The August Checklist: 5 Trump Account Moves Before School Starts

August is when family finances get an annual look anyway — school supplies, schedules, budgets. Add these five Trump Account moves to the same sitting and the whole year runs smoother.

1. If you haven’t enrolled, this is the twenty minutes

Eligible and still unenrolled? Every month unclaimed is compounding forfeited. Verify eligibility, use one of the two official doors (trumpaccounts.gov or Form 4547), done before the kettle boils twice.

2. Ask about the employer match BEFORE open enrollment

Benefits teams finalize packages in late summer and fall. The employer contribution benefit is spreading — and the copy-paste email in our guide lands best exactly now, while next year’s package is still being decided.

3. Check your contribution room for the year

Family deposits, employer money, and grandparent gifts all share one annual per-child limit. August is the natural midpoint audit: what’s gone in, what room remains, and whether the holiday-season gift conversations need a number attached.

4. Start the records file you’ll bless in 2044

One spreadsheet: date, amount, source, for every contribution. Distribution taxation eventually cares about basis, and the exit rules reward families whose paperwork exists. Ten minutes now saves a reconstruction nightmare later.

5. Run the scam check on anything that reached out to YOU

Back-to-school season is phishing season. Any text, email, or app claiming your child’s account needs “verification,” a fee, or an SSN is the con wearing the program’s name — official channels don’t initiate contact.

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