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?

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!

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].

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.

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 !

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.

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.

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).