This week’s Your Money column about the ins and outs of giving money as a gift to someone’s 529 college savings account wasn’t meant to be an etiquette lesson. But I do think giving money is totally defensible, even if it means pushing the parents to open a 529 or other savings account to use the gift.

Sure, toys are nice and clothes are useful until babies outgrow them in a few months. But many parents can afford the basics. All but a few families could use a head start on saving up the six-figure sum that will probably be necessary to send the child to college one day.

Have you given college money to a newborn? How did it go over with the parents?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/why-college-money-is-the-best-baby-gift/?partner=rss&emc=rss