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

Save what you can IF you can.

Your job is to love your kids, keep them safe, healthy, happy and support them within your means and capability to fulfill their potential.

It’s good if you can forward plan to see how you can make that happen in whatever way suits your life and means best.

Whether that be by saving a fund for them, preparing to support the Uni years, and / or doing what you can to build their confidence and self worth.

No point comparing sums of £££££

Ordinary people can save money too though. People with money aren't ordinary

I cannot believe somebody uses their child’s birthday money to overpay their mortgage 😂😂😱 - that’s so cheeky 😂

You use your child's birthday and Christmas money to pay off your mortgage? 😮😮
Do the people gifting your child the money, know that you are taking half of it?
That's outrageous!

With the cost of nursery fees at the minute, nothing. One nursery eases a bit, we plan to spend some money on the house, which will probably take us to when they start school. At that point, our plan is to overpay the mortgage and bring the term down and up our pension contributions. We don’t plan on giving her a savings account in her name.

DC will be an only child and the plan is to overpay the mortgage so by the time they go to university, we will be mortgage free and can help out. I don’t know if we’ll be able to pay fees but we should be able to help with rent and some living expenses. We also plan to sell our house, release some equity for a house deposit. I’m also hoping if we can contribute more to pension contributions, if they want children and live close to us, that we would be able to reduce our working hours and help out with childcare to save them a small fortune.

I had a small amount when I was 18 and I think if you’re in the position it’s great but a small amount should be spent on being 18 - travelling, having a first holiday with friends, buying a nicer car. I don’t want to save for it to be conditional or blown on something I don’t see as good enough. We would rather keep all money in our names and contribute to what we feel is worthy as we’re able to do at the time.

Everyone does the approach that is best for them based on how much spare money they have (if any), what they were like as teenagers and what they’ve seen other people be like as teens.

I saved more for DS when he was tiny and didn’t actually cost me that much. Now he’s 8 and I seem to spend several hundred pounds a month on extracurricular activities, shoes, clothes, sports equipment etc so there just isn’t as much leftover. I get an annual bonus and usually chuck a few hundred from that into his savings, but otherwise we prioritise our own savings and overpaying the mortgage. However this approach should mean the mortgage is paid off in around 8 years i.e. before he goes to uni, so we’ll be able to give him a lot of financial support then and/or save a lot more towards helping him onto the housing ladder.

3k for DS 3.

He gets a decent interest on anything under 5k, so any savings over that will go into a different account & go towards uni savings. The 5k account can be for a car/insurance etc.

Were probably going to be expected to have at least 50k per kid per Uni course saved, so making a start on it now. We do have investments that could help toward a deposit, but as we didn’t need support for that from family, it’s not the biggest priority.

Nothing. I wouldn’t trust an 18 year old with a large sum of unearned money. I was working at weekends and school holidays and valued every penny.
However we are generous with our own (modest) savings for the kids as and when needed.

yes I send them all a charity donation tax relief receipt with the carefully hand written, family crest embossed thank you notes.

seriously, chill out

Mine all got jobs at 16 and had considerable savings by 18 they did this while doing a levels. Kids need to work. It's not good for them to be handed everything on a plate

I currently have 3k between the two of them in a savings account which is at 6.1%.

They are 6 and 8, so I'm really going to focus the next 6 months on plugging away at their pot. Life just gets in the way sometimes.

I am keeping it in my name, but I'm planning to open some premium bonds in their names.

I've not heard of a junior SIPP so I will look into that.

I put £50 a month away, they get £10 pcm from grandparents then some money for birthdays. It’s about £800 p/y. So I guess around £15k. They are young though so Christmas and birthday money is saved where I expect soon they’ll want to spend it.

With the way student finance is in England if you can save a small amount over the years it can make the difference between being able to go away to uni or not.
Two parents on £30,000 each and you are expected to pay £5500 a year out of your net to bring loan up to full amount. Without getting into the max loan won’t even cover rent in some scenario. Threshold of household income under £25,000 to get full loan hasn’t changed for years.
unsurprisingly lots of parents of teens find themselves blindsided as they think dc can get a loan. Lots of why did no one say when they were small.
If teen doesn’t want uni then can use it for car/housing etc.

I save £5 each per month for both

This is very personal to each individual. You can only save what you can afford to and shouldn't compare with others. As a single parent since DD was 4, I couldn't save anything for her for years, as I had to prioritise the mortgage and bills etc. I now save £25 a month for her.

DD is 16 now. She has £3.5K in savings that she has accumulated since birth , from birth gifts, christening gifts , Christmas , birthdays etc. She has £600 in premium bonds and I pay £25 a month into there.

She also has the Child Trust Fund that started with the £250 voucher from the government. I paid around £600 in on top of that before my marriage ended. Kidstart has paid in around £500 over the years. It is now worth about £3K as it has grown so much.

So in total she might have around £7K when is she is 18.

As a single parent I intend to put 50% of my house in DD's name once she is done with education and the mortgage is paid off), in order that it doesn't all go in care home fees in the future .

DS 10 will get the houses eventually (it's planned well including Switzerland if needed ) we have enough saved to give him a decent house deposit at 21 and a nice friend's holiday at 18. Driving lessons, car, uni living costs etc will just be paid from our salaries. We aren't in massive salaries but live in a cheaper area to give us a better quality of life

18k currently, she's 16. Aiming for 20k by 18, she knows about it, has known for a few years, and plans to use it towards university and travel before she goes to uni.

We've been very fortunate and she's had it drummed into her what a privilege this money is and she's not to take it for granted. She's gone and got herself a part time job on her own steam so she can add to her personal savings, which is just birthday money from relatives and such, so I've got my fingers crossed we've taught the lesson well.

If she was showing any signs of being irresponsible or reckless she wouldn't be getting it. So it's conditional money, not guaranteed. I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do, but it felt right to us.

My DS is 2 and has £2,000 saved in a regular ISA so I can decide when he has access to it. We save £50 a month and all birthday and Christmas money. Have another DS due in a few weeks and will do the same for him too.

If our situation changes we will look to reduce the amounts but for now it's ok for us

Just do what you can manage. It all adds up

I’ve got an only child too. I don’t spend their money on MY house. You don’t know what’s going to happen- your house might be sold for care home fees, your daughter might need access to her own money before you die? Bottom line- not your money to spend, it’s hers. Do the people who give her money know you’re doing this? I wouldn’t give money to a child in these circumstances.

Do the people who kindly give money to your daughter know that you're using it to pay your mortgage? I think that's awful

£100 a month in CTF, currently worth £25k.

This is approximately 13 years saving.

Wow, that’s a big return on a 15k saving,

£0

I do hope to have enough savings of my own which I could use to help them if needed but I don’t intend on putting money in their name to handover. Personally think it’s foolish.

£60k JISA at 18. £60k SIPP at 21. Appreciate that is extraordinarily privileged.

Planning for little to zero inheritance though.

Yawn