Capitalism works.
Michael and Susan Dell, who are preparing to give away $6.25 billion, prove it. The Dells plan to provide $250 to 25 million American children age 10 and under who won’t qualify for the new “Trump accounts” – the $1,000 investment accounts the Treasury Department will create for every child born between 2025 and 2028 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
On top of that, they’ll match the government’s $1,000 deposits for children of Dell Technologies employees.
Dell says he’s initially targeting ZIP codes with median household incomes under $150,000 and expects to reach roughly 80% of U.S. kids in that age group. Many children here in West Virginia would qualify either under the Trump plan or the Dell allocation.
Yes, the Dells may receive a tax benefit from this. Fine. What matters far more is the long-term effect: seeding investment accounts gives kids a roadmap into adulthood – a start that teaches them, not guarantees success, leaving the pursuit of happiness where it belongs. With them.
Put that money in low-cost index funds as planned – if you listen to Talkline at all you know of my love for index funds – and it will compound again and again over time.
Frankly, our education system should seize this moment to teach basic personal finance. An opportunity like this should not be squandered. Kids don’t need a Ph.D. in economics to understand the fundamentals: save early, avoid debt traps, live within your means, and let compound interest do the heavy lifting. There’s no more valuable a lesson to teach when studies show anywhere from one-third to nearly half of Americans have zero retirement savings.
Once you see a kid get it, you understand.
My wife and I were the “different” aunt and uncle. Truth: I’m different, she’s perfectly lovely.
Before having kids of our own, we bought shares of stock for our nieces and nephews instead of toys. They loved the fake stock certificates generated with all the editing panache PowerPoint could muster. Would Vanderbilt have bought them as genuine? Probably not, but my favorite six-year old at the time did.
Our oldest nephew – now a college freshman as much as we all wish he was still six – has a real eye for business and personal finance. He noticed early that his portfolio kept growing even when the stock gifts only came a few times a year. That growth lit a fire under him. He started investing his own money earned from mowing lawns, washing cars or whatever service he could dream to offer. A born hustler; I love that about him. Today, he’s building that portfolio on his own.
Trump accounts, and gifts like the Dells’, can do the same for millions of children. For some, they may even be the catalyst that breaks a cycle of generational poverty.
At a time when many want this country to march down a more socialistic path, examples like this remind us where America’s real strength lies.
Good on the Dells, and good on the many others who choose to give back a portion of what America enabled them to earn. Better they direct their money toward opportunity than see it consumed at a higher tax rate for redistribution or government programs beyond a reasonable scope.
What’s more, maybe there’s a bonus silver lining: a demonstration that investing in children at the beginning of their lives is far more powerful than relying on government to be the end-all, be-all at the end of those lives.
When government steps back… when people are allowed to keep more of what they make… this is what happens: generosity, opportunity, and real people doing real good, without bureaucracy, without waste, and without waiting on Washington to fix every problem.