To ask how much you save for your child's future...

[Leggytadpole]

Not strictly an AIBU I know but I've just received my child's junior ISA statement which I save £10 into monthly and his DF matches that amount. It's not much but being a part time working single mum I can't really afford much more.

It's predicted to be around £3500 - £5500 by the time it matures when DS is 18. It will probably barely cover the cost of learning to drive and buying/insuring his first car. I know that's good but would not be enough to help with uni fees or a deposit for a house. I guess my circumstances will be different then so hopefully I'll be in a position to help him financially by then but who knows what the future holds.

So AIBU to ask what other people save for their kids?

[VimFuego101]

Starting a pension for kids is a really good idea. I made a horrific mess of my finances in my 20s, but I did start a pension. Even though I didn't pay a huge amount in, it's had time to grow and it's an impressive amount now.

We don't save as much as I'd like for DS, but I think we will downsize our house when he goes to college, and put some of the money aside for a deposit on a house for him. He will have enough in savings for a car and a nice holiday, and hopefully we will cover enough of his college costs that he will only need a basic govt funded student loan, no private loans or credit cards (different country).

[1Potato2]

We currently save £200 a month for each dc (2). Figured we'd need to cover rent at uni etc as well as something towards deposit for first houses. Will save more when we aren't paying stupid amounts for nursery fees.

No wonder I feel so bloody skint.

[Bellebelle]

We don't save anything specifically for our DD's, we have our own savings and investments and when they're older we'll decide when and how we want to give them lump sums for Uni, house deposit, wedding, car etc.

When I was 18 I inherited £75k and I got another £10k from a savings plan my Mum had been paying into since I was born. About £5k was used as a deposit on a flat I bought while at Uni and another £5k on a car. The rest of it was spent by the time I was 25 on living a lifestyle way beyond what any normal teen/young adult could normally afford - designer clothes, loads of holidays, giving money to a financially irresponsible boyfriend, general reckless spending etc. While I don't regret all of it (the holidays to the US were once in a lifetime experiences and I still have some nice bits of furniture I bought at the time) I am horrified by most of it. The most damaging aspect is that I never had to go through learning how to budget and got used to living a lifestyle way beyond my means - age 30 I had huge amounts of credit card debt and I was only able to pay it off by using equity from the sale of my first flat leaving a small deposit for our next house when I should have made a really good profit. Almost 10 years on I'm much more sensible with money and have developed a good savings habit but it feels very late in the day.

I was a 'sensible' 18 year old, I studied hard, got a good degree, wasn't into anything 'bad' but having that much money at my disposal was too much of a temptation despite being told repeatedly to save. I think it's a lot to expect an 18 or even 21 year old to do something sensible with a large lump sum, especially in a culture when people are even more materialistic than they were 20 years ago when I was a teenager.

My main concern is to teach my children to save and to appreciate how much things cost.

[Lukesme]

Mine have only about 500 each from when they were born. I don't save for the, maybe I would if I were better off but I do expect to have reasonable savings to help with cars, uni etc. I wouldn't put it in their accounts I would rather give as required or deserved. I too have seen teens squander lots of money away because it was theirs. I have no mortgage and a professional job so when I can get back full time when they are older I think they will have a reasonable leg up. I certainly wouldn't be banking thousands in their name !

[dorisdog]

This thread makes me so angry. Not at anyone, but just the fact that people have to save money to help their kids with uni fees and housing. It just shouldn't be necessary and it's going to create such an unequal generation. We are trying to save some money for our daughter, which is hard, because were not very well off. But I feel bad for her, because she's going to struggle in a way that we didn't have to. My parents had no money and a council house, but at least I had a uni grant, no fees and (fairly) affordable housing. Grrrr.

[MrsF1]

Any money they receive as gifts (Xmas and Birthdays) goes into named accounts where I am named as 'trustee'. I decide when/if they can access the money to make sure it is spent appropriately. We can't afford to pay anything in ourselves due to committed outgoings (mortgage/bills) and we don't receive any child benefit. Hopefully when I get the chance to return to work, I will get the chance to add a regular small amount BUT both MrF1 and I paid to put ourselves through uni and paid for our cars and then houses ourselves. We've never asked our parents for a handout [although with the massive increase in housing, our children will no doubt experience severe difficulty getting on the housing ladder - should they wish - without our help/support].

[zizza]

I had good intentions of putting savings away for my children but as I decided instead to stay at home with them rather than go back to full time work (although I did have strange part time/evening jobs when they were young) it meant we needed every pound in our own bank account to keep going. (Also spent a lot on them on swimming, music, dance lessons!)

But now they're all pretty grown up and we have more disposable income we have paid for their driving lessons and we pay for their uni accommodation. They've earned money from small jobs for extra stuff but they're pretty undemanding financially - I suppose they've seen us make do without things other people have so none of them have extravagant tastes!

