Congratulations.
You've just welcomed into the world a new child and all of the associated hopes for your child's dreams and aspirations are present.
You wonder though, in addition to immeasurable amounts of your love and patience, what else can you, or even your parents, provide for the newly-arrived little one in your life?
Being a forward-thinking mum or dad with an ultra-long-term outlook, you wonder about your child's financial future. What will their employment prospects be, their income stability, and how will housing affordability affect their ability to eventually find a home of their own?
For most parents today, there are enough financial pressures already that concern you, with the general cost of living, mortgage repayments, and your child's education to name just three.
However, if you're able to save even a small amount of money on a regular monthly basis for the duration of their childhood, you'll hopefully have built enough capital to put to work for your kids.
But, where do you start?
In my opinion, three good candidate companies for your child's portfolio include:
XERO FPO NZ (ASX: XRO) has remarkable growth opportunities despite the already-stellar growth it has experienced in New Zealand, Australia and the UK.
Xero provides an online accounting platform for small businesses, but is increasingly diversifying its offering away from accounting and is becoming more of an online portal for everything small-business related (think invoicing, payroll, bank reconciliation, inventory, and so on).
Xero has also established a presence in the US, but faces stiff competitive pressure from the likes of Intuit Inc, which is in the process of moving many of its customers online.
However, Xero doesn't need to 'win' the market and will probably do quite nicely with a market share somewhat less than that of Intuit.
If Xero can execute its business strategy over the next several years, the prospects for investors look increasingly bright, albeit with a high level of risk.
Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) is a manufacturer and distributor of cochlear implantable devices for people with moderate to profound hearing loss.
Cochlear was listed in 1995 and, due to robust revenue and profit growth over the last 21 years, has grown it share price from an adjusted $1.62 at the IPO to $104.70 as at the market close on 19 April 2016 (21.96% pa).
According to Chris Smith, Cochlear's newly appointed CEO, the hearing loss market offers Cochlear an incredible business opportunity with over 360 million people worldwide experiencing disabling hearing loss.
With guidance providing for net profit growth for the next year of 23% to 30%, the business fundamentals remain intact and its impressive record is likely to continue in the years ahead.
WAM Capital Limited (ASX: WAM) is a listed investment company that provides investors exposure to an actively managed diversified portfolio of undervalued growth companies.
The advantage with WAM Capital is that the management team is headed by Geoff Wilson who has demonstrated a return to investors that has consistently outperformed the S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index, with investment returns of 17.9% pa compared to the Index of 7.8% since August 1999.
WAM Capital would suit a parent wanting to invest for their child given management's long-term outlook to the allocation of capital, its stellar record and its diversification.
Foolish takeaway
The message, quite simply, is to save and invest money for your kids wisely. In doing so, you'll give them every opportunity to have a successful financial start to adult life where the heavy lifting, hopefully, will have been achieved by your chosen investments.
