<prompt> Human: Ok, me and my wife are in early 30s. We both have retirement accounts my pension, her 401k. I have started to do a separate retirement for myself to supplement my pension. She is matching her 401k employer match. We are middle class, modest means. We have twins who are almost 3 years old. We have slowly been saving money and over 18 months have two separate savings accounts in their names with 700 in each. Small amount, I know. However this is long term, its not meant to be a college fund as both me and my wife do not think college is mandatory. It is a savings we wish to be able to give them when they reach a certain age a maturity in their life that it can benefit them i.e. house down payment, college, etc. With that said, we gradually wish to add to the amount but it feels almost wasteful to let it sit in a savings account and we are also of the idea out of sight out of mind. Our 1st thought was to just save X amount of money and buy long term CDs every year. But since we really dont have any other ideas, I thought Id research. She is VERY reserved about using stock market and wants something safe-ish. Id welcome any idea or suggestions. We are relatively already debt free minus cars and house.  <response>: its not meant to be a college fund as both me and my wife do not think college is mandatory.This is a catastrophic mistake. Youre giving up enormous tax advantages by foregoing the 529 options and while college may not be necessary, some form of post-high school education most certainly is if your goal is to avoid poverty. Things are getting harder for those without education, not easier, and dropping a lump sum of cash in a kids lap when theyre 18 is a recipe for disaster. If youre stuck in this mentality, Id put 100 of the money into a simple index fund - something like VTI total stock market and leave it alone. She is VERY reserved about using stock market and wants something safe-ish. No she doesnt. She isnt interested in a safe investment because her current investment strategy is guaranteed to lose money every single year. Inflation rates change, but its hovered around 2.1 for some time. youre throwing away at least 1 of your money every year it sits there. Youre investing for about 20 years. When looking at the SP 500 over a 20 year time span, there is only 1 20 year time frame where an investment made on day 1 was worth less in real terms on year 20 Average returns are about 10 a year. Would you view an investment guaranteed to lose 8.9 a year as safe? If not, why are you investing in an investment that historically loses out to the SP 500? 