Best way to meet children's university costs; savings/investments, salary ...?

enthusiasticsaver

I did not get into investing until after our daughters left university so we saved in cash isas and fixed term savings with them maturing as they started university. We planned for this about 5-7 years before they were 18 so from when they started secondary school. We only had 2 to provide for though and it was the old system £1000 per year I think.

We also planned to pay our mortgage off just as they started and it was paid off the year our younger daughter started so that was a help as having 2 at university at the same time was expensive. After they finished we redirected payments to early retirement pot and got into investing in VLS60. We maintained relatively high pension contributions even when our daughters were at university.

jimjames

It was quite scary to see how little they will get for the means tested loan element. I'm expecting to be needing to fund around £7-10k pa at worst case which will have to come from income

Keep_pedalling

Just hope that they don't all want to train as vets or architects. 20 years of fees rather than 12

AlanP_2

I must confess that having had 3 go through Uni I don't recognise any of the numbers being quoted on here.

The first two went through on the £3k a year fees plus whatever the full loan was for a non-London university at the time.

Our youngest finished just over a year ago on the £9k a year fees plus full non-London loan so is more relevant to those looking forwards.

We contributed about £50 pm to help cover the fact that loan didn't cover full rental cost, plus about £150 pm towards living costs. In addition we paid a couple of Standing Orders for her (mobile & contact lenses) so about another £60 pm.

Total about £3.5k a year.

Grandparents gave them each £1k a year and they all worked during the holidays.

They have all got student loans and I doubt if my youngest will ever pay it off, the oldest 2 will I think, their totals are lower for one thing.

If you are going to fully fund, or even fund all the non-fee costs then yes, the cost per year will be a lot higher.

Alexland

@AlanP my expectation was to fund the non fee costs so circa £30k to £40k across 3 years. Although it will probably be higher by then due to inflation and the borrowing rules will have changed again.

I really don't agree with government policy encouraging children to take out loans that from the start they know they may never repay but I see how we got to this sad place.

louloubelle79

I think all your children are very fortunate to have parents planning for this, myself and brother and sister had to get a job through college and uni to pay for fees and driving lessons etc. Parents wanted us to learn we had to do this ourselves. Think if you have the spare cash it's a lovely thing to do but doesn't always help them with their own financial understanding.

stoozie1

louloubelle79 wrote: »

I think all your children are very fortunate to have parents planning for this, myself and brother and sister had to get a job through college and uni to pay for fees and driving lessons etc. Parents wanted us to learn we had to do this ourselves. Think if you have the spare cash it's a lovely thing to do but doesn't always help them with their own financial understanding.

Thanks. Perhaps I haven't explained this properly. I was planning to pay the amount that their loans would be reduced by, due to our household income.

TheTracker

I thank my lucky stars my parents weren’t fortunate enough to contribute a penny to my tertiary education. A good chunk of the core of myself today is a function of that. My plan is to give some minor support for the first year of university until my children find a way to support themselves. Maybe 3k.

Alexland

My parents gave me partial support and with holiday work I left uni with no net debt position. However that was when fees were £1k per year. The costs now are so high growing above inflation its not comparible to when we went.

Apodemus

louloubelle79 wrote: »

I think all your children are very fortunate to have parents planning for this, myself and brother and sister had to get a job through college and uni to pay for fees and driving lessons etc. Parents wanted us to learn we had to do this ourselves. Think if you have the spare cash it's a lovely thing to do but doesn't always help them with their own financial understanding.

It's always difficult to know what is best for kids' financial education. The risk of "an easy life and no appreciation of the value of money" on one side, versus "easy access to credit an no appreciation of the problems of debt" on the other.

We have funded all the non-fees costs for our three. All have taken the maximum loan available and put it in ISAs. Number 1 travelled on this after graduation, then paid off the student loan in the first two years of employment. Number 2 has loan repayments taken from salary but still has the cash sum in the ISA to put towards a house deposit. Number three is still in the system.

Oh, and the first two both recently needed cars and bought old cars for cash rather than be swayed by the new car on PCP because they don't like the idea of debt. So it seems that the easy life through university hasn't clouded their judgement!