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

kidmugsy

stoozie1 wrote: »

Given that's quite a depletion of the pension on the children, maybe we need to focus on pension provision now, and fund sons 1 and 2 from salary. (if we can)

Funding a pension tends to be a good idea if one or more of the following is true:

(i) a bigger pension contribution harvests a bigger employer contribution,

(ii) 40% tax (or more) is avoided,

(iii) salary sacrifice is used,

(iv) the eventual pension drawn will be untaxed, in whole or in part, because of the Personal Allowance against income tax.

Stray thought: might any of them want to join the armed forces? Do they still give scholarships e.g. to study for engineering degrees or the like? A million years ago a friend of mine finished off his dentistry degree funded by the RAF.

Second stray thought: cheer up. By the time they go to uni the western world could be in a long, slow, deflationary grind with rock bottom interest rates. Then you could probably borrow cheaply and gift/lend the money to them. Meantime make sure the little scamps earn useful money in their school holidays as soon as they are able.

jimjames

AlanP wrote: »

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

It would be interesting to know when that was, I don't have a clear idea of exact numbers but know that due to income I am expected to cover the shortfall and they won't get much loan for living costs.

Loan is £3928 this year so I'm assuming similar or less next. All costs beyond that are down to us. Accommodation alone is over £7k so that's £3.5k to begin. I guess we won't have costs of clothes and food that we already pay so there's probably a reduction in our costs too

AlanP_2

kidmugsy wrote: »

So I should ruddy well hope. Do you mean there are some who don't?

Oh YES, plenty.

They all gained a lot from their holiday jobs.

The oldest worked as an Outdoor Activity Instructor, he would have been happy to pay them.

Middle one worked shifts at a local malt processing facility, on the intake bay from 6 am on the early shift, checking quality & weights as the lorries came in.

The youngest worked an admin job in an office as well being an Outdoor Activity Instructor.

What it provided them with - apart from the money - was building their confidence, self-resilience and self-belief.

When it came to the point of applying for paid positions post-Uni they also had "real examples and experiences" they could use in applications & interviews, which we are convinced gave them an edge over those who hadn't worked.

TheTracker

jimjames wrote: »

Loan is £3928 this year so I'm assuming similar or less next. All costs beyond that are down to us.

Aren’t the costs down to the young adult?

This thread has been an absolute revelation to me.

justme111

If it was not for parents subsidising children mpst of them would not study would be my guess - where would they get that money?

IanSt

stoozie1 wrote: »

I was planning to pay the amount that their loans would be reduced by, due to our household income.

Who knows how these will be calculated by the time that they need the loans, but you might be able to still reduce your income through paying heavily into your pension and hence increase the amount they get from the loan. It will reduce your net take-home, but if carefully planned then that may be an option for you.