The Gift That Keeps on Growing: Betterment Gift Registry

One of my favorite online investment companies (Betterment) just launched a feature called Betterment Gifts.  It’s a way for you to set up an online gift registry that others can contribute to.  The best part about the gift registry is that your account is invested just like your other Betterment goals, so it’s able to grow over time.

Think about it like this – if you are planning on getting married and want to save up for a down payment on a house, wouldn’t it be nice if others were able to contribute to it?  Instead of buying the typical knife set or newest kitchen gadget, your friends and relatives could contribute to the gift account that you’ve set up and contribute to your savings goal.

The Betterment Gifts platform can be used for any goal, not just weddings.  If you have kids and want to make it really easy for relatives to send a gift for their college fund or to pay for a musical instrument, set up a Betterment Gift account so that their money is invested and works toward your goal.

How to Set Up a Betterment Gift Registry

Just go to http://gifts.betterment.com and click “Create a Registry.”  From there, you can either log in to your Betterment account or create a brand new Betterment account by typing in your email address, name, and a password. If you are a brand new customer, you will complete the Betterment account setup after you create your registry. You can then add a date and location for your gift registry as well as a photo to customize your page.

That’s it!

Send your URL to friends and relatives explaining what you’re saving for (college, anniversary, wedding, new baby) and explain that they can help contribute toward it through your gift registry.

There aren’t any transactions fees for you or the person giving the gift and they can pay with a credit card or debit card.  The only fee associated with the account is the normal 0.15 – 0.35% asset management fee for the funds within your investment account (any investment account will have these kinds of fees – Betterment is very reasonable when it comes to this).

Get Started With Betterment Gifts

Here is a sample registry that shows what your account will look like once it’s set up.  Getting started is really easy – you can open your Betterment account for free too!

How would you use a Betterment Gifts registry?