Savings for your children??

[threecurrantbuns]

Im interested to know, in reality how many of your have savings in place for your children when they are older?

Surely in this economic climate this isnt the norm??

But im having a wobble as i keep reading of how saving should be in place, that you should be setting aside x each month to allow your children the oppotunity of university etc!??

We are not hard up, pay our bill, afford what needed for day to day life etc but i cannot imagine having an amount spaare each month (times 3) to save!

[threecurrantbuns]

Awful typos, very tired Zzzzz

[lurcherlover]

I have a savings account for DS that I opened when he was given some cheques for his Christening. There's £200 in it at the moment (he's 7 months old). It's just an ordinary kids' account - the bank told me it was the only one they do. I'm on mat leave at the mo so no spare cash, but when I'm back at work I plan to try and put £100 a month into it if I can. I'm conscious that he is my (P)FB and I will need to treat future DCs equally, so whether I can still afford to put the same amount in as and when they arrive remains to be seen...but I'm going to while I can. I figure if I can try and get £1000 a year in there, that's a nice nest egg (including interest) by the time he's 18. The tricky thing will be making sure he spends it on something sensible! I may not tell him the fund exists until I see him trying to buy a house...

[WhereamI]

oh I'm interested too in advice for money/kids...I think there's a forum here on legal/money issues so perhaps ask the question in that

[cjbartlett]

No can't afford it
only birthday cheques go in
they only got a couple of hundred
they can still go to uni though, they don't have to pay back any loans until they're earning x amount

[Gonzo33]

I save fifteen a month in one and ten in the other because I am playing catch up with my oldest. If I am honest at the moment I cannot afford to save any more because I am unable to work full time (we are living overseas due to husbands job and we live in an expensive country) and we both have debts that we are paying off from our exes. When I do go back to working full time we are going to buy our forever home as our debts will be finished before we move back and then start ploughing money into savings for the children before starting on our retirement plan.

I always seem to find things that we have to save for. What I'd really like to do right now is blow the money and have a nice holiday!

In these times of uncertainty I don't think many people are saving for their children because most need every penny they have.

I reckon most parents will help their children out with uni costs and house buying if they can, whether they save monthly, or just give them a lump sum at the time. everyone wants the best for their children don't they.

[BriansMum]

We have savings accounts for both our DC but have no intention of giving it to them on their 18th birthdays! We will either use it to fund uni or help them buy their first house.

[thestringcheeseincident]

We save all their child benefit plus birthday moneys. Same plan as briansmum, it will only be for uni or home purchase. Not to fritter away on cars and holidays.

[BriansMum]

Or weddings!

[GooGooMuck]

I'm putting £10 each month in for each. Not in their child trust fund. No automatic entitlement to it here

[Gonzo33]

@ BriansMum. I am dreading that! Going to have to be a quick registry office job for both of mine .. lol

[OddBoots]

My children have a small amount of savings given them from other people (and dd has a CTF) but dh and I have decided that instead of saving for them we are paying off our mortgage as fast as we can and then saving up so if and when the children need help we can give it to them.

Overall though I think it is more important to grow up in a household where the bills can be paid and stress is as low as possible than to have a lump sum pad to them at 18.

[BriansMum]

Whatever mine decide to re weddings I'm not paying!

If they want a small do I might throw em a few quid but if they want to spend £20 k on matching napkins and an overpriced band they're not doing it with my money!

[Roo83]

Me and my partner each have a high interest savings account that we are putting money into for when the kids are older. We did the accounts in our names so there isn't a set age they get the money. We'll decide depending on circumstances what to give them and when. I think it's a nice thing to do if you can but my parents never had savings for me, they spent what they had giving us the best childhood they could. It didnt stop me going to uni, I just funded it myself and was a lot more savvy with my money than some other students!

[Firawla]

not really got any savings for ours so far, but as for saving for uni they can get student loan and pay it back when they are working so i don't really see the need for parents to be made to feel they have to fund it? surely they are an adult by then, it babies them and stifles their independance if parents still paying for everything by that age imo. if parents can save it then good for them, but if you can't i wouldn't feel bad i doubt that many people can esp these days. the essential things is making sure your kids are fed and clothed and housed in the immediate future, if you dont have more money then can't really afford to have to feel guilty about things like uni yrs and yrs down the line

[sunshineandshowers13]

i'm sorry - savings?
if we make it to the end of the month before wages are gone then we class it as good month.

[pippop1]

Roo83 everyone, even a child, is entitled to their own tax-free personal allowance so unless you and your husband don't pay any tax you will be taxed on the interest that accumulates in the acct that you have for your children. I think you might be able to change the name on the acct to Roo83 in Trust For Baby Roo83 so that the interest is paid into the acct tax-free. Ask the staff there. Shame to give it to the Govt for no reason!

[BirdyBedtime]

Ditto what pippop said - we have accounts for both DCs but each of us is a co-signatory on one of them so they get the benefit of the tax free savings but they can't just take it all out and blow it on a holiday when they are 16/18 as we need to sign to agree to them withdrawing the money. We have been in the very lucky position to date of not needing the child benefit money so this gets divided in half and each gets £67 per month (and one month a year I get the £135 to myself (or rather to buy clothes/shoes for them!!)). DDs got to the account limit earlier this year so we took out a 5 year high interest bond in her name, but again with DH as co-signatory. There's no way I'd save in accounts that they can access willy nilly come 16 or 18 as there is the slim chance with any child that they will just waste it.

[Tidybush]

We started a savings plan for ours (17&14) when they were little and it was set to pay out £5k each when they reached 18 yo.

When we started this it would have paid for their uni fees and some towards their living costs (fees were £1500 pa then).

So, however much you think you'll need to save - it won't be enough

FYI Halifax do a children's regular savings account that pays 6% if you pay in between £10 and £100 every month for 12 months. At the end of the year the money transfers into a rubbish account though so you'll have to move it to something better to keep it working.

[pippop1]

Birdy, or just don't tell them the acct exsists!

When they start work (and earn enough so that their own personal allowance plus the interest on their own acct exceeds the personal allowance) THEN you can tell them. With the current job situation that will be a long time, possibly post University. This may stop arguments e.g. DC: I want to buy a car. I've got enough money!. You say: yes but that's for Uni/deposit for flat....