Young Adults

lindsaydawn69

My children are 24 and 23, both now in full time work after finishing university. They are both still living at home for a minimal rent and need financial advice. Best way to save short term and also long term? Do they need pensions? Life is very different from when I was their age and I’m unsure what advice to give them. 

kimwp

Definitely contribute to pensions - a rule of thumb is to half their ages when they start contributing to give the percentage that they should contribute until retirement. The company contribution can be counted in this, but it's always worth doing the numbers and considering contributing more.
And a LISA.
Regular savers are a good way to save - set them up so the money goes to them a few days after pay day. I saved into regular savers when I started work and saved more whenever I got a salary increase - it's meant I've always had enough when I've wanted to purchase something.
For non-pension savings while they are living at home, they should be aiming to save the cost of "normal" rent and a bit more - then when they move out, they will have a financial cushion and won't have to cut back due to having to pay rent. The "nominal rent" becomes bills and council tax. "A bit more" becomes what they save.

xylophone

My children are 24 and 23, both now in full time work after finishing university. They are both still living at home for a minimal rent and need financial advice. 

Presumably they  have both joined workplace pension schemes.

They might wish to consider LISAs

https://www.gov.uk/lifetime-isa

Work out a personal budget.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/budgeting/budgeting/work-out-your-budget/

Have a current account with a couple of banks.

Virgin with in credit interest and linked saver might suit for one of them.

Angelica123

I think the most important thing is to empower them to take ownership of their own finances. When they chose to move back home, what was their rationale for doing so (as opposed to going into a house share)? Are they looking to save towards a deposit for a house? Do they have an emergency fund? 

A clear budgeting plan is important otherwise it is easy to just spend away the extra money saved on trivial things. That includes having a clear vision of what exactly they are saving for. There are budgeting apps that can help with that or a simple Excel spreadsheet - whatever works best for them. 

It is useful for them to have a credit card to start building a credit history but only if they can pay it off in full every month and only spend what they can afford on it.

A LISA is useful to open but just beware of the restrictions (eg if they are likely to be buying a house more than 450k). 

There is a MSE free Open University course - I have not looked at it myself, and I am not sure if it is any good. But is marketed as a way to get savvy with finances. 

pridehappy

Coming out of university is a huge step and it's a good time to sort out your finances for the long term. I'd highly suggest setting up many different savings accounts, such as an everyday saver for instant access, a lifetime ISA for a longer time, any other savers required and ideally looking at pensions, even though some are contributed by employers.

It's also a good time to look at everyday banking such as current accounts and make sure you are getting the best value you can. Some accounts with great offers include Virgin Money M Plus, Nationwide FlexDirect/FlexPlus, Halifax Reward, NatWest etc. Sometimes it can be as simple as switching accounts internally, so they don't even need to switch banks completely.

Take a look at the range of savers on offer and decide however you want to save. It's best to save for different useful things, instead of just one lump sum each month without knowing what it's purpose is.

It's also a good time for them to take a step back and start to budget, most banks' apps should offer some budgeting functionality or you can do it traditionally on a spreadsheet etc. 

In a summary, it's the best time for a financial review.

theoretica

Suggest they sign up to this site for themselves?

ircE

As someone not much older than your children, I highly recommend having a good look around the MSE website and the r/ukpersonalfinance subreddit's wiki.