Saving money for your children's futures is one of the most generous things you can do as a parent. Saving up a lot of cash for a decade or two is great, but you could make that money work harder if it were invested in shares.
However, I don't think it makes sense to buy shares that you might want to sell during that time. It also shouldn't be too risky – you don't want your child's shares to go up in smoke.
That's why these two choices could be good ideas:
Future Generation Global Investment Co Ltd (ASX: FGG)
One of my favourite ideas would be to invest in businesses looking to improve the lives of young people.
This listed investment company (LIC) is a 'fund of funds', meaning it invests in other funds – the best overseas-focused Australian fund managers.
The good thing is that there are no management fees or outperformance fees. The only real cost to shareholders is a 1% donation of NTA per annum to charities focused on youth mental health.
But, it's actually performing strongly. Over the past year the overall portfolio has returned 25.7% before donations and taxes, outperforming the MSCI AC World Index (AUD) by 2.8%.
It would be quite possible for this idea to be someone's only portfolio holding considering the underlying portfolios are so diversified.
Vanguard MSCI Index International Shares ETF (ASX: VGS)
Anyone will do well by investing in a simple, low-cost index fund and holding it for the long-term. It's a great example of how good wealth can be created with simple wealth.
This Vanguard index invests in the global share market. It is highly diversified with nearly 1,600 holdings.
It has a very low management fee cost of 0.18% per year and its top holdings include all the exciting global tech growth shares such as Amazon, Alphabet (Google) and Facebook.
You may not think a simple index is capable of delivering strong returns, but it has returned 14.20% per annum returns since inception in November 2014.
Foolish takeaway
I'm drawn to the idea of Future Generation due to its philanthropic nature and also the possibility of outperformance without the additional fees. I'd be happy to buy shares at the current price.
