1st Birthday Present - £100 shares

AWOL_2

Our nephew soon to be one years old -
We were thinking of buying something unusal and thought maybe we could buy him £100 worth of shares to see him on the money investment ladder.

Hopefully this £100 will have grown abit - we dont want to invest in a company that may colapse before he is 18.

We are not accustomed to the share market - and therefore was wondering if anyone had an examples of a good place to buy these and also reccomend some good shares?

Not a hugh amount of money - but hopefully a good present rather than a toy! when he's older he maybe able to cash it in for something nice.

Thanks

cheggers

What about £100 worth of Premium bonds, it might be hard for you to buy him shares as your not the parents.

tyllwyd

It doesn't feel as personal, but your nephew should have a child trust fund of some sort - you could always think about putting money into that?

AWOL_2

Premium bonds - these apparentky are only open to parents and or grand parents? That is what i read on the website.

Nephews parents are not the most sensible - when it comes to money saving therefore they are the last people that would set up a child trust fund.

Could i set up a child trust fund? or put this money into a saving account for him, so that only he can access it when he is 18? More than likely he will cash it in and by a round for his mates, but atleast that will be his choice not mine or his parents!

If this proves too much effort i might buy him a psp from toys r us, and hopefully if its unused for 18 years it will be a collectors Item and appricated somewhat! ( not a serious investment tip )

someone

AWOL wrote: »

Nephews parents are not the most sensible - when it comes to money saving therefore they are the last people that would set up a child trust fund.

I think that the government automaticly sets up trust funds when the voucher has expired so he may have one

altyfc

Yes, that is correct.

A child being born nowadays gets something like £250 to invest at birth. There's a variety of options with this money, one of which is a shares-based CTF, but it will depend on what the parents have selected.

If they haven't selected anything (and this scenario is common), then the government invests the money on the parents' behalf.

Parents and friends/relatives can add to this fund - up to £1200 per annum tax-free... so this might be an option worth looking at.

tyllwyd

How close are you to your nephew's parents? As other people have said, they should have received a £250 voucher which they can use to set up a Child Trust Fund. If you have a good relationship with them, you could ask if they have set one up, and if they haven't, maybe you could offer to research the options and help them to do it, and then contribute the money. (As someone else said, the government will open a CTF on his behalf when the voucher expires, but it doesn't expire until 12 months after it is issued so if he isn't one yet I don't suppose it will have expired yet.)

I set one up for my daughter with The Children's Mutual nearly two years ago, and it was very easy - just a matter of going online and filling in and returning a few forms, very similar to opening a bank account. They have given me the reference number, so if anyone else wants to contribute they can send the money with the reference directly to The Children's Mutual to be credited to her account.

BUT before you do anything, have a good read of the options - there are cash based CTF, we've chosen a stakeholder CTF where the money is invested in a particular fund, and there are CTFs where you have more control and can chose the funds where the money is invested.

catz1ct

Personally I would put it in premium bonds. Shares can get a bit messy between minors and and adults. The shares would have to be in an adults name which means any dividend cheques would come out in the adults name. Although some companies offer reinvestment plans.

Shares are often forgotten about as well. Companies get taken over and then the owner finds it difficult to find information about what the new company is called. Thats a bit extreme really but you have to think for the future.