Saving some money for child and don’t need access for 5-10years

SHANE_PAD

ive got a CTF which i will put about £10-20 a month in, but wanted to run something along side this, but with a bit easyer access for when he needs money for school, school trips and stuff. ive got about £100 to start it up and then £20 a month to top it up, So i could tie it up for the next 5years and then go from there.
ive been told a couple of things like the 5 year deal with ns&i, or would be worth looking at equities. Although there is more risk
attached (share prices can go down as well as up!), you can invest in
an index tracker within an ISA wrapper at very low cost. Investing
monthly will even out the bumps in the stockmarket (when the value is
lower, your monthly payments buy more).
i like the idea of the index traker but dont think i know enough could you tell me who might be the best to go with

looking forward to your help

munk

How about something like a decent cautious managed fund like the Midas Balanced Income fund or Jupiter Merlin Balanced Income - or even mix and match putting some into both?

Look at places like http://bestinvest.co.uk/ or http://h-l.co.uk/ (Hargreaves Lansdown) - they're both discount brokers so they can cut the initial charges you pay from an average of 5% down to 0-0.5%. HL also discount the annual management charges, although they don't offer any advice like Bestinvest do (might be worth asking them for something suitable for a child on the phone maybe).

The only issue with investing in funds via Bestinvest/HL etc might be that they require a minimum of £50 per month - how hard and fast this is I don't know, you'd have to talk to them.

Another alternative is child savings accounts which might be more suitable for £20/month - I seem to remember the Halifax offering a decent regular savings a/c for children at about 10% (12?) for one year after which it's transferred to another lower rate savings a/c. I think you can carry on with another regular child savings account after that first year - I guess the 'catch' is that the money gets transferred into the lower rate a/c which will pay a much lower rate like 3-4%pa which you have to keep with them. Searching this forum for 'child savings accounts' should bring something up.

Have to say I have no experience directly in this though - caught my eye because I was thinking of doing something similar for my 3yo nephew.