Help me save for my children's future

Bringvaluetome

Good afternoon.
I am finally getting my finances back on track this year. I would like to start putting money away each month for my children's future (although a bit late to start)
I have three children - 
Girl - 3 years old and was born December 2016
Boy - 6 Years old and was born March 2013
Boy - 9 Years old and was born in January 2011
It will be only a small amount monthly to start, around £20-£30 for the three of the them. That is just until my debt is gone.
Would a Junior ISA with Hargraves Lansdown be any good?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

xylophone

 Below might be worth a look.https://www.vanguardinvestor.co.uk/investing-explained/stocks-shares-junior-isa?cmpgn=PS0517UKPABJI0001&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI08WJwbXb5wIVhMjeCh3C0gPbEAAYASAAEgJdh_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
https://www.google.com/search?q=monevator+vanguard+lifestrategy&oq=monevator+Vanguard&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0l3j69i60.7901j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Why not start with a cash JISA ?
https://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/consumer/product/savings/children/junior-cash-isa.html

atush

I would go with an investment jisa over a cash one.

But the best way to help your kids is get out of debt, then save a cash emergency fund, then save for them.

Bringvaluetome

Thank you for the great advise.
So not to save anything yet for them until I'm out of debt?

Zorillo

You might consider staggering the start dates and/or the amounts saved for each child to enable the nine year old to do as well as the three year old.

Or you might consider that to be a faff. 

Bringvaluetome

You might consider staggering the start dates and/or the amounts saved for each child to enable the nine year old to do as well as the three year old.

Or you might consider that to be a faff. 

Could you simplify it Zorillo? I'd only be opening one account for the three of them. Or is that not the best thing to do?

Zorillo

You can't have a single JISA for three children. The I in JISA stands for Individual.

Essentially what I meant was if you start saving for all three children now (in individual accounts), the nine year old only has nine years before he's an adult but the three year old has fifteen, so you will save more for the younger child than the older one.

If you are intending a single account, it'd have to be in your own name not the childrens and you'd have to work out a fair way to hand out the money when they're older.

I have twins and keep everything equal between them.

callum5

Once you have cleared all your debt (there are many helpful posts on this forum and on the main MSE website to clear debt quicker and effectively) as mentioned in above replies start saving for the oldest child as he will be 18 first. If you are starting saving for all children at the same time make a larger monthly contribution to the oldest child’s account/fund. You could work out how much you would like to give your children when they are older and then work out how much you should be paying into each account per month so they all have the same amount when they are 18 or if you just want to make monthly contributions to each child’s account of course you are free to do that as well.

I personally use Hargreaves Lansdown (hl.co.uk) with the HL SELECT GLOBAL GROWTH SHARES as the investment in each Junior ISA. I strongly suggest you do your own research to see what investment would work best for you or if you want to put the money into a high interest savings account MSE has a great article detailing each account available and the accounts with the highest interest (moneysavingexpert.com/savings/child-savings-tax-free/)

Hope the information helps

Bringvaluetome

Thank you for the replies!
So you say i should work out the amount require when he is 18 - what is the number???? No idea how much.

callum5

That’s one way to look at it, I’m not sure how much you would want to save but for number’s sake say you wanted each child to have £3,000 when they are 18. For the oldest child that would be £27.77 a month for the next 108 months (9 years), the second oldest £20.83 a month for the next 144 months (12 years), the youngest child £16.66 a month for the next 180 months (15 years) I don’t know what other people put towards it each month or what the national statistics are, you can put just under £5,000 into each Junior ISA per tax year 

callum5

Keep in mind, you can always start with smaller monthly contributions and increase them later on. There is also always the option to make a one time contribution to the account of any amount so if you feel you are able to and would like to give your children more there is always the option