what are the benefits of setting up an education trust fund for children?
Well, first off, if your children are NZ citizens, they can borrow money at 0% interest for tertiary education and I don't see any benefit to not taking free money. A saving account is your money, and will accrue a little bit of interest and you will pay tax on that. A family trust (I hope this is what you mean by trust fund) is a separate financial entity that can be set up to own assets for the benefit of multiple people. For example, if you have a rental property or business and you want the income divided between your children, rather than coming to you, or if you have a bach you want to keep in the family after you die.
"How often should one use dollar-cost averaging? Trivially, a dollar cost averaging (DCA) strategy must be  used at least twice! More seriously, DCA is a discipline that people (typically investors with relatively small amounts of money to invest each month or each quarter)  use to avoid succumbing to the temptation to ""time the market"".  As mhoran_psprep points out, it is well-suited to 401k plans and the like (e.g. 403b plans for educational and non-profit institutions, 457 plans for State employees, etc), and indeed is actually  the default option in such plans, since a fixed amount of money gets invested each week, or every  two weeks, or every month depending on the payroll schedule. Many plans offer just a few mutual funds in which to invest, though far too many people, having little knowledge or understanding of  investments, simply opt for the money-market fund or guaranteed annuity fund in their 4xx plans.  In any case, all your money goes to work immediately since all mutual funds let you invest in thousandths of a share. Some 401k/403b/457 plans allow investments in stocks through a brokerage, but I think that using DCA to  buy individual stocks in a retirement plan is not a good  idea at all. The reasons for this are that not only must shares must be bought in whole numbers (integers) but it is generally cheaper to buy stocks in round lots  of 100 (or multiples of 100) shares rather than in odd lots of, say, 37 shares. So buying stocks weekly, or biweekly or monthly in a 401k plan means paying more or having the money sit idle until enough is accumulated to buy 100 shares of a stock at which point the brokerage executes the order to buy the stock; and this is really not DCA at all.  Worse yet, if you let the money accumulate but you are the one calling the shots ""Buy 100 shares of APPL today"" instead of letting the brokerage execute the order when there is enough money, you are likely to  be timing the market instead of doing DCA. So, are brokerages useless in retirement fund accounts?  No, they can be useful but they are not suitable for DCA strategies involving buying stocks. Stick to mutual funds for DCA. Do people use it across the board on all stock investments? As indicated above, using DCA to buy individual stocks is not the best idea, regardless of whether it is done inside a retirement plan or outside. DCA outside a retirement plan works best if you not trust yourself to stick with the strategy (""Ooops, I forgot to mail the check yesterday; oh, well, I will do it next week"") but rather, arrange for your mutual fund company to take the money out of your checking account each week/month/quarter etc, and invest it in whatever fund(s) you have chosen. Most companies have such programs under names such as Automatic Investment Program (AIP) etc. Why not have your bank send the money to the mutual fund company instead? Well, that works too, but my bank charges me for sending the money whereas my mutual fund company does AIP for free. But YMMV. Dollar-cost averaging generally means investing  a fixed amount of money on a periodic basis. An alternative strategy, if one has decided that owning 1200 shares of FlyByKnight Co is a good investment to have, is to buy round lots of 100 shares of FBKCO each month. The amount of money invested each month varies, but at the end of the year, the average cost of the 1200 shares is the average of the prices on the 12 days on which the investments were made. Of course, by the end of the year, you might not think FBKCO is worth holding any more. This technique worked best in the  ""good old days"" when blue-chip stocks  paid what was for all practical purposes a guaranteed dividend each year, and people bought these stocks with the intention of passing them on to their widows and children." Yes, I am currently an undergrad student majoring in Finance. I have a strong interest in Accounting and Economics (Macro).  I have learned earlier today that due to the fact that people now live longer, our government spending increases (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc). But unfortunately, the funding that it draws from does not increase at a similar rate so the funding for other major aspects such as R&amp;D, Education, etc are being cut to offset the increase in government transfers.   