The Edcawber Principle

ZTD wrote: »

Would you also feel yourself morally obliged to match losses?

Magical super bull markets also appear for other (more common) reasons.

Would you see no value in offering her a good (better than savings) but risk-free interest rate?

1. As in provide a floor for her investments? Definitely not, because a) !!!! happens and b) I don't see how I'd even calculate that - never let the amount fall below its maximum value?

2. I meant a magical super bull market on top of the one we're already experiencing! I think this bull has legs for now.

3. I think that would be unfair to her as there are no guarantees in life bar the love of your parents, death and taxes. I fully expect to see multiple recessions before she comes of age, it's part of life in our economic system. I am confident that investing is the right route.

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

I too account for little one's cb separately in ynab.
£30 a month goes into his savings account,
£50 a month (well every 4 weeks) gets spent on things for the heat and now, swimming lessons, and shoes mostly. Some toys. At the moments I'm nearly 'a month ahead' having not spent very much over the Christmas period. I would love to save more for him, but if I did he wouldn't be able to do the things he does now.

You are putting something by for his future and that is more than most people manage, my little sister has a very similar approach, splitting money between savings and activities. Mrs E and I are very privileged and lucky to be able to afford to invest all of the CB (current credit card debt aside, which was down to our own impatience when moving house and renovating).

Just caught up, lovely to hear about your little one, and she appears to be much older than I remember and looks like you're making light work of the credit cards already.

In regards to savings, we too save our CB but split it 50:50 between our two. Unless the markets go wild in the next few years, it will probably only be enough for a small car, driving lessons or a couple of terms at uni, but more than both of us got

Thanks Brodiebobs - DD is a star

I would do the same if we had 2. My little sister has had the dilemma of what to do for the younger of her children, as big brother has a head start on his pot. How did you address that, or do you have twins/children very close in age?

To be honest, I'm not sure retirement is all it's imagined to be. I've spent a lot of time not "working" in the sense most of us are talking about and have plenty of time consuming hobbies which I spend my free time doing. Really quite pleased to be working in the sense we're talking about at the moment. The work is interesting, challenging and gives the routine I needed in my life. Not finding it is impacting on dealing with the other work or my interests, though will likely find I have less time for cars in the summer. My parents retired well after the state retirement age and have no financial barriers to doing whatever they fancy but will help me out as and when. They hate being left out of the loop and still have interest.

Do you not have a fixed age in mind for releasing the money to your daughter, Ed? Whenever the conversation about children's finances comes up on MSE it does make me think. At the moment, I plan to buy a house for my son to live in whilst at university. He will have to pay the money back but I'm not so keen to tell him to borrow money from a bank and pay interest. What he does with the property will be up to him. This likely seems ridiculous to everyone on here but from a personal point of view paying interest to the bank is a better choice than having to listen to lectures from my parents. However, paying interest still irks me so I don't want it for my son when he is older.

Thanks Alex, he will be sorely missed.

What exactly do you do these days? I'm a little confused! Are you managing properties for your parents. I ask as when I dip into your diary, you're normally pottering about on a project, planning something fun for your son and generally not talking about 'work' in the sense that most of us think of it.

If you buy a house for your son, do you not worry that you risk perpetuating the sort of relationship that your parents have with you and that you have worked so hard to break away from? I know one person whose parent bought a house for their child to rent. At every visit, the parent makes snide comments about their 'investment' and generally casts aspersions about the ability of the person's spouse to provide for their family. You could say that this is all down to the individual, but I can't see how 'buying someone a house' is a thing if they have to pay it back. Also, the way you describe it, it sounds like you'd be choosing the house. So you choose a house that you like, force him to buy it off you and expect him to be grateful?

I'm playing devil's advocate here Alex, but a gift with reservation is not a gift.

No fixed age for DD to get her nest egg. Various factors such as reaching the age of majority/choosing a career or education/wanting or not wanting a house/relationship status will be considered. Choosing differently to what we might like will at no point preclude her from getting the money, we just want to see what direction her life is taking before throwing her a pile of money.

A princely £0.71 paid off a CC.

I picked up more Amazon vouchers last night and ended up in the unique position of hitting the maximum possible points in a month (100,000). Was up until 11 adding the vouchers to my account :rotfl:

We spend roughly £1k a year with them, so will pick up more if Mrs E can get a temporary card. It's a bit surreal spending so much at once, but it's basically a 6.25% discount on Amazon which is the seller who gets most of our money after supermarkets and don't typically offer % off. We'll have to withdraw money from 3% and 5% savings accounts to pay for them, but I'm ok with that as the discount was worth more than the interest.