Savings for kids

[whyohwhydidieatthatpie]

Just wanted to get a sense of what other people do in terms of savings on behalf of a child.

We are lucky enough to have a little left over every month, not loads but enough to save a bit for a rainy day. We have 2 DC (5 and 3) and at the moment we put £5 a month each into a savings account for them. I want to do this as I think that when they're older it would be nice to have a little fund to help them to pay for things like driving lessons, that even with a job would be a stretch for a 17 year old. I know that £5 a month isn't a lot, but it's what we can manage for now and in 10 years time will be something. We also put in any money they get for birthdays/christmas from relatives.

DH thinks I'm mad and that no one has savings accounts for kids unless they have oodles of spare cash whereas I always assumed that if you could put a bit aside then that was the norm? Who knows what might happen in the future, we may not be able to afford it then unless we save now. My parents were pretty well off when I was younger, but that was a bit of a distant memory by the time I went to uni and they weren't able to help me at all and buying books / a laptop / food was hard. I guess I'd just like to avoid that.

So, save or leave it up to the kids to sort themselves out? Wondering what mumsnetters do, is there some magic formula like a % of savings you designate for when the kids are older and more expensive?

My kids all have the family accounts set up when they were doing the vouchers though one of mine didn't get the voucher but she still has the account. We currently pay in £20 each every month. We were about to increase it but finances have been hit by covid. I'm very glad we have done it now, especially following the year we had! Will be great if they decide to go to uni although it won't go far! I think my eldest has around £7000 now.

I save birthday and Christmas money and child benefit for the months I don't need it. The account is in DS' name but I have full access to it online. I also save £25 pcm into premium bonds because I think they are "fun". Sad - yes I am.

Open a stakeholder pension for them. The amount earned before 18 will be worth more than afterwards. Then open a junior isa have a look at friendly societies like the Foresters. They have other benefits along the way and support with higher education etc. www.forestersfriendlysociety.co.uk/all-products

I was putting away £20pm per child but after getting made redundant due to covid I couldnt keep it up. I have my own savings so put a bit of mine into each of their accounts and they get circa £10pm in interest atm which will be theirs. Once I'm working again I'll put more in

I have a monthly standing order for premium bonds. Any money gifted to DC goes in there too. He is only 6 and is happy with a supermarket toy, then the rest goes on the premium bonds. My hope is that ernie is kind to him and boosts the pot!

We pay £25 a month in for each child and have done since birth. I've always paid any birthday and Christmas money into the account as well. They're 5 and 7 and to be honest they don't realise what the cheques mean and any money that is enclosed in a card they quickly forget about so I put it in savings for them. If they start to want to spend birthday and Christmas money then I'll suggest they save at least some of it.

£5 per month per child, and they have a child trust fund thingy. No idea how much is in that. Think it was initial investment of £500 for my first child and by the time 2nd was born it had gone down to £250.

We save £50pm for DS and I also have Save the Change set up on our current account which rounds up to the £ on any spending we do and transfers into his account. It usually comes to around £20pm and I don’t really notice it going out as it goes in small chunks. The savings account is in my name but the money will eventually be for him.

We put in £10/month per child. Paternal grandparents have not disclosed how much, but they regularly put aside money each month. They have set up a savings account for each grandchild.

Definitely a worthwhile thing to do. We arranged this for each child a few months after their birth.

I think it’s a lovely idea to start a savings account. We’ve opened an account for DD with Halifax that lets you save up to £100 per month for a year and has a pretty good interest rate (4.5%). After the year is up it spits it out into a lower interest account though and you start again, so I’m putting that money into a Junior ISA on an annual basis.

Yes. Bonds, stocks Isa’s and pensions that they don’t know about as yet (DC all under 10) but normal online bank accounts they do know about in order to ‘practice’.

My parents saved for myself and DB - would feel wrong to not help my kids in the same way.

Due my first child in October, the plan is to put away the child benefit in to long term savings every month and just pretend it doesn't exist. Child benefit is €145 per month per child here in Ireland where we live, and isn't means tested. I'm thinking of it as a college fund but if my child decides not to go to college or to go to college locally and live at home, then it could be partly used as a house deposit or for a trip around the world or whatever.

Ours have an ISA they get access to at 18 that has an inheritance in (a condition of the inheritance). There's 2 other accounts - one in DD's name officially but also mine via our bank that I will have control of so can decide when DD gets access. There's not a lot in this but some early birthday money. Our main savings account for DD is in our name. The plan is she gets access at 18 for uni but we didn't want it to be definite in case she goes off the rails as a teen and we want to hold it back a few years. Our plan is to save enough for uni/driving lessons/house deposit but we want control over when she gets access to that money.

Yep - my parents are very generous with DS and he always leaves with a wad of cash whenever we visit. It goes straight into his account. He gets 5 quid a week from me for his pocket money card which he doesn’t spend much from and so he’s building savings for when he can buy a car or put a deposit down for a flat.

They have their gifted money into their own savings accounts but we are not saving in their name so they get it at 16/18 but will help towards big life expenses.

I save our children's child benefit..

I started squirreling away child benefit as soon as I started to get it. Now I have two children, I top it up slightly each month. It is amazing how it adds up, so do whatever you can, as soon as you can.

Their money was in a child savings account, but the interest is barely worth it. At the beginning of lock down, I emptied most of the money from their accounts and transferred it to a junior stocks and shares isa. My husband made some good investments, and both accounts are now 50% up! The only down side to the isa is that we can't access it in the short term, so I have left a few hundred in each account, just in case they need it.

DS (12) was born when the government were doing the thing where we got the £250 (?) cheque that you had to open a Child Trust Fund account with. It pretty much remained untouched until this year, but has now been changed into a Junior ISA and we've started paying £50 a month into it so it might be worth actually having in 6 years.