[NattyNattyBooBoo]

We had the old style kids saving account DS is 10 in two weeks. I think the government gave every child £250 paid a few quid into that but the growth was poor. Changed it over to a kids ISA last year. We're lucky we can save every month for him. We pay into a unit trust as do his grandparents but no point worrying about if if you can't.

[TakeItFromMe]

We don't have any regular savings for our two young daughters. I opened a current account each for them and I send any cash gifts to them, so they are a little uneven as my youngest is difficult to buy for and gets more cash than the older one. I think they have about £500 each in there now. I have no plans for the money other than giving them access to it when they're old enough (and obviously topping up my elder daughter's), because they were gifts in lieu of toys! I often worry I should be regularly saving for them in a high-interest ISA or similar. DD2 gets DLA and we get CB for them both obviously, it hadn't even occurred to me to save that for their future....

My parents saved in a high interest account from us being little, which DB and I got when were 18. It was about 3k which I reinvested for 5 years, DB bought a car. We've had cash gifts in adulthood for things like house deposits. To be honest I'd like to think we'll do the same with our girls. At the moment I'd rather overpay the mortgage and have more family time / experiences but when we're a bit more flush I definitely need to look at opening some kind of formal ISA for them.

[RandyMagnum]

We likely wont save anything for kids. We will just save as much as we can each month, into our own savings, then we have full control of it, if we want to gift some to them at X age we can, if we want to "blow" it on a round the world trip when they go off to university, we can instead.

I also will certainly not be starting a pension for them, that's a step too far IMO.

I know someone at work who pays for his adult childrens weekly food shopping still, one of them is older than me; I'm 28.

[Babettescat]

Ah yes our kids will also get the money out of property and land via my parents but there's me to contend with as its all for me not my kids directly except the money my parents are investing for him again in my name.

[Whatthefoxgoingon]

We save nothing. My children are hugely privileged to have large trust funds set up by grandparents. They will be getting central London properties, shares, land and money. They're sensible kids now, so I'm hoping they will continue to manage their finances wisely. But who knows. It's actually out of my control.

[Babettescat]

And again - as has been saved many times - you dont need to save in a child's name in a child's account.

My DS gets his CB saved in an account I hold in my name. He will be getting a substantial cash gift each birthday from when he turns one from my dad which gets saved in the same account. DH and I additionally put aside a fixed standing order each month for him in our joint savings account also for him.

None of this is controlled by him. But this is for him. Our family savings are seperate, our gift money etc, we created an account for him in our name when he was born and are building up savings earnarked for him there but not in his name or control. So the blowing up situation doesn't apply.

[pearlylum]

We save as a family.

Saving for a child might seem a good idea, but when they are 18 you have no control over their spending.
You may think you are saving towards their education/deposit on a house, but they may just blow the lot on a motorbike or a boozy holiday to Hamburg.
Money I save stays in my bank account, I am happy to help them out when they need it, but on my terms.

[Leggytadpole]

Thanks for all the replies.... It's certainly made me think. When I can increase my hours at work I think I'll concentrate on building up my own savings so I can help DS out if needed but the money will be mine. I'll continue with his JISA and he can have that when he's 18.... I've just got to hope he's sensible enough not to blow it all on something frivolous like I did at that age with my first credit card maybe if he knows it's for a specific purpose (car, travelling etc) and he knows how hard I saved for him he might use it wisely.... I can but hope!

Thanks katemiddletonsnudeheels that was a really lovely post

[RJnomore1]

Yes I am not saving for it as we will be able to pay as we go but I fully expect to contribute to housing and living costs while they are at uni.

[Strokethefurrywall]

We have to pay for college because they'll either go to the US where it's ridiculously expensive, or they'll be international students back in the UK and we'll have to pay for accommodation and international fees.

[Pisssssedofff]

Is opening a home owner isa for 16 year old DD a good move ? I'll fill it up for her to get the bonus.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

I'm saving for college because we live somewhere they don't leave without massive debt. It's also tax free to save for that.

[scopello]

£100pm each into their original CTFs now transferred into JISAs. DC (12 & 9) have approx. £24K & £20K (invested in stocks & shares). I'm OK to gamble on my parenting skills to brainwash them not to completely splurge it all on 'entertainment' at 18.

[Balletgirlmum]

I'm saving for college fees because dd will likely apply for courses where she can't apply for the full loan or are outside the student loans system/dada funded.

[Marynary]

I'm surprised at how many on this thread are saving for their kids uni fees.

I don't save for the fees but I do save for other costs as the loan is not enough to live on.

[RJnomore1]

Agreed sporn.

[Ifiwasabadger]

Around 350 quid each into a savings bond scheme for our DD.

[Pisssssedofff]

Good point