Children's savings moral dilemma

Spendless

In my children's bank accounts I couldn't actually tell you how much was a present from a relative and how much was from us. It's just shown as a credit so how would I know if I needed £500 to say well actually I can't cos £300 of that was from auntie joan on various birthdays?

Would I use it in extreme circumstances like we were going to lose the house-yes. Though I would expect to be repaying it back at a later date.

dobbie82

3 years on I still feel guilty for dipping into my son's savings (only £120 or so) but at the time I was on unpaid maternity leave and we were literally struggling to put food on the table.

Now my sons have savings of about £400 plus their trust fund £250 each, at the end of the year (or rather just before) I will empty their piggy banks, bank account, and put it in trust then I can't touch it.

Could you not put this 5k in trust for them?

It would only keep the wolves from the door for a little while, would be better to so payment plans with creditors rather than give them your boys futures as you may not be able to give them money to go to uni etc.

Just my opinion thouth

sooz

jackomdj wrote: »

We are in a slightly different position in that we are fortunate enough to have some savings etc. We do have an offset mortgage & our childrens money in used in our savings to offset the mortgage, we do however have a spreadsheet & it is allocated to the children on here - & they will get it when they need it.

Nicky

same here - we recently moved our children's money into our offset account. It's still theirs, & clearly earmarked as such, but is reducing our monthly mortgage payments whilst it stays there. With interest levels so low, & our mortgage still on a fixed rate, it works out better, meaning we have a little more money to spend day to day, while their savings remain safe.

welshmoneylover

Me? No never.
Not unless it was an absolute dire emergency that meant we had no roof/gas/electric.
But that's not likely to happen as I saw this crisis coming 5 years ago and I battened down the hatches and saved like mad.

shirlgirl2004

My DDs savings are in her Child Trust Fund so it can't be touched. I assume on this basis that IF it reached the limit of £7,000 then it could not be used when assessing for benefits.

iwannanicerlife

Just to put another spin on this, I asked a very similar question last yr. My kids have savings of around £10k each (partly funded by us saving like mad when they were younger & partly an inheritence). We were in the position of owing £5k on our credit cards. We used our small savings to pay some of the card and then borrowed £3k from the children to pay off the rest. We had already changed our mindset significantly on money and have kept 1 card which is for emergencies and always paid off in full. At the same time we set up a direct debit to put the money we would have been paying on the credit card straight back into their accounts (plus interest).

Emmenelle

I turned 16 in 1992, right in the middle of the last recession and I had a payout of £2k that my parents had saved for since I was small. My Dad had lost his business and our house and was working as a courier when his engine blew up; no van = no income!! So he had £800 off of me to get it fixed. Being a 16 year old, I was less than impressed, but looking back, I can totally see he had absolutely no choice, and although it was never paid back (it just wasn't realistic!!), I bear no malice!!

With my own kids, we put £10 a month away into their trust funds and any birthday money they have so I can absolutely not touch it.

So, I don't in principle agree with it but I can see that sometimes its a must but I've put my own kids money out of reach so that its not even an option.

iwannanicerlife

Just to clarify further on my above posting, the children also have trust funds which aren't accessible and both have a policy which will pay out a modest sum on their 18th birthdays in addition to the savings accounts.

oystercatcher

To my mind it would be stealing to use the childrens money to pay bills with. If I was in financial difficulties it would be due some sort of stupidity on my part and it would be wrong to use the childrens money to pay for that.

However maybe I see the situation through rose tinted specs as I've been lucky and we've never had unexpected redundancy etc. I can't imagine the horror of potential repossession and maybe it would be correct to use the money to avoid this, but if the money was then just lost in a huge financial 'black hole' maybe it would be better if it was kept so the children had something when they finally become independent.

So only if it was actually going to make a huge difference would I say yes. If it's due to financial problems caused by gambling, smoking, alcohol or uncontrolled spending (which is what a huge amount of debt is caused by) then NO NO NO all the way!

Oystercatcher

blackcoffee

Emmenelle wrote: »

I turned 16 in 1992, right in the middle of the last recession and I had a payout of £2k that my parents had saved for since I was small. My Dad had lost his business and our house and was working as a courier when his engine blew up; no van = no income!! So he had £800 off of me to get it fixed. Being a 16 year old, I was less than impressed, but looking back, I can totally see he had absolutely no choice, and although it was never paid back (it just wasn't realistic!!), I bear no malice!!

In my eyes you are still owed £800 with interest !

like a few other posters, we have an off set mortage, with each of our children having a savings account running along side.

The only way i would consider taking money from thier acounts, that we have saved for them, is if i knew there was a definate way of paying it back, however with regard to inheritence, no, no, never !