Disappointed we didn’t save in child trust fund?

Yeah.

My son got around £1,800. Blew the lot on shit. He would have done the same if it was £10k. Some young people are just stupid.

I never told him, but I did same at 18. My mum had scrimped and saved before she died and I had 5k, which was a hell of a lot in 1996. Blew the lot on trying to make a group of people be my friends (they were, until the money ran out).

We did add a bit to the CTF but nowhere near as much as we intended. 18 years has crept up on us very fast.

I am going to set up a pension for him and put some in every month.

I agree with others. It seems a strangely small amount, but at 18 they just blow it anyway. If it went into a pension, and even if you added to that, it could be massive by the time she retires. That's when people need it.

My DD will be getting £461 next month. I think it was initially £250 that was given by gov - were there two levels? £250/£500? I can’t remember. My DS who was 18 last year got £1600. Never paid anything into either of them. Too much money spent on education and holidays to have anything left to pay in. DS used his to help pay for a car. DD will hopefully use herself towards travelling in Gap year. The deal with me is I’ll add the same amount if it is used for travel (flights/rail ticket) but if she blows it on other stuff then she gets no contribution from me.

hahahaI am ever the optimist, but even that is very optimistic from me, bloody hell I would put my own money in that scheme haha £15,000 is the figure I am looking at

Move to a lifetime ISA so they get the 25% government top up to help save to a deposit.
Not all 18 year olds blow it, mine didn’t she has move £4K a year into a lifetime ISA to take full advantage of the government top up. She has now grown what she got by another 30% in 3 years.

@Lanzarotelady That’s optimistic in a year and a half! What are you investing in? bitcoins or cocaine!!!!!

😃

Management fees on CTFs increased vastly as the number of providers dwindled. We changed DS's CFT to a Nutmeg JISA a long time ago as the fees were so much better. He is 17 now. We haven't saved regularly for him into this, just birthday/Xmas money as and when, although his grandad has given him £1000 birthday money for his savings each year for the last ten or so years. When I last looked at the JISA performance DS had over £40k in there, although it's probably lower now due to recent stock market volatility. It's certainly way more than the contribution made.

I don't worry that DS will blow it all on the slot machines in Vegas (or something equally dumb) as he's always been included in the conversation and knows the money is for either University or a deposit for a flat and is accepting of that. Of course once he gets the money it's out of my control but I think/hope he will be sensible.

what scheme was this? As in what did it do for you? The gov added money or something?

I didn’t put anything in it, I saved separately. I didn’t even know the account details. My ex set it up and we split up when DD was a baby. In fact I had completely forgotten about it until she asked about it before her 18th birthday. The government put in £500 and that grew to over £1000.

My son is 16.5 has £7500 in and a further £5000 in premium bonds - I am hoping that when he is 18 he will have £150000 to see him through uni, get a car, insure it etc

Surely their parents must have put money in, its not all tax payers money! If you're using that argument, what about child benefit, used on non essentials?

The stock market is quite volatile at the moment because of Trump. I’ve got. Stocks and shares ISA and I took it all out before the US election and I calculated I would have lost thousands.

My dc got about £400 for their CTF. One put it in the lifetime ISA we got her for her eighteenth and the other is keeping it for extra money when she starts university.

One of my friends put loads into her ds’s CTF and he spent it all in about three months on going to Ibiza and other such stuff.

Indeed. Both mine have money coming from grandparents when they are 21 and we’ve financially planned to be able to subsidise as much as possible when they go to university and pay a bit off their loans when they graduate. At this stage in our lives we are able to afford it, whereas until they were each about 11, we just didn’t have the excess cash.

@Bambootrees don’t beat yourself up - the £599 is still free cash and you have plenty of time to make it up to them later with deposits on houses, weddings, college if they go, or spoiling their grandkids (my in-laws gave us money to kit out the nursery/buy buggies etc - money that was really helpful and meaningful at a time we were old enough to appreciate it!).

As a taxpayer I think you are being a bit snippy to describe the free CTF money your child was given as a “product”. The fact that as a parent you chose not to take the opportunity over 18 years to turn the initial free sum into something more substantial - as others have done - does not make it “the worse product ever” and says more about your financial acumen than the quality of the “product”.

My ds was happy with the £500. We gave him every opportunity growing up, encouraging all his interests, which were often expensive so we spent it that way really plus we just didn't really think to save more. He's working pt now and pretty good with money.

Yes I have saved for DD and upon her 18th birthday she had access to those savings but I instructed her to move the funds to a fixed high yield savings account. There is no way on earth I would let DD have thousands at her age. She knows the money that I saved will contribute to a house deposit in the future or for a serious emergency.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself, the best gift you can give your DD is to encourage her to save and manage her own money: high yield savings account, ISA’s, ETF’s etc. She will learn nothing by being given a sizeable sum on her 18th.

Kids blowing the lot is my big fear with handing 18yos wads of cash.

We didn't have these when I was younger (I'm 32 now), but my mum put a little bit in to an account she set up for me whenever she could. When I bought my first flat in 2020, there was about £2000 in it, so she paid for my new sofa and a couple of other furniture bits and bobs with it. It was extremely appreciated.
My dad bought me my first car in 2010. It cost him £900

Honestly, as someone’s who’s not quite yet a mother so opinion may not mean much, it wouldn’t have done any harm 🤷🏻‍♀️ but I wouldn’t say it’s the end of the world for not doing it. Unless you were putting away a decent amount religiously every month; it wouldn’t have wielded a crazy amount. But it still would’ve been a nice bonus on top. Don’t beat yourself up over it!

@Echobellyas someone who got her savings a few years back, yes they do talk about it. A lot. 😂 In fact, I didn’t know about my savings even existed until my friends started individually excitedly talking about how much they had gotten. My parents never spoke to me about it, and I never got a letter or anything. It’s kinda obvious tho, yes youths will boast and discuss how much free money they’ve got to waste on partying n cars etc 🤷🏻‍♀️ that’s literally what they do 😂

Don't beat yourself up OP.

These posts only get 2 types of responses.

Group 1 that did the same as you
Group 2 that added extra and have larger sums.

Group 2 then get vilified for it with posters gloating that all DCs are financially irresponsible fools who'll burn through it on drink and drugs in 6 months of turning 18.

So it's lose/lose.

I'd recommend a SIPP (pension) as doing this would be as beneficial as if you'd invested in the CTF but has the added bonus of no one getting their mitts on it until 57.

(From someone who is in Group 2)

@NancyDroooIt’s a nice feeling to know they have that small cushion. My DD knows she’s lucky to have it and welcomed advice on what to invest and where when it matured. No way would she have just burnt trough it. The money is just handed over to the young person so you have to get them prepared!

No neither of my children’s Trust Funds performed very well so don’t beat yourself up - saving would have been a good idea generally but not necessarily in CTF.