女儿经常和老爸讨论投资的事，对税收和投资的逻辑有一个大致的了解。昨天上完班，回家的路上，她告诉老爸：“Dad, I have an idea. I am earning money and will have a couple of thousand dollars by the end of this summer. How about open a Roth IRA account for me?”

老爸知道她的想法的逻辑，Ruth IRA到拿出来的时候是Tax-free。而她的收入太少，现在是不用交税的。

“There are a couple of issues I am not sure. 1. Each mutual fund account has a minimal balance, such as 2500 dollars. I am not sure that you can keep that. 2. The legal age for it.”

女儿说：“I have enough money--you still owe me 3000 dollars, and I have 800 bucks in my bank account, plus the earning of this summer.”

知道女儿这里没弄明白， 就告诉她：“No, the amount you can put into a Ruth IRA account each year is 4000 dollars or the amount you earn during the year, whichever is less. So you can't put your save into it.”

“I see. Probably I can earn more than 2500 dollars this summer. Why is my age an issue here?”

老爸告诉她：“Roth IRA is not a custodian account. Rememeber, your current bank account is under both your name and mine. So you have to sign for yourself. Under 18, I don't think you can represent yourself legally.”

“That's not fair! I can go to the bank to withdraw my money now without your help. Dad, would you please figure out this for me.”女儿请求老爸帮忙。

“I will check the publication 590, and then call a broker to figure out.”

到家了， 老爸在网上找了一圈，没有年龄限制，但好像都是往上，到７０岁以后还能存。没有提往下呢。这不，老爸只好给fidelity一个电话，和fidelity的“专家”聊。结论是必须１８岁以上。

女儿的第二个投资计划就这么落空了。

（注：女儿的第一个投资计划是５年前，她卖老爸种的菜，加叔叔阿姨们给她的礼金，共２５００，交给老爸投资。当时银行利息太低，才１％，她决定借给老爸，拿５％的compound利息。老爸把她的钱和自己的钱，共２５０００,用dollar-average的办法，放进fidelity的Value Fund。前后三年不到，拿回来３５０００多一点。不过，她只有５％的compound利息，所以， 有三千来块吧。）

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