NEW Baby saving for Future- Saving advise

AWOL_2

Hi, we are expecting our first child in a couple of months and as new parents we all worry about what the future may hold.

We want to set up a saving/trust fund or investment type thing where we can currently afford to deposit £100 per month into the fund and have it grow with time. Just in case he or she needs money for a wedding or university .. no one knows what the furture holds.

Looking for a long term investment - i.e. cashing it in after 21 years or so.

How should we look at investing this. anyone know of any good schemes etc.
Investment funds are not garanteed but i guess give the most return?

Any tips will be much appreciated.

Liz_the_Whizz

AWOL,

Congrats on your forthcoming arrival, it's a very exciting time - though nothing can prepare you for when (s)he actually arrives.

I guess the best advice is to go for a range of options, the old adage of not putting all your eggs in one basket.

Certainly, the potential growth of the stock market is attractive over a 20 year term. But be careful as you get nearer the time when the money might be needed to switch it to something less risky in case the market takes a dive just when you are looking to take it out.

One cheap way to get into the stock market is to make a regular contribution into a tracker fund. I went for Fidelity UK Moneybuilder as recommended by Morningstar etc as it has low costs and will simply track what the stock market does.

You can set it up yourself by using your stocks and shares ISA (important if it does grow significantly as any gains will then be free of capital gains) with one of the execution only brokers like Hargreaves Lansdown.

We haven't set up any separate funds for our son (partly to avoid the money being spent unwisely ) but will use our hoped-for gains to help him out a bit as and when he reaches those expensive times of life, just as my mum and dad did with me.

We do put more easily accessible, less risky money for him into a Halifax Children's Regular Saver @ 10%, which is a nice way for him to see how savings work.

And you will also have a Child Trust Fund as an option, our son just missed out on that.

Hope your finances can stand the strain - I read somewhere recently that the average cost of raising a child is now £166k, and that's without the £30k for uni, £15k for a wedding and £150k to buy their first home .

Enjoy:cool:

SimonJ80

He or She is lucky to have such sensible parents!

AWOL_2

Ha ... not sure i would class myself as sensible... all i know is that if a see spare money in my account i am itching to find a way to spend it!!

Holidays, cars... new gadgets.. but if the money is being set aside for my childs future i will not see it as surplus and hence why i need to start budgeting so early!!

Mikeyorks

AWOL wrote: »

Ha ... not sure i would class myself as sensible...

Nor would I .......... I'd just class you as a total fraud.

I remembered a post from you 2 months ago. Where you were asking about a cheque encashing service for your monthly wages cheque. As you (implied you) didn't have a bank account .. and couldn't open one as you had no birth certificate or passport. And all the utility bills were in with the 'rent'!

This is what you said 29th Nov 07 :

I have poor credit histroy and to make things worse i dont have enough valid ID, eg utility bills and or birth certificate/passport.
I know i can get a birth cert pretty cheap but the utility bills are paid for as part of the rent so not under my name.
Catch 22 as they say.

Unfortunatly i had asked to be paid by cash and he said it was too much hassle.
I get paid last day of the month, and rent due on the first day, if i was to bank the cheque it would not clear for 4 days .. which is no good when trying to make things reach.

The thread for others to read :-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=611385

So I looked back a bit (63 new threads out of 128 posts .... not bad!) to find that shortly before 'you had no Bank account' .... you were flying out to Hong Kong this month (Feb 08)! Very difficult to pay for tickets with no Bank account. And even more difficult to go there with no passport? Impossible in fact.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=566784

And back a bit further :

In Feb 07 - you were looking to buy a repossession property "in order to get on the property ladder"
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=366489

But in July 05 ... you were buying a property for yourself and two BTL properties at the same time - with "all 3 Mortgages going through"!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=70349

And in Jan 05 .. you had been selling your house on Your Move
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=24199

....all very unbelievable when put together? Oh .. and don't forget the pad in 'the City' you were going to rent (Feb 05) at £150k
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=32536

I could pull others up, with similar inconsistencies, but I won't bother ..... you're not worth it.

Walter Mitty complex ....... or do you simply enjoy people wasting their time on your mainly fantasy posts?