When I got married 10 years ago, honeymoon registries were becoming all the rage, much to the delight of some and the horror of others. The question was whether such a registry—in which guests are invited to pay for a romantic dinner or a zip-lining excursion—was brilliant or tacky.
Registries are, inherently, a way to direct loved ones to the specific gift you want or need. Stainless steel measuring cups, not plastic. The crib sheets with the elephants, not the rocket ships. You can register for wedding gifts, baby gifts and honeymoon experiences; you can even register to have loved ones contribute to your house downpayment fund.
And now, you can register your kid’s college savings.
I balked a tiny bit at this at first; preparing for the cost of my son’s college education is my responsibility. But with the days of the U.S. Savings Bond basically behind us (yes, you can still gift them and they are now mostly electronic, but still... a relic), a registry actually makes a lot of sense. Relatives who want to give a financial gift for a special occasion now have a more direct way to earmark that money specifically for college.
Start with your own institution
Some investment firms allow you to create personalized college giving pages that link directly to your child’s 529 account. T. Rowe Price’s “GoTuition Portal,” for example, allows customers to create a customized profile page that you can share via email or social media. Family and friends can donate directly through the giving page online or go old-school and mail in a contribution form. The site also provides a (rough) estimate on how much a contribution could grow over several years:
Other institutions, such as Fidelity, offer similar dashboards that parents can personalize, send to family and use to track gifts over time.
Use a gift registry site
If your institution doesn’t offer a personalized giving page (or if it’s not user-friendly), there are a couple of gift registry sites dedicated to college savings. Gift of College allows users to link their account to an existing 529 savings plan or a current student loan. This site also offers the unique option of trading in old gift cards you don’t want from more than 200 big-name merchants. In return, you get an e-gift card for Gift of College, which can be redeemed into your linked accounts.
Similarly, The Gift of Education also allows users to create a free gift registry that links to your 529 or other savings plan. On both sites, users can search a child’s name to find an existing registry or you can share a link to the page via email or social media. In all of these options, the giver won’t be able to see any sensitive information, such as account numbers or balances.
It might not be as exciting as a candlelit dinner for two on the beach, but it does beat holding onto that stack of paper savings bonds for a couple of decades.
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