Granted the Feds never spent much on education, why is it that the funding for R&amp;D in terms of percentage is so minuscule? Would it not be in each government's best interest to funnel money towards education, infrastructure, research &amp; development, etc? I'm sorry, when I learn one thing, about twenty billion other questions pop up (could be related or unrelated to what I had just learned) I have children.  I’m not saving a dime for their college tuition.  With the exception of some technical degrees, I think college is not a great source of education. When I reflect on where I obtained the most knowledge I come up with two major sources: work and my own self education.  I have a Master’s degree but working has, by far, taught me more than any school system.  That includes bagging groceries, baling hay, painting, factory work, engineering, and programming.  Doing something, working with others, making mistakes, and then learning from those mistakes educates more than listening to someone preach in a classroom.  My own interest in history and economics has also expanded my knowledge more than any classroom. If my children learn anything from me I hope it is this: think.  Watch, listen, read, and then think.  Think for yourself.  Don’t let others think for you.  I believe there would be a lot less heavily indebted college graduates if they would have thought for themselves instead of having others think for them. Soapbox = off. "I think you are right. Even given both the randomness of Monopoly (roll of dice, shuffle of chance/community chess cards), and the skill differentiation between players (my model took this into account) it is deterministic enough that once the game is played for X interval, the randomness cannot overcome the previous outcomes. In fact, what we actually see is a hardening of those outcomes over time (ie: just continuing to play the game exacerbates the inequality as the previously handicapped player keeps landing on property already owned by the previously un-handicapped players).  I think the conclusions are completely based on how deterministic you think our capitalist/democratic system is - or, more simply, how well Monopoly serves as a metaphor for our economy.   I think we can answer that question (or at least determine how we individually feel about it) by raising a simple thought experiment.  Imagine you live on a road where there are 4 families and the parents sit down to play Monopoly one night. 3 of the families are white and the parents are racists and set the rules unfairly against the 4th family. After 2 hours of play, the adults from the 4th family are losing miserably and everyone decides to go home. The next morning, before the adults wake up, the kids from each family decide to play Monopoly together as well. But this new generation isn't racist at all. They announce ""the rules will be the same for everyone from here on out""! The children from the black family are relieved and begin to clean up the board from the previous night and start the game over. But the other 3 families object - ""wait, no, my family earned that! We start where we left off!"".  It seems to me this is very similar to how our economy works. The vast majority of our wealth within generations is spent on raising the next generation (from the homes, food, health, and clothes we purchase to better educational opportunities, and finally direct-wealth transition through inheritance or at least financially sufficient parents that don't require investments from grown children in retirement).   I think it is a plausible theory that doesn't require us to say that anyone is racist or anyone is inferior. It would also explain phenomenon like this:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/09/28/black-and-hispanic-families-are-making-more-money-but-they-still-lag-far-behind-whites/" You are faced with a dilemma. If you use a 529 plan to fund your education, the short timeline of a few years will limit your returns that are tax free. Most people who use a 529 plan either purchase years of tuition via lump sum, when the child is young; or they  put aside money on a regular basis that will grow tax deferred/tax free. Some states do give a tax break when the contribution is made by a state taxpayer into a plan run by the state. The long term plans generally use a risk profile that starts off heavily weighted in stock when the child is young, and becomes more fixed income as the child reaches their high school years. The idea is to protect the fund from big losses when there is no time to recover. If you choose the plan with the least risk the issue is that the amount of gains that are being protected from federal tax is small. If you pick a more aggressive plan the risk is that the losses could be larger than the state tax savings. Look at some of the other tax breaks for tuition to see if you qualify Credits An education credit helps with the cost of higher education by   reducing the amount of tax owed on your tax return. If the credit   reduces your tax to less than zero, you may get a refund. There are   two education credits available: the American Opportunity Tax Credit   and the Lifetime Learning Credit. Who Can Claim an Education Credit? There are additional rules for each credit, but you must meet all   three of the following for either credit: If you’re eligible to claim the lifetime learning credit and are also   eligible to claim the American opportunity credit for the same student   in the same year, you can choose to claim either credit, but not both.   