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

We saved over the 18 years about 3k. My parents saved similar. They also got 10k inheritance.

Eldest paid for driving lessons, bought a car and went travelling

Youngest bought a laptop, watch and a new bed and blew the rest on nights out/ clothes/ makeup

Not a bean. Not everyone can, not everyone thinks they should.

It isn't your money, it is hers and she cannot consent to you using it. So actually yes, she should either have her investment realised through being on the deeds or through you returning her investment with interest at a later stage. The latter is more risky for her as who knows what your position will be later on - even if you plan for her to inherit, it could be eaten up in care fees etc. So actually yes I do think it is shameful to take your child's money. Just because they're your child doesn't make it better than if you took anyone else's money without their consent.

Try not to compare, every little helps. When we can we put our child's child benefit into a savings account for him, and any money for Christmas/birthday goes in there. We tend to not buy many presents ourselves as relatives like doing toys etc so we put £100 in at birthday/Christmas.

It's only if it can be afforded that we do the child benefit though - if we needed to buy school uniform etc on an expensive month then it wouldn't go into his savings, and since increases to overall costs that becomes more frequent!

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

This is approximately 13 years saving.

DS will hopefully have about 30k by the time he's 18 but we have kept it in our name so we can give him it as we see fit.
There is no right or wrong you do what you can and everyone is different.

Mine is 18, he has about £13000 in a Child Trust Fund thingy- that thing where the govt at the time was giving £250 to every new baby, but you couldn’t spend it- it had to be used to open the child trust fund, which you could then add to ( or not) with more money. We put the £250 into a share -based one, plus about £1000 we received from grandparents, my brother etc ‘for the baby’ and just left it there. And it’s grown to about £13,000. He’ll be off to uni in September so I’m glad it’s there as back-up, as neither I nor his dad earn much so we can’t contribute much to supporting him at uni. He’s fairly sensible so I don’t think he’d fritter it away, and I can’t access it anyway as CTFs belong to the child once they turn 18.

£35,000.
but …….
I got £250 from the govt
I only had 1 child
He’s neurotypical and has no additional needs
I have always worked full time
I have been lucky and been fit & health & never had to have any significant time off

I couldn’t save anything regularly before he was school age. Nursery was expensive but I set up my life to afford this and so when he went to school, I carried on putting half the nursery fees away in a child trust fund thing that was around at the time.

The money was spent on uni degree and on setting himself up in a flat with a car to start his first job last year. No partying, booze etc. He was incredibly grateful and very careful and I think a lot of 18 years old are.

I don't save anything in my child's names. They do have small savings accounts where money from grandparents etc in birthday cards go's.
I remember so many people from university blowing massive savings on holidays and crap.
Honestly you are better off being able to support your child and perhaps step in later if house deposit is required. Ie just build up your own savings.

DS is 2, We put in 25 a month and birthdays or Christmas he might get a couple of hundred from grandparents, I think to date it’s 1400 roughly. When there is a bit more I expect we will invest it to try and grow it.

Zero

Nothing. I don’t have a lot and I have learnt to do what my mum done with my upbringing and use the money to give us an enjoyable childhood rather than saving that money. I have a friend who’s parents saved their birthday money, didn’t give them Easter eggs or allow relatives to give Easter eggs and instead asked for money to put in an account for when they were older. They spent their childhood saving for adulthood rather than enjoying their childhood. So with my son, I’d rather give him a £5 Easter egg or spend £30 on a day trip that he’ll enjoy than deprive him of that.

I do put money aside each month for my son, but as I’m a single parent that money gets used for clothes, uniform, the odd toy here and there. It’s not a future savings - it’s a spending savings

I think it varies a lot - my oldest got one of those savings pots that were automatically set up for a short period and my youngest didn't, so I set up a Junior ISA for him, and I think the older one's got transferred to a Junior ISA later. I didn't add anything in for the first 5-7 years as we had no spare money when we were paying for ft childcare and I didn't earn that much.

About 10 years ago we were on holiday with friends and a few were talking about putting money in their kids' accounts each month and that made me feel a bit guilty as I'd imagine they were giving them quite a lot. I started with a fairly small sum, about £20 each a month, it went up to £50 about 5 years ago and during COVID, seeing as our outgoings vanished I put it up to £100 a month for around a year, but now back at £50. I'm the only one who contributes as DH's income is a bit variable.

I don't have a goal amount, but it will be in 5 figures by the time they are 18.

That seems like a very sensible thing to do.

This. DS knows about his, is still a student, hasn’t asked for a penny of it yet because he knows that he’ll need it all for a deposit if he’s to have any chance of owning his own house in the current climate. Not all young people are idiots.

We help with expensives.
We paid for accomondation and books for dd1 while studing for a midwife degree in Europe and we pay ds' accomondation and books at university in England.
We pay the tickets then they travel to see us.

They are not handed a sum of money to play around with.

We didn't save anything for DS but we had savings which we used to help with university, we will also help from our savings with a house deposit if we think it's appropriate but we never saved to give him a lump sum

We invest £100 a month per child into an ISA (not JISA). Because we both earn a good salary we will need to contribute to university. We will try and increase this when crippling nursery fees go away!

That’s absolutely not the case for all the ones I know. Most have been incredibly grateful and spent it on uni or other qualifications or a car or it’s still saved.

Firstly, I would say that comparison is the thief of joy (relating to the opening post and the comparison of what they have and what others have)

I also think it's a bit like asking how much someone earns or what their house is worth.

Save what you are able. Wether that ends up being enough to pay for driving lessons, a car or a deposit on a property will depend on what you can afford. Just be realistic.

Ffs. I’m her parent. I’m responsible for her. That includes making financial decisions on her behalf. Paying off my
mortgage quicker means either a) she lives in a mortgage free home which directly benefits her or b) she inherits a property which directly benefits her.

option d- putting it in an idea for her 18th and she blows it on a bender in Bali, yeah nah

shes fucking 10. $300 is the same as 30 tacos to her.

shes an only child. Everything I have is hers. She can pick the flesh from my bones when I’m dead and il give it happily.

I never had any spare while DD was growing up.
But we've had the bittersweet bonus of inheritance recently so suddenly I have been able to put enough to one side to pay her living expenses through university.
But frankly, any amount is better than none. A couple of my friends were able to put regular amounts away into savings which have done really well and the kids are set to get a considerable wedge at 18. Fingers crossed they spend it wisely.

We put away about a tenner a month per child. Not much but means they both get about 2500 at 18. Not enough to put towards a house but we will encourage them to put it towards travel/education/car. DD is 18 and is using hers towards travel in Europe after A Levels. DS not 18 yet so not sure what he’ll want to spend it on.

Well, the money being given is for her, not you. It’s completely different to putting it in a savings account for her as she’d choose what to do with it when the time comes which is, presumably, what the person gifting the money wants. You’re choosing how to spend money given to her on your mortgage. Do the people giving her the money know this is happening? I know I wouldn’t be happy if I gave my grandkids money and the parents took half to pay the bills/mortgage, that’s awful.

it’s also not just a choice of paying off your mortgage or toys clogging up the house; put it into a savings account in her name!