How do you get started with a Trump account? Or, if you hate Trump, “tax-advantaged investment accounts for newborn children.”

Investing is often scary to people. They say, and I have no way to corroborate this assertion, that 50% of Americans have no exposure to American equities. This new account changes that. Now, qualifying newborns will have exposure to American equities if their parents sign them up.

Never be “short” America, despite the doomsayers. This is not rocket science, and you don’t need an MBA from a prestigious institution to be excellent at this.

Here is how it all works:

Parents file IRS Form 4547 with their 2025 tax return. That’s it. The form tells Treasury to open the account and deposit the $1,000.

Already 600,000 families have signed up since tax season started Monday. Treasury expects 25 million to participate eventually.

Can’t file taxes now? No problem. An online portal launches at trumpaccounts.gov by summer 2026. You can register there instead.

The most you can contribute in any one year is $5000. It can come from anyone and anywhere.

The big question everyone has is how do you invest it?

This is where stuff often gets scary to people. They overthink it. Should they play it safe and just do Government treasuries? You won’t lose, but one of the reasons social security is in such a mess is that it invests in government securities. You’d do better investing on your own!

Behavioral economists have shown people like “optionality”. A little of this, a little of that. People don’t like to make decisions. In this case, you want to make a decision, and you want to put the entire chunk all on one bet. American equities in an index. This is not a cafeteria buffet.

Here is what to remember about yourself. You are human. You are hard-wired to react faster to bad news than good news. It has to do with the “flight-or-fight” part of your brain necessary for survival.

Emotional investors have a rough time investing. What you want to do is step back and be objective. You want to create an artificial edge for yourself. How do you do that?

Put the power of compound interest on your side. Put math and statistical probability on your side. Put 65 years of research and data on your side so you can sleep at night. If the market falls out of bed, it won’t matter.

Some background. Eugene Fama is a Nobel Prize-winning economist. In 1962, he wrote a paper about efficient market theory, and he has been refining it ever since. People have twisted that theory into a pretzel because they think they can beat the market. Statistics prove his theory. For every one person who beats the market, there are thousands that do not.

Remember why they cannot. It’s because they don’t have the time, wherewithal, or technology on their side. If you have a life, you cannot beat the market.

Fama shows why they can’t. Significantly, Warren Buffett has advised people the same thing I am going to tell you right now. Investment pros know why they beat the market. They can create an artificial edge for themselves. Even Buffett does that.

For most people, you cannot create that edge. You have lives.

Buffett says, “Every dollar matters. Every dollar you put into the market is a soldier working for you.” I concur. The thing to do is just be consistent over time. Don’t worry about the amount. Do what is comfortable for YOU.

You have bills. You have other things to save for. Hence, the dollar amount you put in is not going to be the same as everyone else’s. Don’t worry about it. You can still get the benefits of compounding. The important thing is to save.

This isn’t magic. It’s not hocus pocus. It is just being disciplined and boring.

The first step is to generate income. That comes from your labor. Then save more than you normally do. That might mean cutting back on some things. My wife and I lived below our income level our entire lives and socked away money. It’s how you can create that edge for yourself.

When we were first married, we couldn’t afford to go out for our wedding anniversary. We delivered flowers on Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day for a flower shop to earn enough to be able to afford to go out. Sure, we had professional jobs. My wife was a top salesperson for a pharmaceutical firm, and I was clerking on the trading floor. But, we were paying a mortgage, were saving for kids, and doing what was necessary to build a life for ourselves. You aren’t any different.

Take this opportunity and seize it.

For your child, you have the ability now to give them a huge advantage besides a Trump account. Marc Andreessen describes it here. Google Gemini is rolling out stuff for academic achievement. No longer will you be beholden to what happens inside a schoolroom, and you won’t have to worry about paying for a special tutor. It’s at your fingertips.

This online thing works. I invested in Brilliant years ago. If you were on that platform and did well, odds were good you were recruited for a high-paying job. Your child today can utilize free tools to make their life better.

The Trump account is a free tool. A free ticket.

Next, put some money in that Trump Account. You already have $1000 or more from people who have donated. Here is a handy bankrate calculator. You can play with the numbers and see what will happen.

• In the first box, enter $1000. It’s the base case, but in some states or zip codes, there is already more.

• In the next box, enter the number 18. At age 18, you can spend it or roll it over into an IRA. It all depends on the situation, but remember, soldiers who are spent cannot fight for you in the future.

• Input a rate of return for the next box. 8% is a good conservative estimate of what the S&P 500 will do over time. You are going to invest in a no-fee S+P 500 index fund from one of the big guys like Vanguard. It doesn’t matter which broker you use or which intermediary. The only thing that matters is that you choose an index that replicates the S&P 500. Dividends get reinvested, so that adds to your return. If you want to split it between the QQQ 0.00%↑ and $SPY, that is fine too.

• Next, put in the amount you will invest monthly. Why monthly? It smooths out investing. You never buy the high, but you never buy the low. Investors call this “dollar cost averaging”. It’s powerful. You are creating an edge for yourself.

• At the bottom, the interest will compound annually. That means yearly.

Here is where it gets fun. Assume an 8% rate of return and a monthly investment of $50. Do it for 60 years. You will have $853k. You will have contributed $37,000 to the account and generated gains of $816k.

Powerful! Play with the numbers where you are comfortable. Always use $1000, and always use 8%. Obviously, more per month or less per month will generate more or less money at the end. But you can see the carrot that is in front of you.

There are plenty of brokers who will assist you. Download an app to your phone. Follow the instructions on linking and go. Robinhood, Schwab, Interactive Brokers, Fidelity, eTrade are all good. I have used them all.

Invest. Win. Buy America. Now is your chance.

Follow me on X @pointsnfigures1 or go to my other website.

