This may turn out to be the highest-impact donation in American history: tech billionaires Michael and Susan Dell have pledged a whopping $6.25 billion to boost investment accounts for young children that were created in the One Big Beautiful Bill.

Two Great American Heroes

The Dell donation translates to $250 in starter money for about 25 million “Trump accounts” for children from low- and middle-income areas. This private money will be for kids under age 10 who don’t qualify for the $1,000 that will be deposited by the federal government for every newborn baby with a Social Security number. The tax-free accounts can be supplemented by families and employers and will be invested in low-cost index funds. When a child turns 18, money could be withdrawn with incentives to use it for education or to buy a first home.

The goal is to create a culture of saving, by nudging parents and kids as they get older and start babysitting and mowing lawns to add resources to these accounts over time. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Cory Booker have signed a bipartisan letter urging corporate CEOs to follow Dell’s example.

Even a single $250 contribution can build a nest egg through the power of compound interest.  If investments earn a conservative 7% annual return, the money could grow to some $26,000 by retirement. With parental and employer contributions of just $50 a month, the account could balloon to over $500,000.

Those returns could be turbocharged if young people could take all or a portion of their payroll taxes and put the money into 401k personal accounts. If we had done this 20 years ago,  the average worker would today have a nest egg of almost $200,000.

Over 40 years, these accounts would hold well over $1 million. Instead, we are scheduled to see Social Security become technically insolvent in 2033.