So if you only wanted to put in $100 for 2025, you can do that. It's probably best to try to get as close to $7,000 as possible though.

If you have a 529 for her, then that could be rolled over to a Roth IRA for her. I think it's capped at $35k.

[Anonymous]

It is never too early as long as she has earned income that meets the income thresholds set for a ROTH IRA. As another poster stated, better to pay for college first, but if that is already taken care of, a ROTH IRA is a solid choice.

[Anonymous]

You can put in the same amount as what she earns. Our accountant had us open a Roth for DS the year he started lifeguarding. I think he earned about $3500 that summer, so we put that amount into the Roth for him as a gift. This is what we do each year. He is now 19 and while I haven't looked at his balance lately, I recall it being somewhere around $13000.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely you should. We opened accounts for our three kids (adult kids now). Each has about 300k at this point.

[Anonymous]

We did the same. Started a Roth though we did not hit maximums.

[Anonymous]

Not too young. Just opened one for my 16 year old who is working his first job this summer.

[Anonymous]

If your daughter has earned income, she can contribute up to her gross earned income up to $7,000 for 2025. You can gift her up to $19,000 as an individual which she can use to fund her Roth IRA. She will need her own account at age 18.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is 18 too young? What's the lowest you can put in? Is there a plan you can put in small amounts whenever you get money versus a regular savings account. DD is 18, i would like to get her started.

To fund a Roth, she needs earned income. The minute she has that, you can open a Roth and fund it.

[Anonymous]

If the kid has earned income, but not enough to file a tax return, do they have to file a tax return anyway if they open a Roth?

What is the threshold income to open a Roth? And does that income need to be made last year or in the current year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the kid has earned income, but not enough to file a tax return, do they have to file a tax return anyway if they open a Roth?

What is the threshold income to open a Roth? And does that income need to be made last year or in the current year?

No tax file
No threshold but keep records
Current year (you have until tax day 2026 to contribute for 2025)

[Anonymous]

I just opened one for DC 19yo, rising college sophomore.

I’m opening it at vanguard and funding it with $1k in a low cost, vanguard total stock market fund.

Once they get a real job, they can contribute more, but I made them set up the account and link it to their savings/debt account for future use.

Setting up the account is the hard part for them.

We don’t have a spare $7k max to put in there, otherwise I would give more.