ASPIRE Act/KIDS Accounts

The purpose of the accounts, says Reid Cramer, director of the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation, is to get people invested in their future.  ...

What if every child started out in life with his or her own personal savings program for college, for first-time home purchases and for retirement?

A savings program started at birth has more years to earn and accumulate interest, resulting in a bigger nest egg through time. Granting every child such an opportunity would result in broader and more equal ownership of savings and capital for each citizen. Such widespread capital ownership would empower and liberate every American in their personal… more

What does the bill do? Why is a bill to promote asset building for children necessary? Who is eligible? Will illegal immigrants or children who become citizens get accounts? Will children born before the bill takes effect get accounts? Why do wealthy people get these accounts? Why do poor people who don't pay taxes get accounts? Is it unrealistic to expect those with low incomes to save when they already struggle to get by? How

Title of the Bill

The America Saving for Personal Investment, Retirement, and Education Act of 2009 ("The ASPIRE Act of 2009")

Purpose of the Bill 

To encourage savings, promote financial literacy, and expand opportunities for young adults by establishing a Lifetime Savings Account for every newborn child.

Lifetime Savings Accounts

Introduction/Background

In recent years, the role that savings and assets play in shaping people's lives has increasingly captured the attention of researchers, policy analysts and elected officials. Their interest in savings and building wealth has grown along with an increased awareness of specific policy tools and interventions, such as matched savings accounts available for lower-income workers. The launch of the SEED Initiative in October 2003 was an important marker in this process because it introduced the

...Analyst Ray Boshara of the New America Foundation also thinks that the stock market remains a key to boosting our future standard of living. Here's why: Unless rising Asia becomes disappearing Asia, excess global labor supply will continue to push down hard on wages. "We are not going back to the 1950s," Boshara says. "The return from labor has been diminishing. Families have to earn income not just from a job but from assets."

But rather than Social Security privatization, Boshara is a proponent of "baby bonds."… more

Concerned about the nation's poor savings rate, lawmakers such as Sen. Hillary Clinton have been talking about getting the government directly involved in establishing savings accounts for children.

The New York senator caused a stir last month when she said she would like to see every newborn receive a $5,000 bond that could be used later for college or a home purchase. Her remarks drew derision, and she has since backed away from that idea. About 4 million babies are… more

At a recent campaign stop with the Congressional Black Caucus, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said, “I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account.”

That was enough to generate a few headlines and some right-wing outrage. The Drudge Report was quick to tweak one of its favorite targets and drive some Internet traffic with a bold banner, “A Bond for Every Bassinet.”

The conservative Washington Times and New York Post blasted the idea within 24… more

Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, has a curious new idea -- or, more precisely, an old one. No longer will it use wads of Chinese cash recycled through Wall Street to make subprime loans to unqualified borrowers. Instead, it will take in deposits from small savers and lend them out to people who might actually repay them -- just like that humble thrift institution president George Bailey did in It’s a Wonderful Life.

Imagine: a bank that promotes thrift!… more