Should I continue to save for kids?

Reaper

I agree with this bit:

missbiggles1 wrote: »

It seems strange to me (sorry) to group activities and savings together. Paying for activities and giving pocket money is a parents' responsibility

but not this:

saving is for the child herself to do if she wants more than she can buy with her pocket money.
Doing the saving for your children rather than encouraging them to do it themselves seems to me to be the loss of an opportunity

When a young person leaves home it can be very tough financially. They will have a low paying job or be a student but suddenly there will be big expenses. House (deposit to buy or rent), car etc.

I don't think you can expect a young girl thinking about Brownies to be forward looking enough to save up for a house deposit.

I would say ignore day to day expenses and decide what you want to put aside for them in savings & investments. Once decided pick a means - JISA, Bare Trust etc then set it up without their knowledge to be handed over as a nice surprise when they come of age.

Separately to that the child can be encouraged to save up pocket money for whatever they want to aim for.

justme111

One of the strangest posts I seen on here.
How much you save for them for when they are older to give it to them either at 18 or whenever you feel like it is not related to what you spend on brownies now. It is related to your own attitude to money , wish or not to give them a headstart in anything financially and your income and priorities. It is up to you. Without having your complete state of affairs in numbers we are not going to be able to tell you what would sounds reasonable from our perspective and even if we did - we are not you and all have different characters and circumstances. It is like asking someone who does not know you whether you should wear your hair up or down and dye it red or black.

atush

by all means save for them and you are doing.

But instead of saving more, you need more into your own savings, esp pension.

Cash-Cows

Just an observation but unless you also have provision elsewhere your pension contributions are pitiful.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

Sorry - not been about. I'll try and reply to most but if I miss anyone apologies.


DD1 gets £159 a month - £20 is pocket money, £40ish is for savings into a bank with high interest, the rest is brownies, horse riding swimming.


With her pocket money she HAS to save, She breaks it down. £10 is broken down into "weekly" payments so she can buy sweets etc. £5 goes into her savings pot at home so if she REALLY wants something then she can save for it. £5 is for Christmas and birthday presents as she decided she wanted to buy for people (She got upset last year when she realised Santa didn't bring me anything and tried to give me one of her presents)


DD2 gets £101 - That's around £30ish savings, then rest on horse riding and swimming. She isn't old enough for Rainbows yet but her names down


Financially - I work part time. This will change next year and I will increase the pension pot. Work also contribute to a pension scheme. I own my house outright and although I do have a CC debt - It's a good debt (As in, I paid for a holiday on the CC at 0%, the money is sitting in a high interest bank account earning me a bit and when its due it will be paid off in full)

HappyMJ

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel wrote: »

Sorry - not been about. I'll try and reply to most but if I miss anyone apologies.


DD1 gets £159 a month - £20 is pocket money, £40ish is for savings into a bank with high interest, the rest is brownies, horse riding swimming.


With her pocket money she HAS to save, She breaks it down. £10 is broken down into "weekly" payments so she can buy sweets etc. £5 goes into her savings pot at home so if she REALLY wants something then she can save for it. £5 is for Christmas and birthday presents as she decided she wanted to buy for people (She got upset last year when she realised Santa didn't bring me anything and tried to give me one of her presents)


DD2 gets £101 - That's around £30ish savings, then rest on horse riding and swimming. She isn't old enough for Rainbows yet but her names down


Financially - I work part time. This will change next year and I will increase the pension pot. Work also contribute to a pension scheme. I own my house outright and although I do have a CC debt - It's a good debt (As in, I paid for a holiday on the CC at 0%, the money is sitting in a high interest bank account earning me a bit and when its due it will be paid off in full)

That debt doesn't count as debt if you have the funds to pay it off. It's just stoozing to take advantage of the difference in interest rates.

If you would like to save more money for your children then how about opening a Halifax Kids regular saver account earning 6% interest for each of them into which you can put £100 per month into. When the account matures you can move your contributions back into your own account leaving them with the interest then open another one and repeat until you are no longer eligible to open one in trust for them.

You could earn 6% interest tax free for them. On contributions of £100 per month that would be about £39 per year for each of them and that won't actually cost you anything as you'll get your £1,200 back in a year to repeat the offer next year.

The account is held in your name as trustee for each of your children so you have full control over the money.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

HappyMJ wrote: »

That debt doesn't count as debt if you have the funds to pay it off. It's just stoozing to take advantage of the difference in interest rates.

If you would like to save more money for your children then how about opening a Halifax Kids regular saver account earning 6% interest for each of them into which you can put £100 per month into. When the account matures you can move your contributions back into your own account leaving them with the interest then open another one and repeat until you are no longer eligible to open one in trust for them.

You could earn 6% interest tax free for them. On contributions of £100 per month that would be about £39 per year for each of them and that won't actually cost you anything as you'll get your £1,200 back in a year to repeat the offer next year.

The account is held in your name as trustee for each of your children so you have full control over the money.

They already have Halifax accounts - They have both the regular savers and the child savers.


At present:


I contribute to the Regular savers, at the end of the year they mature and the money is put into the Child savers account to earn interest and the regular savers resets to 6%


DD1 has a JISA of around £600 from when the gov. were giving out the child trust funds


Its not about giving them more - I think they probably get too much if you count everything together (Savings, pocket money, activities etc)


They love their activities and I don't want to stop them, but equally as others have pointed out, I need to sort myself out but - at the moment, I cant do both but I'd feel guilty by stopping putting away for the kids.

HappyMJ

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel wrote: »

They already have Halifax accounts - They have both the regular savers and the child savers.


At present:


I contribute to the Regular savers, at the end of the year they mature and the money is put into the Child savers account to earn interest and the regular savers resets to 6%


DD1 has a JISA of around £600 from when the gov. were giving out the child trust funds

I would put the maximum £100 into the account each month.

You can have the excess back when the account matures.

cloud_dog

missbiggles1 wrote: »

It seems strange to me (sorry) to group activities and savings together. Paying for activities and giving pocket money is a parents' responsibility - saving is for the child herself to do if she wants more than she can buy with her pocket money.

Doing the saving for your children rather than encouraging them to do it themselves seems to me to be the loss of an opportunity.

Ummm, no. Absolutely not.

This teaches a child that they have a right to be given money because they are the child and you are the parent.

missbiggles1

cloud_dog wrote: »

Ummm, no. Absolutely not.

This teaches a child that they have a right to be given money because they are the child and you are the parent.

Assuming that you're not talking about teenagers being handed vast amounts of money, then I think they do have the right, just as they have the right to expect their parent to feed, house and educate them.