I Wish Someone Had Told Me to Invest in My Child's Name

The day my daughter was born, I thought I did everything right. Called the relatives. Handed out sweets. Opened an FD "for her future".

What I didn't do was open a single account in her name. Not because I decided against it. Because nobody told me I could.

Saving for them, and saving in their name

For years I kept the money in my own mutual fund and told myself it was earmarked for her. Earmarked is not the same as hers.

I dipped into it once, for a car down payment. Temporarily, obviously. That is how earmarked money works — it stays earmarked until something else needs it more.

When the folio is in your child's name, something shifts. Taking money out becomes a decision you have to make deliberately, and most people don't make it. It compounds without interruption. And when they turn 18, it isn't a gift you hand over. It's already theirs.

What the delay cost

The same SIP, started four years later, doesn't just lose four years of contributions. It loses four of the years where compounding does the most work.

₹3.2 lakh. Not because I didn't care — because I didn't know.

Four years of not knowing cost roughly ₹3.2 lakh. Same money going out every month. Same fund. Only the start date was different.