One of my favorite online investment companies, Betterment, recently launched a feature called Betterment Gifts. It’s a way for you to set up an online gift registry that others can contribute to. The best part about the gift registry is that your account is invested just like your other Betterment goals, so it’s able to grow over time.
Think about it like this – if you are planning on getting married and want to save up for a down payment on a house, wouldn’t it be nice if others were able to contribute to it? Instead of buying the typical knife set or newest kitchen gadget, your friends and relatives could contribute to the gift account that you’ve set up and contribute to your savings goal.
The Betterment Gifts platform can be used for any goal, not just weddings. If you have kids and want to make it really easy for relatives to send a gift for their college fund or to pay for a musical instrument, set up a Betterment Gift account so that their money is invested and works toward your goal.
How to Set Up a Betterment Gift Registry
Just go to Gifts.Betterment.com and click “Create Your Registry.” From there, you can either log in to your Betterment account or create a brand new Betterment account by typing in your email address, name, and a password. If you are a brand new customer, you will complete the Betterment account setup after you create your registry. You can then add a date and location for your gift registry as well as a photo to customize your page. That’s it!
Send your URL to friends and relatives explaining what you’re saving for (college, anniversary, wedding, or a new baby) and explain that they can help contribute toward it through your gift registry.
There aren’t any transactions fees for you or the person giving the gift and they can pay with a credit card or debit card. The only fee associated with the account is the normal 0.15 – 0.35% asset management fee for the funds within your investment account (any investment account will have these kinds of fees – Betterment is very reasonable when it comes to this).
Get Started with Betterment Gifts
Here is a sample registry that shows what your account will look like once it’s set up. Getting started is really easy – you can open your Betterment account for free too!
How would you use a Betterment Gifts registry? Leave a comment!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, that’s a really unique and cool feature. I’ve heard of honeymoon places doing this, but never investing companies. Too bad I got married 2 years ago, I would’ve definitely opened one of these up. I wish we would’ve gotten more cash than gifts anyways and this would probably persuade more to give cash.
This is just one of those things that rubs me the wrong way. Gifts from friends and family are a nice way for them to celebrate your milestones with you. These life events should not be used as a way to extort money from your loved ones, or con them into paying for your house, car or honeymoon. If you want to purchase a new home, SAVE money for your down payment. If you can’t afford to go on a lavish honeymoon, go somewhere else! If cash is the gift THEY choose, that is fine, but I think it is incredibly rude to expect others to contribute any money at all to your wishlist. The whole concept is tasteless, and I would NEVER contribute to something like this. I’ll hand embroider a pillow case that will never get any use before I will pony up cash on demand.
Why does that bother you so much? How is it any different than creating a registry and expecting people to buy you gifts for your house and such? Is it fine to list the 100 some dollar China Set on your registry that will get used only once a year.
Aren’t these events used to get those types of gifts. Especially baby showers. Why do people have baby showers? It is to get the baby gifts.
I much prefer money because I would rather put it into a house or something of value that I will use rather than get a bunch of things I do not need like 80 different bowls and 6 blenders and all that stuff. Is it the money idea that upsets you or the gift giving at events?
Another great way to give people the opportunity to pay it forward. Just follow your heart and Jesus Christ and He will Bless you.
This is a great idea. I wish I had this when I got married. I much would have preffered money than a knife set or the the 6 different blenders that I received!