You can't claim the AOTC if you were a nonresident alien for any part   of the tax year unless you elect to be treated as a resident alien for   federal tax purposes. For more information about AOTC and foreign   students, visit American Opportunity Tax Credit - Information for   Foreign Students. Deductions Tuition and Fees Deduction You may be able to deduct qualified education expenses paid during the   year for yourself, your spouse or your dependent. You cannot claim   this deduction if your filing status is married filing separately or   if another person can claim an exemption for you as a dependent on his   or her tax return. The qualified expenses must be for higher   education. The tuition and fees deduction can reduce the amount of your income   subject to tax by up to $4,000. This deduction, reported on Form 8917,   Tuition and Fees Deduction, is taken as an adjustment to income. This   means you can claim this deduction even if you do not itemize   deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040). This deduction may be beneficial   to you if, for example, you cannot take the lifetime learning credit   because your income is too high. You may be able to take one of the education credits for your   education expenses instead of a tuition and fees deduction. You can   choose the one that will give you the lower tax. At the very least I'd look closely at what you could get from the RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan). Depending on your income the government are quite generous with grants and bonds you can get over $11,000 of 'free' money if you qualify for everything CESG - Canada Education Savings Grant  By applying for the CESG, up   to $7,200 can be directly deposited by the Federal Government into   your RESP. The Canada Education Savings Grant section offers   information about eligibility requirements for the grant as well as   how to use it when the beneficiary enrolls at a post-secondary   institution. CLB - Canada Learning Bond CLB is available to children   born after December 31st, 2003 if an RESP has been opened on their   behalf. Browse the Canada Learning Bond section to find out who is   eligible, how to apply, and how much the Government of Canada will   contribute to your RESP. I can recomend the TD e-series funds as a low cost way of getting stock market exposure in your RESP So if I were you... As an example if you earn $40k and you pay in the minimum amount to get all the grants ($500/year, $42/month) assuming zero growth you'll have almost $14k of which $5.4k would have been given to you buy the government, if you can afford to save $200/month you'll get over $11,000 from the government Well if your looking to explain inflation to children, I would use this example. Take two fruits they like IE: Apples and Oranges. Give them both 2 of each. Ask them how many of your apples would you give for 1 orange and how many apples would you want to get 1 orange(most likely they will say 1). Now give them 5 more apples each. Then ask them the same question. In economics and finance many things can not be proven, so to tell you what QE will do for a fact can't be said, you can only be told theories. There are to many variables. "The 529 plan does outline your scenarios. There are stipulations for providing the funds should the child get the scholarship. If the child decides not to go into further education (vocational and community schools count), the money can be withdrawn with a 10% penalty and taxes paid on interest earnings. Taxes wouldn't have to be paid for contributions as taxes were already paid on that money by the gift giver. The 529 could also be transferred to another child in the family (including grandchildren).  Here's an excerpt from www.savingforcollege.com: You'll never lose all of your savings. A 529 plan offers tax-free earnings and tax-free withdrawals as long as the money is used to pay   for college. If you end up taking a non-qualified withdrawal, you'll   incur income tax as well as a 10% penalty - but only on the earnings   portion of the withdrawal. Since your contributions were made with   after-tax money, they will never be taxed or penalized. You can avoid the penalty if you get a scholarship. There are a few special exceptions to the 10% penalty rule, including when the   beneficiary becomes incapacitated, attends a U.S. Military Academy or   gets a scholarship. In the case of a scholarship, non-qualified   withdrawals up to the amount of the tax-free scholarship can be taken   out penalty-free, but you'll have to pay income tax on the earnings.   As Savingforcollege.com founder Joe Hurley likes to say, ""the   scholarships have turned your tax-free 529 investment into a   tax-deferred 529 investment"". Note, a 529 is ideal for the sum of money you are looking at. A proper trust, set up by a lawyer, will cost as much as $2000 to set up, and would require an annual tax return, both unnecessary burdens. To make matters worse, the trust counts as the child's asset where financial aid is concerned. The 529 counts, but to a much lesser extent."