Have you gifted your children money towards a house deposit and if so, how much.

[Prettypup]

DS is buying a house. We are gifting them 5k towards furniture etc but I do wish we could give more.

We have two children and will gift DD the same when she’s ready.

We have about 65k saved but DH and I don’t have huge pensions and I suspect we’ll need this to be able to finish work a little early if possible.

Part of me thinks that based on our savings 5k seems a bit mean and we should be giving more. What do you think? I’m nervous of giving too much away at the moment. We’ll be able to help DS with one off little helping hands now and again over the year (a food shop, little gifts for their home etc).

Dh and I have 5 children between us. It's a balance of wanting to give them as much as we can whilst we're alive and making sure we have enough for our future care.

Dh is working like mad to expand his business before he sells out and retires. His ambition (depending on what he sells out for) is to give them as much as £750k each and hope we live for 7 years after!

But at the moment we can't afford to give them much at all!

I have never been gifted and money and I think it's so generous of people to do that. When I was at uni, all of my friends parents helped pay off their loans. I never had that privilege. I have 3 children who are all 3 and under so a way off yet but haven't thought much about gifting quantities.

My parents gave me £5k when I bought my first place and another £5k when I moved into my second house. They also gave me another £6k when they received inheritances. We are very lucky that my DHs parents gave us over £200k to help with moving house. I'm very grateful to both sets of parents, each has different circumstances and help us where they can. I wouldn't expect them to diminish their retirement to help us though.
We won't be able to give our DCs the same level of financial assistance but we will give what we can afford.

I never received anything and live in council housing. I've been a single mum to four so won't have anything to give unless my circumstances change dramatically over next few years.

I haven't voted as clearly, knowing what other people are, or have been able to afford to pass on to their children, doesn't help you at all.

If it leaves you short, whatever amount it is, is too much.
If you had millions that you aren't likely to need, then it would be easy to be more generous.

DS is buying a house. We are gifting them 5k towards furniture etc but I do wish we could give more.

However, at the stage of buying first house, and taking out what will always seem like a humongous debt, spending £5K on furniture seems poor money management. Far better to use that as deposit and borrow £5k less.
My dc is taking their own bed, desk, wardrobe, and almost everything else has been off free giving sites locally. They did splash out £30 for one thing off Facebook Marketplace. A couple of friends and family have offered up things they were getting rid of. If money is tight, spending £5k on 'furnishing seems an odd decision.

His ambition (depending on what he sells out for) is to give them as much as £750k each

That's £3,750,000!!

Honestly, this thread is like the Four Yorkshiremen in reverse ...
😂

I'm 36 and just bought my first home. I've been saving hard for a deposit for well over a decade. I have a reasonably good relationship with my parents, but they won't be giving me any money towards anything. They're recently retired, mortgage free, have at least 10x more savings than you have, and have decent pensions. My dad has offered to help with moving and some DIY which will save us some money, he's very good at that stuff.

I think what you're offering is extremely generous and your daughter will be very pleased with whatever you'd like to offer to help. Don't give yourself financial anxiety - gift what you can afford, and offer your support :)

Oh god, this thread has made me feel so poor! I think I'll go to bed now...

I didn’t have much at all but when I took a pension lump sum I gave them 5k each . I wish it could have been more . It’s nice to see them both settled in their own homes though .

I'm hoping to give my four dc's £20 k each when the time comes but it will be from an NHS pension lump sum I hope to receive at 60 and will leave me with nothing, but I do have some years left to save up more money.

I am not sure you should give them anything?

if they can afford to buy the house that’s amazing! And shows they are on a decent wage?

but you would be giving them a significant portion of your savings! I think you should keep it because you might need it!

you could get them a nice gift and some flowers and a meal which would be lovely and still way less than £5k

My parents and grandparents gifted £1000 each when I bought my first home 9 years ago. I didn't expect anything and had saved enough myself to cover deposit and costs, so it was a nice gesture. My parents are well enough off but they brought us up to work for our money and we never expected any hand outs, but they help us now we have kids in ways I can't put a monetary value on.

When we upsized a few years later they bought us a couple of white goods we needed. We probably won't be in a position to gift large amounts to our DC when the time comes either.

Wholly depends what you have saved in your working life. We have given DD way more than anyone here towards her London flat. Not as much as the fictional (at the moment) £750k though! We gave part of what we had saved for an hefty deposit and around 25% is remaining. DD2 will have the same. Our parents gave us absolutely nothing. Which wasn’t a surprise!

I gave my older DC 70k when he was 32 three years ago and will do the same for my two younger DC in a couple of years.
My DH and I didn’t receive any help when we bought our first house and I remember saying to myself I really want to try and help my DC to buy a home.

We have given DD way more than anyone here towards her London flat

And now it's Harry Enfield "considerably richer than yowwww!"

We didn’t get anything towards a house deposit.

Parents put a roof over our heads until the age of 18 then we got nothing. Paid for our own wedding. Got £5K as a wedding gift from parents, used it to buy a car. Saved for a house deposit ourselves.

We have saved money each month from birth for our DC. They will each receive about £20K. I will strongly suggest they invest it and use it as a house deposit, but who knows. If they waste it I will shrug it off as youthful foolishness, but will secretly wish we’d been as selfish as our own parents who saved bugger all for us!

We were gifted 50k by my parents when we bought our last house in 2010. DS1 is currently at Uni, he has his CTF tucked away in a LISA with 15k in it (or will have once he's added 4k yearly) and I'm hoping we'll be able to offer something

DS2 is only 15 so I'm hoping we'll be in a similar position then!

no, i couldnt afford it

The garden was in a right state, so we paid for clearance, patio and lawn.

We got nothing. My parents couldn't afford.
PIL gave SIL £10k and got all her wedding paid for. DH got nothing for either.

I gifted both my DDs 5K towards their deposits, and also bought them both new sofas from shops where you pay interest free for 4 years. So I paid for these sofas at a cost of about 2k each spread out over 4 years.

The annual LISA limit is £4000 so you won’t be able to pay £25k in all at once. You also can’t open a LISA in their name, they will need to open it themselves, which means you won’t be able to hide it from them.

We're giving ours 25k each plus 1k towards decor and furniture. They are lucky that other family members can also help out.

Ex dh gave them 50k each but they are paying some of it back.
I bought furniture for them.