Quarterly vesting ages 18–21
To prevent predatory targeting of 18-year-olds receiving large lump sums, withdrawals vest 25% per year from age 18 through age 21. A young adult can draw down $4,750 a year for four years — matching the typical four-year window of education, first job, housing, or business formation.
Use is unrestricted
Baby Bonds come with no approval process, no qualifying-use list, and no case-worker review. When a quarter vests, the recipient draws it down and decides how to use it — education, a down payment, a small business, a medical bill, a debt payoff, anything.
The quarterly vesting schedule (25% each year, ages 18–21) is the entire safeguard. It prevents lump-sum predation without inserting a federal minder between an adult citizen and their own accrued endowment. Baby Bonds are a universal birthright asset; the adult recipient decides what it funds.
No eligibility board. No “approved vendor” list. No receipts submitted. The recipient decides.
How the program accrues and pays out
Every child — whether born in 2030 or 2060 — accrues $1,000 at birth plus $1,000 every year through age 17. $19,000 per child, always.The program is a permanent statutory commitment that covers every birth cohort going forward. For any given child, accrual runs for 18 years; the fiscal picture for the nation is the overlap of every active cohort.
Accrual is booked as a federal commitment on the accrual ledger during each cohort’s accumulation years; no current-year cash leaves the Treasury until the cohort reaches age 18. Outstanding accrued liability for the 2030 cohorts grows from about $4B (Year 1) to roughly $684B by 2047 as seventeen rolling cohorts accumulate. The commitment lives on the accrual ledger; the deployable balance is unaffected during those years.
Cash outflow begins in 2048, when the first cohort reaches age 18 and the first quarter of the vesting schedule opens. Annual federal outflow ramps over four years to the steady state of $76B/yr:
Baby Bonds are a US-citizenship benefit
Baby Bonds accrue for children born in the United States (citizens at birth, consistent with the 14th Amendment). Naturalized citizens do not receive retroactive Baby Bonds.
Combined with the Skills Wallet ($20K lifetime cap), a US citizen born in 2030 accumulates up to $39,000 in federal authorization for education and skill-building across a lifetime. This economic advantage reflects the social contract of American citizenship.