Pondering on what a difference a lump sum would have made to me at 18....what about you?

[Artdecolover]

Disclosure: its 30 years since was 18 and obviously the world is a very different place!

My ds is 18 and off to university next month.

My dh and I opened a CTF account for him at birth which we started with those Govt vouchers and have been paying in small amounts every month since. It wasn't always much but we always put a bit in.

He is very grateful and today he asked me what I would have done with a lump sum at 18...

It would have utterly changed my life. I was brought up in poverty and didn't go to university. Money would have meant I could have taken resits (I needed to get a job and earn money), or travelled, or bought a car...all of which would have made such a difference.

What would you have done? Or are you glad you didn't get a lump sum at 18? Would you have spaffed the lot in ibiza??? 🤣

I'm not sad as such, but it did make me ponder on the main benefits of money : options.

I got £1k at 18, I'd been saving it since I was little. I bought a cheap car at £250 and 1st yrs insurance was £770 so it was well spent.

A family member is a probate solicitor - he says it’s incredibly unusual for anyone to be sensible with money at 18. His advice is no major financial gifts before 25, ideally 30!

At 18 I would have spent it on a proper gap year. I don't think that's a definite waste but it's also not how I'd choose to spend a lump sum now Im a proper adult!

I would have spent it all on drugs.
And the regretted it

I know a 19yo who has inherited a huge amount of money following the death of one of his parents. He has invested some but is wasting huge amounts and given up the fantastic job he had. We are hugely worried about him.

I was saving like mad at 18 and had several part time jobs. I moved from the north east to London in my very early 20’s and desperately wanted to buy a tiny studio flat of my own. I was never able to get the deposit together despite saving every penny I could for years. I moved away eventually as rents were sky high.

Being able to put a deposit on a flat in London in the nineties would have transformed my family’s life today. I was super sensible teen though!

Me, my DSis and DBro all squandered our (2k 20 y ago) 18th windfalls.

I considered this when saving for my dcs, their policies pay out at 21. DS(19) has a small CTF, left exactly where it was. He's very meh...not particularly into stuff. We may need to look at doing something with it as he is off to uni. DD1 (17) will have a small CTF too, and will likely splurge it. DD2 (just turned 16), is probably the canniest of the three and would like to see her money grow. I imagine when she gets her bigger sum at 21 will look at home ownership or investment.

Not 18 but I got a €25k lump sum at 20.

Used it towards the €27k stamp duty bill when I bought my first property at 21.

This is the problem with the CTF's. The kids get it at 18.
I'm a LP and can't keep their money aside in my name as I'm on tax credits and it would be counted as my money. I'd rather they got it at 21.

My grandparents gave me a lump sum on my 18th. I'm trying to remember the exact amount but I think it was £3000. I'm afraid I was boring and put it towards uni living costs (I didn't want to borrow the full student loan.)

I save the child benefit (140 per child per month) so my 5 yr old has nearly over 10k and my 8yr old has nearly 15k by the time they are 18 they should have over 30k each. I do worry and I hope they will make sensible decisions about it...although it's in an investment fund and not in their names right now so I don't technically have to pass it over if I feel they will be irresponsible.

I was given money for things, new car, deposit. So no money to waste as I knew what it was for.

I gave each of my godchildren £8k on their 18th instead of them waiting until I was dead.

I told them (and their parents!) that they could do whatever they wanted with it, including frittering it away on rubbish, if that was their choice.

One spent it on camera equipment for their creative degree; one was going travelling and spent it on that; one I think just absorbed it into living as a student in London, and one bought a car and paid for the insurance.

I had an insurance policy which my parents had taken out for me shortly after I was born (bought from a cold-calling doorstep salesman - very unlike them!), pay out when I was 16. It was £300, completely unexpected, and I remember the excitement and feeling of responsibility. I wanted to give my godchildren something of that feeling, as well as marking the end of me sending them annual birthday and Christmas presents...

I was given £20k by my grandparents at 18, all tied up in various accounts. It bought my first car, helped pay for uni accommodation, and the remaining £12k was the deposit on my first house. 5 years later that had grown to a £75k deposit on my second house. It had lifelong consequences and I am forever grateful for what it did. I knew about the money during my teens and my grandparents shared how it grew - I felt an enormous responsibility to be careful with it.

I want to give my children the same opportunity and have saved for them since they were born. They know about it, but not how much, and they know that it's purpose is to enable them to buy their first house.

my kids were given 20K each on their 18th birthdays by grandparents. It was supposed to be for a car but none of them needed a car going to university - no parking etc.

So they each invested it. DS put his in just as the market tanked in March 2020 so he made out like a bandit - his investment has very nearly doubled in that time - probably not the best lesson to get in investing. They regard it as not real money to spend but money to save for some distant time when they might need a deposit for a flat.

Having a lump sum wouldn't have made much difference to me at 18. I lived at home while at university and while I was broke most of my friends were broke too so we did cheap things and had a blast. It would have made an enormous difference to me in my late 20s when we were trying to scrape together a deposit. but it all worked out in the end.

I got about 3k when I was 18 in 1989. Went Australia for six months, Greece for a few months and Ibiza for a while!
It was however very different in those days and I was able to walk straight back into a decent job in London (lived with parents) and buy my first house at 26 with my then partner. I didn't learn to drive until I was 29 and pregnant as didn't need to, living and working in London.
My daughter had the same (equivalent) from our savings and bought a car plus a nice holiday.
My son will get the (equivalent) same next year and I dread to think what he'll do.......He's more like me than his sister!

I got a lump sum at 18 (about £5k). Dipped into it once to pay for a once in a lifetime trip with the family member’s blessing and strictly paid myself back afterwards. Still have that £5k it 8 years later and it will be used for a house deposit!

I would've added it to my mortgage deposit. I saved up all my earnings from part time waitressing from 16 until I graduated at 22 so it may have doubled what I saved.

I grew up in poverty too. If I’d have got money at 18 I would have probably wasted it. Had I got some at 25 it would have probably helped towards a deposit and would have meant we could have bought a slight nicer house. I’m
Most jealous of people who had lump sums from family to help towards their first house purchase. It makes such a big difference

I'd have blown it at 18, at 22 however it would have gone as a deposit for a flat.

I got about 10k, maybe slightly more at 18 - from my amazing grandma. It topped up my grant through uni (parents didn’t pay anything so I only had the then still not bad gvmt grant only; it bought my first cheap car after uni and the rest went towards a house deposit. I’m quite impressed with younger me tbh.

I got given a grand that my parents and grandparents had crimped and saved to be able to give me. Because I was a very foolish 18 year old I pissed every penny up the wall. I was then in debt as a student and with bank loans until I was about 28... I wish I had been taught about money- what overdrafts and loans were about. I just saw it all as 'free money'. Gosh, I really was hopeless.

Ha, scrimped not crimped.

This thread is stressing me out 😂.

I had a couple of very generous (1-2k ish) gifts from close, wealthy family friends while I was studying at university, one went on clearing an overdraft, the other on flight tickets for an elective abroad.

Our two DDs will, at some point in early adulthood, receive an absolutely huge amount of money (likely 250-400k depending on success of investment) thanks to an extremely astute grandparent - I am terrified of trying to work out how to help them manage it sensibly, but also not let it go to their heads - our current plan is to let them know in late teenage-hood that there will be ‘some money’ available for a house deposit or similar but not make it clear how much, then just hope to goodness that they continue to make sensible decisions and not rest on their financial laurels.

Coming from a relatively poor background myself, I find the whole thing an absolute minefield.

At 18 I also would have pissed every penny of a lump sum up the wall.