Saving for your little ones

givememoney

Just a bit of advice for anyone thinking of setting up a saving scheme for their children.

Mine are all grown up now and I have a grandson but I thought I would pass this on.

We set up an endowment policy for our daughter when times were good but when our son came along a few years later we couldn't afford to do the same for him. Therefore once it matured we split it in half. Also along the way any money given to them was put in their savings account. Also as this is a bit relevant (to me anyway) I used to get paid in cash from my little supermarket job and each week I would split the cash up and a little would go into both the saving pots.

Anyway over the years this did add up to a couple of thousand for each of them.

Now, this is my advice. DO NOT tell the kids they have this savings pot because in the end they just consider it their money and their right to lay their hands on it as soon as possible and spend it as quickly as possible.

Had I not told them the money was there, it would have been a lovely suprise for them on their 18th birthday and they might have seemed more grateful.

Plans_all_plans

Haha, you are right! Thankfully, I'm fairly young myself so remembered what I was like at a young age and have two accounts for our daughter to try and minimise the likelihood of her going mad with the money.

Our daughter is 4, but we save every month for her into an account that she will control come 18. But we also have another account (with more in it) that I am the Trustee of, where we put her b'day money/inheritance money etc. If I remember rightly, I'll control this until she is 21 or 25 or something like that. There's no way I'd even let an 18 year old loose with a few grand!

My parents saved for my sister and I (not a lot) but by the time I got to 16 they'd got me to sign most of the money back to them for household goods if things ever broke!

Lotus-eater

Nah, they'd have probably spent it even quicker when they were 18.

*Louise*

I don't intend to tell my kids how much they have in their savings as I don't want them getting the money until they are 21 (unless they go to university, then it will could be more use then) I just don't mention it tbh, hopefully it will be a surprise.


The younger ones have the government trust funds which the will get when they are 18, I have no say over that, just need to hope they don't blow it in rubbish. The TF won't be all that much anyway, I don't put money in each month anymore.

make_me_wise

My mum and dad did the same for my brother and I. We weren't told about it till our 18th birthdays. I used mine to buy my first car. A bright orange vw beetle. They were pleased I used it to purchase something 'almost sensible' as my dad put it. Think he would have preferred it if I had bought a dull coloured fiesta :rotfl:. No accounting for taste I guess, pardon the pun

building_with_lego

OH told our two recently that they've got a grand each in the bank. I cannot imagine what possessed him, frankly, as they keep going on about it, and I'm *so* tired of explaining that they don't get this money when they turn ten and they won't spend it on Lego and chocolate. It comes up almost every day. I so wish he'd kept his mouth shut!




They don't know about the rest, thankfully, and we will not be telling them!

*Louise*

Not telling them also has the added bonus that they can't have it mentally spent before they get it lol

*max*

make_me_wise wrote: »

My mum and dad did the same for my brother and I. We weren't told about it till our 18th birthdays. I used mine to buy my first car. A bright orange vw beetle. They were pleased I used it to purchase something 'almost sensible' as my dad put it. Think he would have preferred it if I had bought a dull coloured fiesta :rotfl:. No accounting for taste I guess, pardon the pun

Pretty much my dream car right there! I adore them! Lucky you.

19lottie82

There is NO WAY I would hand over x thousand pounds to an eighteen year old, it would simply get peed against a wall In a short period of time. I'd be keeping a lid on it until the time was right, should that be if they needed funds for uni, a car, a house deposit or a wedding.

Spendless

I have 2 children, one who qualified for the CTF and one who didn't. Both have a savings account we contribute to. I don't add anything to the CTF. Both know cos the youngest would become aware she qualified for the CTF and we wanted the eldest to know he also had some money saved. They are aware it is ear-marked for certain things. Ironically when they were tots I thought it would be my boisterous son who would blow the dosh, he's turning into someone sensible and academic who would use the money for something I'd approve of, whereas my once doddle to raise daughter would be more likely to spend the dosh on some hair brained scheme.