1974: Ask Farnoosh: The Truth About Trump Accounts, a Wealth Hack for Kids and Estate Planning Made Simple

**Farnoosh Torabi** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:35)
You're listening to So Money with award-winning money guru Farnoosh Torabi. Each day, get a 30-minute dose of financial inspiration from the world's top business minds, authors, influencers, and from Farnoosh herself.
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**Farnoosh Torabi** (1:02)
Welcome to So Money, everybody. I'm Farnoosh Torabi, April 24th, 2026
It's Ask Farnoosh Friday, and today we have questions about what the heck is a Trump account? You know what? To be honest, I had avoided the topic and everyone was asking. So I looked under the hood, and I'm actually, you know, I got to say that I feel like it's being oversold a bit, but I think I might open one up for both of my kids. And I know what you're going to say, but I have a strategy and I'm really excited about it. And I'm going to tell you what it is. So hang tight, but lots more until then. We're also going to talk about a quick and dirty estate plan. So this came up this week where I was doing a podcast with my friend Lindsay Stanberry. She's the creator of The Purse. It's this incredible substack you've got to subscribe. It's this phenomenal, wonderfully layered, in-depth, well-reported substack on family and finances. Okay, so Lindsay Stanberry, she's this seasoned financial journalist who started this substack. And she and I did a podcast together this week, not on So Money, but on her podcast, which is coming out soon, on money and families and kids. And also then we talked about estate planning. And she was like, give me sort of the quick and dirty on how to estate plan. And really like, what do I need in case of an emergency? Like, what if there is a worst-case scenario? What should I have set aside for my family in terms of a will and life insurance and all the things? So I thought I would bring that to us today because I have it. I know what the go-bag is now. The go-bag, you know, but it's not really a go-bag. But it's really like the things that you want to have, the checklist. And you could probably assemble this, about 50% of it this weekend. But I'm going to get that to you later on in the show.
I also want to share a quick story, and I'm going to share that right now, because I'm going to boomerang back to it later when I talk about some of the news this week. But my son, okay, in the car this week, we were driving around and, you know, all of our grandparents, their grandparents, are still alive and well, knock on wood. And he's 11, my son. And he said to me, kind of out of the blue, he said, Mom, quick question. So, you know, Mimi and Gigi and grandparents, they don't work. But like, how do they pay for things? Cute question. And, you know, I live for these questions. I sat up in shotgun seat and I said, okay, here we go. So I said, Evan, they are in retirement. And when you work from age 20 or 25 or whatever it is until you retire, which is usually like these days in your sixties, you are supposed to save a portion of your income every single year. Okay. And I, you know me, I always tell people save, save, save. And this is why. So you save a fraction of your money, every single paycheck and you put it in an investment account. You want to invest it so it'll grow faster. And then hopefully when you retire, all of this money is waiting for you when you retire. And then you don't have to worry about working anymore. And you got to budget that money in like every month, give yourself a piece of it and live off that. And I said, additionally, there's this thing called social security.
It's a tax out of every paycheck. The government saves that money for you, hopefully, and gives it sort of back to you or some of that back to you when you retire. I think I'm going to give him all the details about it, but high level. And that's also something that you get. So combine that with your money and that's your retirement money. And he goes, oh, okay, got you.