I Put My Toddler on Payroll. Here's Why.

**Nicole Lapin** (0:00)
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Download Cash App today. Visit our link in bio, Bitcoin Services by Block Inc. See the bitcoin disclosures at cash.app slash legal slash podcast. Recently, I went to Atlanta for a conference. Long-time listeners will know that I got one of my first jobs as a baby reporter and anchor in Atlanta. A girl from LA completely on my own and it felt like the biggest adventure of my life. When I lived in Atlanta, I was a vegan. And one thing you don't know about Atlanta unless you've lived there, is that it has some of the best vegan food in the country. Vegan soul food, vegan tacos, vegan sushi, they have it all. Whenever I go back, I can remember that time in my life when everything felt possible. I wish I could go back in time and give that girl the biggest hug and tell her how much I love her. I also remember how worried she was about money. I don't carry that same fear anymore, but some habits stick and I still never turned down a little extra cash. That's why I list our space on Airbnb while we travel. It just makes me feel better to know that I am making a little extra money even while off adventuring myself. And what makes that idea feel much more manageable now is the co-host network. You can connect with a local co-host who has hosting experience and can help take care of the important details. A co-host can help create your listing, manage reservations and make sure everything runs smoothly for guests during their stay. Honestly, it just feels like a practical way to make better use of our space while also bringing in a little extra cash from time to time. Find a co-host at airbnb.com/host.
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I just want to make sure that he has more money than I did growing up. What are you doing for your daughter that I can do for him? Thank you. Love the pod, Lauren. Lauren, thank you so much. I love you. I love this question. I also have some questions for you and anyone else who has toddlers right now. Like first of all, where are they going? My daughter is constantly making a run for it. Is this normal? Where is she trying to go? Does she know something? I don't. I have many, many questions. And she also literally eats everything. I remember when I had a puppy and she went through this stage and now my human puppy is doing the very same thing. I had a guest here in the studio the other day and the guest wanted to meet my daughter. And so she came in and instead of being snuggly and cute and all that stuff with the guest, she waddled right up to her, licked her water glass and then licked my water glass. Is your toddler doing this? Are the kids all right? Call me back, let me know. So back to your question, I love it. It feels so, so familiar. I have been talking to one of my best friends about this. One of the most special parts about being a parent that I wasn't expecting is becoming the parent that I wish I had. Not trying to make myself cry on my own podcast, but really it is a cool thing. It is a very special thing. And whether or not you had an awesome relationship with your parent or parents or not, I think very few of our parents knew to open a custodial Roth IRA for us when we were in diapers. But we money rehabbers are weird like that. So let me break down the specific steps that I have taken to make sure that my daughter is rich. I opened three accounts for her, a 529 account, a custodial Roth IRA and a custodial brokerage account. I talked about this in another episode, I'm just going to link that in the show notes so that I don't talk to you forever about these accounts because I definitely could, someone truly has to stop me. But I will give you a few updates on what I've been doing since that episode aired. So it was just Mother's Day and some of my girlfriends very kindly asked if they could send flowers or a gift for me, which was very, very sweet. One thing that I'm doing that might feel a little bit awkward, but I fully believe in it, I'm sharing the YouGift link for her 529 with my friends and family for all holidays. Now, most 529 plans have a feature that lets people contribute directly to the account as a gift. Do I get some side eyes? Yeah. Does it feel a little intense for Mother's Day or Toddlers birthday party? Maybe. Do I care? Not even a little bit. And here's another update. I have to give you a quickie background first. I was a public school kid. My husband was a public school kid. We are very pro public school. But there are some very, very cool private schools opening in our area. So I am becoming private school curious, shall we say. And if we do decide to pay for private school, we are going to aim to use tax free money. Now, Lauren, you might be interested in this as well. So here's how you would do it. If you own a business, you might be able to hire your kid. By the way, this is how a custodial Roth IRA can work. So if you own a business, your kid could model for your social media. That's pretty much the only thing that little little kids can do. Once they get older, you can really put them to work. They can clean your desk, they can treasure paperwork, organize your folders, and then you can pay them a reasonable wage for real work. The reasonable part is important. You can just pay them a million dollars for organizing paper clips. What I'm doing is I'm paying my daughter up to the standard deduction. In 2026, that's $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married couples filing jointly. I'm guessing your kid is also not married, so we're probably talking about the 16 grand maximum. I'll say it one more time. The work has to be legitimate. The pay has to be reasonable. I had tax strategist superstar Carlton Dennis on the pod, and this is what he had to say about it. What should people keep in mind when they're putting their kids on payroll?