It's never to early to plan for retirement, even for your baby - three steps to show you how

Let’s get this this right, retirement is something everyone looks forward to -three simple words, no more work. One day I picked up a my little brother (the boy I used to baby sit but that’s what I call him) from school. I asked him how school was and he immediately said I can’t wait till I retire. From the mouths of babes people. Voya Retirement Readiness has given me the itch to start saving for my little one.

For me I always feel like I want to plan for Hazel’s future. I want to make sure she will be financially secure with little to no debt. So I guess that means I need to start now. Voya Born to Save conducted a survey asking parents how much they think they overspent on items they thought their baby needed. These things included clothing, diapers, toys, and all that baby furniture. The results are in and above is what they found.

So let’s talk about how we can put away money for these cute little people

Budget: When budgeting your checkbook every month set aside $10 for each child and put it in an account for them. $10 may not seem like much now, but in a year’s time you will have $120 put away.

Sell your unused toys: You know those toys that your baby doesn’t play with anymore because she is too big now, or she’s just plain bored with them? Sell them and put the money you make from them into an account for her!

They don’t need it: Remember all those extra clothes you have just laying around because your baby grew out of everything too fast? Or the multiple number of shoes he doesn’t wear? If you don’t think you’ll use it, and if you’ve already got enough don’t buy it. Instead put that money you would have used into an account for them!

Saving can seem so tough at times -especially with the holidays in full swing, but never fear, all it takes is one step at a time. Saving money for your little ones might just become your number one investment.

If your child was born October 19, 2015 you have the ability to receive a $500 investment from Voya. Registration deadline is December 19th so make sure to enter!