To ask how much you are saving for your children?

[Namechangemum100]

Following on from another thread about savings, how much money do you aim to save a year for your children.

For us as parents, we are trying to aim for £1000 for each year of their life, DD is 18 months and Ds is 4 months. This money excludes birthdays, Christmas's and gifts from family friends (but that's virtually nothing anyway).

So how many children do you have, and what saving plans do you have for them.

One and nothing. We'd like to but we're barely keeping afloat as it is.

Nor much. We are aiming to pay off mortgage in the next 6 year do all our mo ey does that. then they caN benefit from extra money when they are older, need it and we have no mortgage. They are all under 8 now.

One and put 50 a month into an isa, hope to increase the amount when childcare costs come down

Nothing. Can't afford it. Hopefully in a couple of years we'll be able to. I'm more concerned about making sure we have decent pensions to retire on, we can then keep supporting kids then too in smaller ways.

£50 a month here and put all birthday/Christmas money into a separate account.

We have family savings, not particularly for the children.
We have a lot of it in accounts that give much better rates than ISAs and the money is in a mixture of OH, mine and joint names.

The money we have is there for family purposes, when and if we or the kids need it.
ATM we a re using some of it to support kids through University and training courses.
Some will be given to help them with housing costs when they need it too.

I'm a single mum so can't afford masses, but put £50 pm into an ISA. I like your idea of £1k a year, so when childcare costs go down I will increase that to £85 pm as first priority.

A token £200 or so. I’m not sure of the virtue of saving directly for them. We have enough expenses like our pensions, mortgage etc. We plan to support them until they leave university and start work. So what is it for?

£25 a month for 20 month old DD into a stocks and shares ISA (switched from cash) and all her birthday and Christmas money so about £500 a year. Will do the same for new arrival!

Us, nothing at the moment as just back working after mat leave. My dad puts £50 a month in an isa and i have started an account for birthday money. My parents never saved for us but I'd like her to have something

Nothing specifically for the children in their names as I'm not sure that it's always a great idea for 18 year olds to be given huge sums. We do have significant savings ourselves though which we will of course be using for their benefit eg university etc. They will all have a help to buy ISA too.

Dd1 got some inheritance money . I’m trying to build up dd2’s to match but can only afford £5 a month at the moment . Will put it up as childcare costs go down .

We can't while the childcare costs are so high, but after January when ds is eligible for the free hours at nursery we will start putting £80 a month away for him. He's nearly three.

I have a very generous family member so ds does already have some savings.

I'm thinking of moving it from a junior cash ISA to a junior stocks and shares ISA but want to wait until after brexit because of the risk, even though the interest rate on his cash one is poor, the capital can't be lost...

We save around £600 per year for each one with the idea they'll have £10, 000 at 18 with the aim of helping them with education costs. I expect they'll also need a small (hopefully) monthly allowance too, but don't want them to have any more than that in their own names as I feel it could alter some of their life choices.

That said my brothers and I didn't go to uni (we're in our 20s) and have been "successful" job-wise in our own ways, so I'm trying not to worry about uni costs too much.

We'd also like to give them all a sum towards a house deposit - if what we can give will be worthwhile at all!

Nothing

2 DC, all Xmas and birthday money into a cash saver with long term bonuses and £50 per month per child into a well performing stocks and shares ISA

Nothing. We just can’t afford to.

Nothing, focusing on getting rid of the mortgage over the next 10 years or so

2 kiddos - 1 month and 2 years - save about €40 each month for them, in addition to saving for term ahead of nursery fees and our own separate savings.
We also have savings set aside for Christmas (€20 a month) etc. All small pots but it doesn’t be long counting up.

It’ll be more than I was ever given as an adult - my DM had 5 of us as a single parent so couldn’t afford to help out with anything.

Each dd has had £15 put into an ISA (I think, maybe just a savings account) since they were a few weeks old. It’s all we can afford unfortunately. When the youngest is at school we should be able to increase this amount.

Just the one child at the moment. Her child benefit plus £100 a month. Currently in two accounts in Trust for her but probably will find a way for her not to have access at 18...

In case it's useful for anyone, we have a Santander mini 123 account which pays 3% interest on anything up to £2000, and then a nationwide account with a lower interest rate but no savings limit (can't remember the name!). They were the best ones available, in terms of interest, when we looked although that was last year so things might have changed. We didn't look at ISAs though.

We have accumulated £6k for son and £4.5k for younger daughter (through our contributions and family gifts). The are 8 and 5

We are saving £100 a month each.

Aim is absolute minimum of £20k each by time 18.

£50 a month but will use it for one off big purchases for the kids as it’s really saving for them in the medium term. Eg a trampoline, bikes etc etc.

Our financial situation is a bit tight as I’m taking a sabbatical. When I go back to work, we will put more into the mortgage and savings.

What are you saving for? Are you going to give them control of the money when they're 18?

Those who save Christmas and birthday cash, is it a significant amount? My girls get about £25 and blow it in Smyths!