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 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 presume this isn't UK?

I got some kind of insurance payout when I was 17. Only £500, so not thousands. I went to Italy with a friend. Wonderful holiday, I have great memories and would love to go back.

My twins are 18 next year so will get their payout. I never added anything to it so they'll get around £500. I like the idea of getting a decent laptop with it, if they go to uni, so will mention that to them. One of them wants driving lessons so that might also be something he can spend it on.

Or they might want to spend it on crap, but they'll be 18 so it's up to them.

I bought my first car and pissed the rest up the wall. I received a substantial inheritance and have nothing to show for it.

Wish I had been given guidance on investing/not received it so young/had it spent on lots of therapy for me.

It could have been life changing and honoured the person who generously left the money to me.

I would have absolute blown it on clubs, clothes and Class As. Quite possibly would not be here today!

I had enough from my grandparents to buy my first car.
My dc inherited from their childless aunt and uncle when the youngest was 18. The money was used for house deposits, driving lessons, cars and in one case a holiday. Not everyone wants to go spending like crazy. My dc are far from angels but they hardly drink!

@tubbycustardtummyache

I got 2 inheritances, one in my early 20s then one in my early 30s, first was about 1k and second 3k. I used the first to go to Galapagos and the second to go to Antarctica Don’t regret a thing, I certainly couldn’t afford to go now! Very grateful to the relatives who left it to me

Wow...sounds amazing!

Blown it all while enjoying life. Then back to saving.

@Hdhdjejdj

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.

How worrying :(

Some 18 year old are very sensible but some - as this thread shows - really are far too young to be handed lots of money:(

@countrytown yes I'm in Ireland. It's 140 per child here and it's not means tested which means we can save it for our dc (obviously I am very aware we are v lucky to be able to do this!)

That would be for a nice but smallish number. Wouldn't have blown 50k on coke and strippers but could see old me thinking "fuck it" with 5k.

@megletthesecond

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.

I changed my childrens CTFs to junior isas so even at 18 I remain the named account holder.

I've transferred the money to ds1...whether I'll I'll the same with ds2 remains to be seen!!! 🤣

My four dc's will get about 5k at 18. My ds1 spent his in about the first term at Uni - expensive hotel stays and weekends away with his gf, gambling and goodness knows what else. He did not use it wisely. Ds2 ( aged 20 ) invested some of his in stocks and shares and has made a healthy profit, although wont disclose how much ! Ds3 is 18.5 so only got his a few months ago. I dare not ask how much he has burnt through but he is fairly sensible. I had no lump sum at 18. I was given a bonus of £500 by a very generous couple whose little girl I looked after and fitted round by A'level studies, and I bought my first car with this and thought it was a fortune.

@qualitygirl thought so

I was given a £4k lump sum from my GPs aged 18 and managed to save it and add to it until I was 22, then used it to pay for a post-grad course which was utterly life-changing. It was a great safety net through university, I never had to dip into it, and although I worked throughout my course it meant that there wouldn't be any panic if I lost my job etc.

Most of all it made my GM very proud, too. Especially when my younger DSis pissed hers away within 2 months of getting her hands on it .

Thanks for the replies BTW!
Really interesting.
Sometimes young people inherit through very sad circumstances and I can sort of see they'd think "stuff it life's too short"
I like to think I'd have been sensible but I had absolutely no financial education whatsoever so there may have been an element of nights out and buying new clothes!

@36degrees

I was given a £4k lump sum from my GPs aged 18 and managed to save it and add to it until I was 22, then used it to pay for a post-grad course which was utterly life-changing. It was a great safety net through university, I never had to dip into it, and although I worked throughout my course it meant that there wouldn't be any panic if I lost my job etc.

Most of all it made my GM very proud, too. Especially when my younger DSis pissed hers away within 2 months of getting her hands on it .

How heartbreaking to scrimp and save for years and years and the money be wasted within months on nothing! 😢 Ds1 knows that this is it....its taken us 16 years to save that amount with bits added over the years from GPs. If he wastes it, that's that 🤷‍♀️

Would have made the difference between taking 2 years and 3 years to qualify in my profession (librarianship). I wanted to go on a 2 year course but my parents were too tight fisted to support me. My mother insisted I had to give her the same amount of money out of my grant (students got grants then 1960s) as if I was working.

In the end I went on a 3 year course with alternating 6 month periods of work and study, I was on full salary for the work periods so I was able to put some of my salary aside to help out while I was studying.

It made me feel very bitter against my parents,. As soon as I finished the course I got promoted so I then had the money to get my own flat. That certainly left them short of money because my sis had just had an unplanned DS.

A lump sum would have made it possible for me to qualify sooner and still stump up for my keep. But I would also have left sooner.

At 18 I would have pissed and smoked it away. At 23ish though it would have helped enormously, ex-dp and I bought our first house so it would have been amazing just to have a bit extra, we were always skint!

I met dh at 22 and we were married at 26 so a lump sum at 25 would have been amazing

I got a couple of smaller lumps late teens early 20's, I bought stupid things. DM bought me my first car though and when I was mid 20's, she offered £20k as a house deposit for my first flat. I have been lucky in my moves since and property values rising have meant my £20k deposit has grown. I hope to be able to offer my DC a flat deposit. It made a huge difference to me.

I had 1000 pounds at 21 and bought a car with it.

At 27 I received 25 thousand pounds from a house sale after a split from an ex. I paid of an 8000 pound loan I had

I wasted the rest.

In hindsight I was in a bad place, vulnerable, I had started a new relationship with an abusive twat and I ended up paying off his debt for him and to this day I still have no idea where the rest of it went.

I'd have spent it on having fun. Every last penny. Wasted my young adult life studying and being too skint to do anything, then suddenly fast forward a few years and I'm in a career with a mortgage. If I'd had the lump sum I'd have gone on loads of holidays and had the time of my life.

OP I notice you say that you changed them to Junior ISAs so that you remain the named account holder even when they’re 18. As I understand it, even with JISAs the money transfers to the child at 18 and they have partial control from 16. see info from gov.uk and MSE.

@Waferbiscuit

Can we stop using the phrase 'pissed it up a wall'? There are other ways to say 'spent it'!!

I thought pissed it up the wall meant you spent it all on booze and it came out when your go for a wee on a wall (male)?

I was staid and sensible at 18 and would probably have saved a lump sum in a deposit account (investing wasn't as accessible back then) but probably ripper through it a few years later when I settled down, got married and had children. But I didn't get anything other than a small student grant so I'll never know.

My children all got lump sums of around £7000 at 18 from regular savings plans. One spent it on university living expenses, one pissed it up the wall, one bought a car which they couldn't afford to insure after the first year, and the other tucked it away in a deposit account and a LISA. I'm not sure they'd have made different decisions at 21 or 25.