By Jeremy Saltzberg, Vice President at Check Capital
As financial advisors, we spend our days engaged in the intellectual rigor of analyzing companies, reviewing asset allocation, coordinating cash transfers between accounts, and calculating investment returns. We live in a world of data, discipline, and long-term investment horizons. But recently, my horizon expanded in a way that no spreadsheet could ever fully capture.
My wife and I recently welcomed our second child—Sofia, a beautiful baby girl—into the world. She joins her big brother, Jack, who is now two and a half years old.
There’s something profound about holding a newborn baby: It reveals a world of unwritten potential in the same way that a blank canvas represents infinite possibilities before an artist applies the first brushstroke. The late nights (and very early mornings) provide plenty of quiet time for reflection. You suddenly become acutely aware that your own time on this planet is finite. You realize that the greatest asset you possess isn’t in an investment portfolio; it’s the time you have with your loved ones and the legacy you leave behind when that time runs out.
At Check Capital, we constantly preach the virtues of patience and the miraculous power of compound interest. We remind clients that “time in the market” is a necessary ingredient to achieving significant long-term investment returns. Becoming a father of two has galvanized this belief for me personally. I realized the greatest financial gift I could give my children wasn’t just financial security, but autonomy and optionality—the freedom to someday pursue their passions without necessarily being tethered to a paycheck or pressured to choose a career path simply because it pays more than another field of work.
Therefore, my wife and I made the decision to open a custodial investment account for each child on the very day they were born. Jack has a two-and-a-half-year head start; Sofia’s journey recently began. Starting at birth gives compounding the greatest possible advantage, as small sums of money can grow into meaningful dollar amounts over the course of decades.
Defining the Goal: Liberty, Not Just Liquidity
What is this money for? It’s tempting to label these accounts “College Funds”, but I view them as an opportunity to introduce and instill long-term values. One of my goals as a parent is to teach my children how to think about money—not just how to earn it, but how to save it, invest it, and ultimately spend it wisely. Financial literacy is rarely taught formally, yet it plays a central role in shaping life outcomes. Introducing these concepts early, in an age-appropriate way, can demystify investing and foster confidence rather than intimidation.
Additionally, when my children reach adulthood in a couple of decades, the world will be quite different than it is today. It’s possible they’ll choose to use their savings to help fund a traditional university path after they graduate from high school. Or perhaps their path will be different in that they decide to use their savings for either a business venture or the means to take a “gap year” to travel the globe and gain perspectives beyond what can be learned in a classroom textbook.
The purpose of these accounts isn’t to fund a specific purchase; it’s to fund optionality. We want to provide them with the liberty to pursue their dreams and aspirations—whatever those may turn out to be—unencumbered by immediate financial pressure.
Teaching Capitalism Through “Choo-Choo Chains”
While the ultimate long-term goal is freedom, the immediate shorter-term goal is education. I want these accounts to serve as a living laboratory where my children can learn the proper way to think about savings, ownership and value.
The challenge, of course, is explaining equity ownership to a toddler. The solution? Make the abstract concrete.
I decided to populate their initial portfolios with companies they already love and interact with. Someday, I want them to understand that a stock ticker isn’t just blinking lights on a screen; it represents part ownership in a real business that exists in the physical world they inhabit.
For example, my son Jack is currently obsessed with toy trains, which he affectionately calls “choo-choo chains” because pronouncing the letter ‘T’ remains a charming work in progress. To honor this passion, one of the very first holdings we put in his account is Union Pacific Railroad (Ticker: UNP). Fairly soon, I’ll be able to explain to him that the trains he loves so dearly play an essential part in moving goods from one side of the country to the other and that he owns a small part of this business providing vital support to the American economy.
We also live within a two-hundred-yard walk from a Marriott hotel. Jack loves getting outside and riding his training-wheels bicycle with me to this Marriott Hotel because he likes to play with the decorative rocks at the grand entrance and, much to the hotel staff’s amusement, insists on sampling the complimentary fruit-infused water in the lobby each time we visit. Someday, I want him to know he owns a very small sliver of the hotel he used to frequent as a toddler. So we bought him some Marriott stock (Ticker: MAR) to commemorate the occasion.
And like many tired parents, my wife and I frequent Starbucks, fueling up on caffeine to help us stay awake through the late nights. Jack has developed a taste for stealing sips of our drinks and even points out the green siren logo when we’re driving in the car. We therefore added Starbucks (Ticker: SBUX) stock to his portfolio, so when he visits a Starbucks café as a teenager, he can pay for his Frappuccino with his Starbucks dividend payments accumulated over the years.
From Toys to Intrinsic Value
Right now, Jack is more excited to play with and build long trains than he is to “own trains”. But as he grows, these fun examples will serve as the foundation for serious, ongoing financial conversations we’ll have about financial responsibility, opportunity and patience.
As both children grow older, we won’t just talk about the “choo-choo chains” anymore. We’ll talk about Union Pacific’s irreplaceable 32,200 miles of owned railroad track that grants them a massive competitive moat precisely because it can’t be replicated. We’ll talk about Marriott’s asset-light business model, digital reservation system, and global stable of well-known brands they operate, including The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Westin, and JW Marriott hotels. We’ll also talk about Starbucks’ pricing power, their 40,000 stores in 88 different countries, and customer loyalty.
The strategy starts with their present-day interests but will evolve into the timeless approach of buying high-quality, enduring businesses that generate real cash flow and holding them for the long haul to create wealth. I want them to learn that real wealth isn’t typically built by trading pieces of paper back and forth quickly; it’s built by patiently owning profitable enterprises for decades.
Earlier this morning, Jack and I were building elaborate multi-color train sets with tunnels, bridges and railway crossings. But tomorrow, I hope I’m teaching both of my children discipline, patience, the importance of cash flows, and the psychological mindset required to be a successful long-term investor.
I consider it the privilege of a lifetime to help our clients manage their wealth and secure their own financial aspirations, including retirement, philanthropic giving, and/or funding a grandchild’s college tuition. But it’s a different kind of privilege to start that process for the two little ones living under my own roof. While our time on this planet is finite, what we build, teach and pass on doesn’t have to be!