How much and for what, do you save for your children?

prezzacc

Hi all.

Question... How much if anything do you save for your children? Also what do you plan for them to use it on and when, car at 17? Whatever they want at 21? Education? Nothing?

I have a 1 year old and have a couple accounts for her. No real plans as to what to save for her, if I fill the Halifax reg saver as we currently do & give her the money at 18, that's over £18k. Having little financial info from my parents it's important to me that I teach some financial literacy.
I myself got into gambling at a young age and wasn't good with money. Many years later I now consider myself fairly financially literate or savvy after wanting to look after my money and now enjoy reading and learning about finances.

Have a healthy emergency fund, save regularly, pension contributions and just looking into investments.

Im not even sure giving a lump sum is a good idea. Should I learn myself more about investing and teach how to save/invest and hand over control? Again I do want to teach about money not be given money "for nothing".

Long post to ask a simple question but appreciate any responses.

Thank you

Socajam

Me personally, the savings would be for her to attend university or have a trade so that she is independent.
Nothing beats having an independent woman. Driving lessons could be a part of this also.
I do not believe in giving money for just the sake of it.
As you so rightly said that you did not have a financial education, so once she reaches say 5, you can start small and increase her knowledge as she ages.
I would not tell her about the money, unless you are in a position where you have no choice.
I read somewhere once, where these parents gave their child a debit card with a set limit. The money on the card was to purchase all school supplies (except uniform), toiletries, bus fare and trips with friends etc. The child was about 12 . The parents only provide for food, some clothing, holidays etc.
You could teach her about giving maybe a small % of her money to support a charity.

user1168934

I have a 9 year old. I don't personally deposit anything in his name regularly but he gets pocket money and over the years I have been trying to engage him into savings and, more importantly, earning money. For instance, I pay him for giving me a guitar lesson each week - if he skips he doesn't get paid, I split the money with him for the stuff he finds around the house that we can sell on ebay like old toys, things sitting for ages in the loft or garage. He is allowed to spend his money and he sometimes does but he is also quite good at saving it.
A few weeks ago we counted the money he had saved and it was around £1000 stuffed in piggy banks. :eek:
So now I am trying to teach him to invest the money he has saved. I explained the basic concepts to him and then put it all into VLS100. He is still getting to grips with the idea of it going down in the short term but I think generally he is excited with the prospect of it growing over time.
He has since been asking a lot of questions about how investing works. I have told him the story about not putting all the eggs in one basket. I have shown him some charts and graphs on different sites - I doubt he understood all of it (I doubt I understand all of it myself if I am honest ) but I am hoping by the time he is 18 he would have decent knowledge about managing money and have an attitude to earn it rather than expecting handouts ... and that I think is the most important thing which people these days are missing.

Reaper

We have our son's investments split 3 ways:
1) CTF - comes out at 18 and we will have no control over it
2) Bare Trust - in theory he gets control of it at 18 but (controversially) as a trustee I can delay handing it over if necessary and it turns out to be surprisingly hard for him to force me.
3) Child pension. He doesn't need to wait until retirement to benefit from this. Not needing to make contributions of his own when he has lots of other competing demands (first house, first car etc) will help him long before retirement.

MallyGirl

I have a 17 yo who is just in the process of applying to uni.
What I did from the start was to put the child benefit in an account for her, back when savings rates were better. For a while that was moved to a S&S ISA until I wanted to use the allowance myself. It is mostly in a JISA now which dropped from 6% to 3% a couple of years ago. I still put the 'CB' - that we don't actually get any more - into a Nationwide RS account that pays 3.5% and she can keep till 23.
She got a bank account with debit card at 11 and her pocket money went in there by SO. She now gets a clothes allowance in there as well.
At 17 she got some of the money (given by Grandparents at birth) that wasn't in the JISA to pay for driving lessons and we got her a car - she is now an independent young lady.
She will get the rest at 18 - she knows that there is a 'secret account' but has no idea how much it will be. She is applying for vet med degree which is 5 or 6 years so she is going to need some of the money to see her through uni - maybe she will choose to do some of her work placements abroad. The money gives her choices.
We have always explained how money works, how to save, etc. She knows that we plan to retire early and have been investing in pensions towards this. I believe that she will make sensible choices with the money - she saw her cousin make bad ones so she has his example not to follow.
The financial marketplace has changed. If I had a little one now I would put it in a S&S JISA and leave it alone for 15 years.

Smellyonion

I think it is important for children to learn how to fund their wants and needs in life. I am not a believer in saving for their futures but helping them help themselves. Obviously times of financial hardship may require intervention but you want your kids to be well rounded.


Things like driving lesson or university expenses can be achieved through part time jobs.

MallyGirl

I want my DD to be well rounded which is why she plays multiple instruments in several bands, works very hard at school to get the straight A grades she needs for uni and volunteers at a local animal rescue - stacking shelves in a supermarket would not add anything IMHO.
Once at uni, as a vet med student, she will have to do another 38 weeks of unpaid work experience during the holidays so again there will be little time for a job. If she can fit one in she will do it.

MaxiRobriguez

I don't have children yet, but hoping to in the next couple of years. I sacrifice almost 25% into pension which I'm hoping by retirement will be touching high six figures, which in turn will hopefully will be enough to cover both my retirement as well as pay 2x lots of university fees and 2x deposit for houses.

I'm not going to buy them a car, or holidays for themselves etc - if they want those things they can work for them.

dano17439

We opened a CTF when our daughter was born, which is now a JISA. We save £40 a month in there and the current balance is £7,955. Our aim in to have £10,000 saved to give her when she is 18 (she is currently 14)

Brodiebobs

Perhaps controversially after reading some of these posts, I don't want mine to have too much and want to instill self reliance and a savings ethic.

They both have a CTF which was converted to a JISA, any gifted money is split half to there and half to spend. They both like to have a look how its growing and know how it works.

They both have had pocket money since a young age for doing jobs at home, mainly animal care as we have a few, and the eldest now has a weekend job so we pay her pocket money into the JISA instead of to her and what is earned is hers to do what she wants with, although over summer she worked a lot more and voluntarily put half in her CTF.

They will both have a decent amount probably enough for a small car and insurance but after that they're on their own

MandM90

DD is 11 and has a well-performed CTF funded by grandparents with over £18k in it currently. In retrospect, I think this is a mistake. We're now going hard with the financial education in the hope she doesn't blow it when she legally takes ownership.

I'm pregnant with no 2 and we've already started investing £100 a month into Vanguard in my husband's name. The plan is it'll just be a 'kid fund' and go towards University/training/housing when the time is right. We fill my ISA allowance currently which is why we're keeping it in DH's name - we prioritise SIPPs for him as he's a higher rate tax payer.