…by that I mean the Individual Retirement Account, (not Irish Republican Army 
),
and expand the basic rules to adress other big ticket expenditures, so that we can have an Individual Educational Account and an Individual Health Care Account.
Do such accounts already exist, or does one press into service a general purpose trust?
I’m open to correction here, but I think the IRA only exists because there are specfic tax breaks for savings set aside to make provision for retirement.
If there are not similar tax breaks for money saved for education or healthcare costs, there’s no reason for specially earmarked accounts. You can jusk keep your education/healthcare savings with all your other savings, which has the added advantage that you don’t have to commit yourself to spending a particular part of your savings on education or healthcare.
Are you in fact arguing for tax breaks for education/healthcare savings similar to the tax breaks for retirement savings?
There are tax-free health savings plans (125©, I think), but I believe they have to be managed by your employer. And I have a 529 college fund for my son that is tax-free on earnings. The contributions are not tax-deferred, however.
Yes, exactly.
I figure, a parent or guardian can open an account for a child at birth or whenever and make tax free contributions up to some amount per year, and that could be dipped into to pay for direct educational costs…tuition, books, uniforms, lab fees… and at the age of 18, the guardianship of the account is transferred to the student so s/he can manage his/her own higher education.
At the completion of the education, the remainder/balance of the account can be rolled over into a healthcare or retirement account.
Something similar can start up a healthcare account and be managed the same way.
Another way to funnel money to your child’s in the future is through life insurance. You can buy whole/variable universal policies for your kids, and the income grows tax free over the years. The only problem is that it is expensive (you get fee’d to death). Remember that you don’t have to die to get your life insurance money. Whole and VUL can be blead at any time, i.e. you can get your principle and investment proceeds well before death. Because of the fee structure (sometimes as high as 4+% per year, this only makes sense if you have exhausted all of your “preferable” pre-tax options such as IRAs (you can do for your kids), and the aforementioned 529 Ed. plan. If you really need to set aside a huge chunk of money, you can consider setting up a trust fund that investes in tax-differed vehicles… they don’t give you the same investment options as an IRA, but it does allow you to grow fully or partially tax deferred until you want junior to have it.
I am pretty sure that I have seen advertisements talking about using a IRA for funding children’s college educations.