£250 governement gift to New Baby

Siemo

When our baby was born in 2007 we put the voucher (and some extra money from grandparents etc) in a trust fund with britannia but chose the savings option instead of shares because we were told the stock market was looking dodgy (didn't realise how dodgy at the time!!!) Can anyone tell me if it's a good idea to move it into shares now that the market's plummetted or to keep it where it is?
Thanks!

sabretoothtigger

The ftse fell 30% last year which is the largest fall ever recorded apparently, so theres no doubt you'd get a better price now

In the short term I feel the ftse is overly optimistic at the moment, thats purely personal opinion & its hard to believe it could fall another 30% but anythings possible

Who told you last year about a dodgy market, wish they'd told me. Ask them again

Siemo

Haha it was my grandad, you're right I should ask him!!! Thanks for your advice.

Gymgenius

Spendless wrote: »

Bare in mind it is your child's to do with as they wish when they are 18. There are enough teenagers in my dh's family to make me cautious on whether the money would go somewhere I'd feel was sensible or be spent ermmm otherwise.

For this reason I haven't contributed a penny towards the CTF, I don't put cash gifts from other people in it either. Instead I opened a seperate account for dd which has my name on it and put money in there instead.

Quite right. I do the same, as I know there is absolutely nothing you can do as a parent to stop the children getting their hands on the CTF stash.

My children's vouchers have both been used to open Stakeholder accounts on that FTSE For Good? Ethical fund - big mistake!!!

...but, as we all know, the value of investments can go up as well as waaaaaaay down! so I'll leave it be and hope the ludicrous management fees don't eat to much into any 'gains'!

sons_2

Spendless wrote: »

Bare in mind it is your child's to do with as they wish when they are 18. There are enough teenagers in my dh's family to make me cautious on whether the money would go somewhere I'd feel was sensible or be spent ermmm otherwise.

For this reason I haven't contributed a penny towards the CTF, I don't put cash gifts from other people in it either. Instead I opened a seperate account for dd which has my name on it and put money in there instead.

This is exactlt what I have done, also for the same reason.