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

No, she will have to work to pay for driving lessons and a car as I believe this is important for a child to develop a sense of responsibility.
whatever she saves for a car I will match 50% from my personal savings to ensure she can afford something safe and reliable.

I assume you’re not in the UK? Here, if you need care in old age the state takes your house, and if you’ve given it away they will go after your DD for your care costs.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/care/paying-for-care/paying-for-a-care-home/deprivation-of-assets/

Eityer way, your attitude is pretty shitty and you reap what you sow.

Enough to get them started at uni with a laptop, books, maybe an old banger of a car. Currently saving £25-50 per month. Sometimes nothing. It won’t get them on the housing market but might help uni costs.

Also, when you say your house is there for her when she needs it, are you talking about after you die? I think I already pointed out up thread, average age to inherit it 61.

Plus any interest she would have earned had her money been in a bank?

So if your daughter asked you for the money 'put away for her future' so she could learn to drive and get a car (for example) would you remortgage your house if you had to to give it to her?

I won’t be selling the house in my old age.
the house is hers when she needs it.
whether to continue to live in, or to sell for something she wants.
and yes people who gift her money know that she gets half to spend and half gets put away for her future.

We have £100 that goes into a junior ISA monthly which he can access at 18, and £50 monthly in a junior saver that he will access at 16, so should total around £30k although god knows how far that will get him by then but will hopefully be able to finance driving lessons, a car and then maybe some kept back for part of a deposit on a property later on. On the flip side I had a grand total of zilch saved for me growing up and gained huge satisfaction out of doing all that on my own!

Its totally understandable to not help your kids out if you can’t afford it but this idea that they won’t understand the value of hard work unless they’re down the pits 23 hours a day is really dim

I think most people will have paid off their mortgages long before they need a care home, so how they got the money isn’t that relevant

I agree with your second point People usually gift children money because they are not sure what the child will like, so the child can choose for themselves. They do not expect the money to go on mortgage payments!

What happens when your home has to be sold to cover your care costs in old age. The state won't accept that your DD has any interest in the property simply because you used her money to pay down your mortgage.

And how do those who are gifting her the money feel about it? Surely if they wanted you to have the money they'd pay it to you in the first place.

@MrsDTucker it is for the benefit of that child, no stipulation that benefit should be immediate - for all we know the OP lives frugally or in a cheaper area of the country which allows them to save.

Child benefit used to be a universal benefit for all children. That stopped during this Conservative term in Government & became means tested (a bit unfairly but that’s another debate) but it means the OP is not in a higher earning household. I stopped getting child benefit for my children at that point, but living in the South East it it would still come in useful!

If the OP is saving hers for her kids it’s surely better than the minority of people who will use it to fund their habits e.g. smoking or drinking. What I mean is if people are eligible for it you can’t then determine what they spend it on & savings for children’s futures is preferable to wasting it.

You can’t add an under 18 and a mortgage lender wouldn’t allow someone to have an interest in the property who isn’t also
party to the mortgage.

Nope. Affluence is not required, as the current government tax relief and compound interest over the years will do the job.
You also don’t need to max any allowance out, just commit to what is affordable.

https://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/junior-sipp/junior-sipp-calculator

Why tie up money? See the concerns about 18 year olds blowing the savings, or the many threads about adults with no pension/pension awareness. The ISA and the SIPP can co-exist.

I don’t own a property, so won’t be mortgage free. It doesn’t mean I can’t afford a contribution to my daughter’s SIPP or ISA. I may not max out the allowances, but it may serve the purpose of putting better financial planning on her radar.

In any case, this is just another option for setting the children on the path to financial freedom. Given life is so expensive and the retirement age keeps moving out of reach, it can’t hurt to start them early.

DD is 10 and we have around 20,000 currently.
But, we were much older parents and more financially stable now than we were in our 20s and 30s. In honesty, I'd trade it all to be a younger parent. Years with her are more important than the cash I can give her.

Presumably because the compound interest is so nuts over such a long time. It wouldn't be my natural inclination but for every £1000 saved by the time the child is 10 they'll be £15,000 by the time they retire. (5% return.)

In the insane and imaginary world where you could put £25k in for them at birth it would be worth half a million quid by the time they retired at 60.

So if you have two adults working 40 hours a week each on minimum wage (£48k ish household income) you'd be expected to contribute £3k a year towards your child's degree, so £9-£12k total.

That's a pretty hefty sum of money for the government to ask for and I think makes it clear that saying no household contribution is expected has no basis in fact.

Surely you’d only do a junior SIPP (pension) if you were incredibly affluent and once you were absolutely debt free yourself, perhaps mortgage free, had a decent pension pot, your own ISA allowance maxed out. Even then you’d firstly consider a junior ISA (but mindful they have access at 18). All before you’d consider a junior SIPP that they can’t access until they retire! Why tie money up until OPs current 2yr old retires?

We don't add to their savings but they put their birthday and Christmas money in, all theirs at 18 to do with as they wish. Should be around the £6-8k mark. Would have been more had I used S&S instead of a rubbish interest rate CTF for years. In a better rate JISA and savings now.

He will also inherit a couple of properties and some land his Dad has abroad ☀️

@BirthdayRainbow in my experience the ones who blow it have come from less well off families and this is the first time they have access to a small ish amount of money and they are free 18!.. Sometimes, wasting it is a life lesson.

Also remember, interest in normal bank accounts is low ish, 3 % to perhaps 5 5 %... If you look at stocks and shares isa you will get much more... We have savings split across both. I show my dc how money goes into various pots each pay day etc.
I try and work talking about investments into every day life.
I've opened a sipp for them and asked them to choose between 4 investments, looked at the top tens etc and looked at the sectors, where the countries invested in.

They have had bank cards for years and automatically save a little and spend a little.

I put away £50/month. I hope to give it to them when they turn 25. But it's also there as a back up for unplanned expenses, things like school trips etc.

In my opinion any amount of savings is a bonus.

We save £30 p/m for each of them and grandparents often add £50 or £100 on birthdays or Christmas. I’m hoping with interest and the occasional extra boost from us that it will reach £10k maybe.

Have you seen how low student loans are? My dc gets £4700 from September. Rent alone is far more than that. Yes she has worked since 16 and will work but our required contribution is £5500 a year.
They have adjusted the paperwork after a Martin Lewis campaign to make it clear that parents are expected to contribute.