To ask how much you have saved/aim to have saved for your child when they reach 18?

A little old but Just in case things remain the same, I think it’s a little sad that you would have your own personal saving but you have chosen to not do the same for your daughter, instead you use hers to pay off the mortgage.

Nothing and i had nothing.

I will allow my dc to live at home so they can save for as long as they like. That'll be worth £1000's in the current climate.
I'm also a pushy mum and expect them to study hard and get a well paid job. That's got to be worth 1000's too.

Re uni costs its quite normal for DC to take a gap year to work and earn money for university. Staying living at home and working full time DC can save a few grand easily.

This is a slightly ridiculous thread. Dh and i have saved loads for the DC but it is because we have loads to save. Few people will be in that position.

Save what you can. Anything is better than nothing.

This.
Plus I worry that the fees will eventually go up and I want to be prepared to cover them if needed.

The amount they get in a loan is dependent on parents income, it reduces after £25k earnings. Rent is very high now and it's much harder to manage without parental help than it was back in the 90s/00s. My rent would be 3x higher now. I didn't have help and it covered my rent and living, now it barely covers the rent alone. Getting a p/t job is a good option, it may still not be enough or might need to be nearly f/t hours to cover living costs, meaning that there's no time to do the actual course and they risk failing/dropping out.

I think we will get them to apply for the course fees to be paid but they’re less in NI than in England. We shall pay accommodation and living expenses. We are not going to pay the course fees because I don’t want it all to be handed to them. They will have to pay for some of it.

@ConsuelaHammock do you plan on paying their fees as well as pay towards their accommodation / living costs. It's fairly unavoidable to leave University these days without huge student loans one way or another. Unfortunately it's a different era in higher education, I remember how long it took to pay off my own student loans (mainly as I came under the threshold for a long time) and the amount to be repaid was paltry compared to what HE costs these days.

We don’t save in our children’s name as such but we do save ‘for them’ in our own names.
Their CTFs were used for birth, christening, birthday money over the years. They have a few thousand in them but nothing substantial. We will support them both if / when they go to university as I don’t want them to have huge student loans to repay.

Not sure if this belongs on here or on the cautionary tale thread, but in their mid 20’s my three DC inherited substantial sums from my DM, and literally blew it all on stupid purchases. So I’m glad I didn’t save anything for them!

The difference is that in her 20s my DD will be able to choose a house deposit, university or post-grad, driving lessons, travel or something else. She won't have to wait until I die to spend it. Very very different.

And specifically my dad has given DD a few bob. He is very happy it's gone into her university savings. He would be apoplectic if I'd put it on my mortgage. I doubt the relatives who gave the money would be pleased. If they would, maybe @CultOfRamen can confirm she's told them. Then it's fine.

Jeeze Louise! You lot still at it? The money probably doesn’t even add up to a whole lot. A couple of thousand pounds, if that? But to those who are on the bones of their arse, and have never had much money to begin with, it probably seems like a small fortune.

Except you are just making a whole range of assumptions and getting yourself wound into a little ball of anger about what you ‘guess’ an stranger on the internet would do.
seriously, move along

Average age to inherit in the UK is 61.
Meanwhile @CultOfRamen gets to benefit for her whole life, from the money people gave for her daughter. If I gave money to a child I would not be happy at all if the parent kept it for themselves as said that the child could have the money after they were dead. She has said that she wouldn't even give the money back if her child wanted to use the money for driving lessons. I bet she will never tell her child about that money and clearing has no intention of ever giving it back while she is still alive.

I think @CultOfRamen is getting an unnecessary hard time.
She is thinking of her daughter. She will be her sole inheritor of her assets and when Cult dies, will inherit a nice mortgage free house to do what she wants with it.
And presumably the less money to pay on the mortgage means more money Cult can spend on her daughter. Perhaps you should all read the other thread where posters are charging their kids haldlf of their wages to stay there after they are 18!

Her daughter gets a lot of money from family, so isn't missing out on buying her plushies or whatever.
I see no difference in this and putting it in a JISA.

All are thinking about their kids, just preparing it in different ways.

The irony, when you haven't worked to overpay your own mortgage. You've used other people's money. Money they thought they had gifted your child. Money that she could have used herself for driving lessons or whatever else she wanted. It's shocking that you're trying to justify using your daughters money that way. 100% you will not tell your daughter that you used her birthday money to benefit yourself as I imagine that would have serious repercussions for your relationship

I should add, I think it's fine to clear out children's bank accounts, of every single penny, if you are on the bones of your ass and are all going to be made homeless without using it. In fact it would be stupid not to. You should be prepared to give that money back though, even if it means selling up, when the kids are young adults and want it back. I don't think this is what's happened here though.

Will your child know she has some of her money, that people gave you for her, buried in your house? Will you tell her when she's 18? You've said you won't give her her own money back for driving lessons. What if she wanted to buy her own house, would you give her her money back then? Or just wanted her own money back, that people gave to her, not you.
I asked a question a while back that you didn't answer. In fact a few questions.
I asked if the gift givers knew you had paid your mortgage down with the money they gave for your daughter?
You replied that they knew you had invested it in her future. This implied (to me) that, no, they don't know you bought yourself a house with her money.
I think it's very wise to put money away for children that relatives have given until early adulthood, but this is not what you have done. I think you have no intention of ever giving your daughter this money back, not until your dead anyway. I would be furious if I'd given money for a child and the parent had kept it like this.

Nothing. Until 5 years ago, every spare penny went on staying afloat, and by then our dc were already 14 and 16.

Now we have spare cash left at the end of the month, we are trying to build up a pension for our own old age... something we could never afford to do before.

We'll help our dc out where we can if they need it, but we've brought them up to be independent and to stand on their own 2 feet, and now they're adults, it's on them to make their own way in the world.
The youngest is meant to go to uni this year, so we'll support them and top up their loans to the maximum amount, but we'll also expect them to get a job in summer, etc, to contribute to their education/social life.

One child (11) and he has just shy of £20k in his account but £10k of that was left to him in wills by two family members.

My parents kindly gave £5k to each of my kids - to try and avoid inheritance tax. We pay in £100 a month to each of their accounts plus some odd Xmas and birthday money goes in. It’s not loads but hopefully enough for uni/first car or - depending on our circs at the time - will encourage them to keep it towards a home.

You say the house is there when she needs it. Does that mean;

a: You'll have moved out
b: She has to live with you if she wants to live the house
c: She’ll inherit

The second 2 don’t sound great! Perhaps I’m biased as a friend recently inherited from her mum at 66; her brothers were in their 70s!

OTOH, if you are mortgage free, you’ll have more disposable income, so perhaps you could help her that way.

I don’t understand why you’re getting so much stick for this. As you said, it’s a different way of saving. Nobody here knows the full picture and the way you speak about your DD you’re clearly a great mum!

No I don’t live in the uk.
how is my attitude shitty? Because you disagree with me? you don’t think my financial plan for my child is as good as yours therefore I’m a shitty person?
reap what you sow indeed.