How do you get started with a Trump account? Or, if you hate Trump, “tax-advantaged investment accounts for newborn children.”

Investing is often scary to people. They say, and I have no way to corroborate this assertion, that 50% of Americans have no exposure to American equities. This new account changes that. Now, qualifying newborns will have exposure to American equities if their parents sign them up.

Never be “short” America, despite the doomsayers. This is not rocket science, and you don’t need an MBA from a prestigious institution to be excellent at this.

Here is how it all works:

Parents file IRS Form 4547 with their 2025 tax return. That’s it. The form tells Treasury to open the account and deposit the $1,000.

Already 600,000 families have signed up since tax season started Monday. Treasury expects 25 million to participate eventually.

Can’t file taxes now? No problem. An online portal launches at trumpaccounts.gov by summer 2026. You can register there instead.

The most you can contribute in any one year is $5000. It can come from anyone and anywhere.

The big question everyone has is how do you invest it?

This is where stuff often gets scary to people. They overthink it. Should they play it safe and just do Government treasuries? You won’t lose, but one of the reasons social security is in such a mess is that it invests in government securities. You’d do better investing on your own!

Behavioral economists have shown people like “optionality”. A little of this, a little of that. People don’t like to make decisions. In this case, you want to make a decision, and you want to put the entire chunk all on one bet. American equities in an index. This is not a cafeteria buffet.

Here is what to remember about yourself. You are human. You are hard-wired to react faster to bad news than good news. It has to do with the “flight-or-fight” part of your brain necessary for survival.

Emotional investors have a rough time investing. What you want to do is step back and be objective. You want to create an artificial edge for yourself. How do you do that?

Put the power of compound interest on your side. Put math and statistical probability on your side. Put 65 years of research and data on your side so you can sleep at night. If the market falls out of bed, it won’t matter.

Some background. Eugene Fama is a Nobel Prize-winning economist. In 1962, he wrote a paper about efficient market theory, and he has been refining it ever since. People have twisted that theory into a pretzel because they think they can beat the market. Statistics prove his theory. For every one person who beats the market, there are thousands that do not.

Remember why they cannot. It’s because they don’t have the time, wherewithal, or technology on their side. If you have a life, you cannot beat the market.

Fama shows why they can’t. Significantly, Warren Buffett has advised people the same thing I am going to tell you right now. Investment pros know why they beat the market. They can create an artificial edge for themselves. Even Buffett does that.

For most people, you cannot create that edge. You have lives.

Buffett says, “Every dollar matters. Every dollar you put into the market is a soldier working for you.” I concur. The thing to do is just be consistent over time. Don’t worry about the amount. Do what is comfortable for YOU.

You have bills. You have other things to save for. Hence, the dollar amount you put in is not going to be the same as everyone else’s. Don’t worry about it. You can still get the benefits of compounding. The important thing is to save.

This isn’t magic. It’s not hocus pocus. It is just being disciplined and boring.

The first step is to generate income. That comes from your labor. Then save more than you normally do. That might mean cutting back on some things. My wife and I lived below our income level our entire lives and socked away money. It’s how you can create that edge for yourself.

When we were first married, we couldn’t afford to go out for our wedding anniversary. We delivered flowers on Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day for a flower shop to earn enough to be able to afford to go out. Sure, we had professional jobs. My wife was a top salesperson for a pharmaceutical firm, and I was clerking on the trading floor. But, we were paying a mortgage, were saving for kids, and doing what was necessary to build a life for ourselves. You aren’t any different.

Take this opportunity and seize it.

For your child, you have the ability now to give them a huge advantage besides a Trump account. Marc Andreessen describes it here. Google Gemini is rolling out stuff for academic achievement. No longer will you be beholden to what happens inside a schoolroom, and you won’t have to worry about paying for a special tutor. It’s at your fingertips.

This online thing works. I invested in Brilliant years ago. If you were on that platform and did well, odds were good you were recruited for a high-paying job. Your child today can utilize free tools to make their life better.

The Trump account is a free tool. A free ticket.

Next, put some money in that Trump Account. You already have $1000 or more from people who have donated. Here is a handy bankrate calculator. You can play with the numbers and see what will happen.

• In the first box, enter $1000. It’s the base case, but in some states or zip codes, there is already more.

• In the next box, enter the number 18. At age 18, you can spend it or roll it over into an IRA. It all depends on the situation, but remember, soldiers who are spent cannot fight for you in the future.

• Input a rate of return for the next box. 8% is a good conservative estimate of what the S&P 500 will do over time. You are going to invest in a no-fee S+P 500 index fund from one of the big guys like Vanguard. It doesn’t matter which broker you use or which intermediary. The only thing that matters is that you choose an index that replicates the S&P 500. Dividends get reinvested, so that adds to your return. If you want to split it between the QQQ 0.00%↑ and $SPY, that is fine too.

• Next, put in the amount you will invest monthly. Why monthly? It smooths out investing. You never buy the high, but you never buy the low. Investors call this “dollar cost averaging”. It’s powerful. You are creating an edge for yourself.

• At the bottom, the interest will compound annually. That means yearly.

Here is where it gets fun. Assume an 8% rate of return and a monthly investment of $50. Do it for 60 years. You will have $853k. You will have contributed $37,000 to the account and generated gains of $816k.

Powerful! Play with the numbers where you are comfortable. Always use $1000, and always use 8%. Obviously, more per month or less per month will generate more or less money at the end. But you can see the carrot that is in front of you.

There are plenty of brokers who will assist you. Download an app to your phone. Follow the instructions on linking and go. Robinhood, Schwab, Interactive Brokers, Fidelity, eTrade are all good. I have used them all.

Invest. Win. Buy America. Now is your chance.

Follow me on X @pointsnfigures1 or go to my other website.