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.

Currently I’m saving £20 a month for ds. He’s 10 months. He was gifted a very generous amount of money for his christening by family. So I’m just adding to this. As he gets older I’lo maybe save a bit more for him.

Nothing yet, in terms of real money I don’t know what those savings would be when my sons an adult. But I will start saving for things like driving lessons/first car etc. I would like to help him with things like that.

Those questions are directed at all the savers BTW.

£50 a month at the moment. I'm a bit on the fence about children's savings though. Part of me thinks it's better to have a good pension, pay off as much off the mortgage as possible etc so you'll be in a better position to support them when they're older. I think that approach makes more sense especially while interest rates are so low.

The savings account we do have for DD is in my name. We didn't go down the route of a junior ISA or other arrangement where the child gets a lump sum at 18. I don't think I could have been trusted to use several thousands of pounds wisely if I'd suddenly been given it at 18, and I was a pretty sensible 18 year old!

It won’t be just given to them on their 18th

If my ex and I are in a position to pay for their university (presuming they go) without the need to touch this nest egg then we shall do that and this nest egg will continue to grow beyond their 18th and then given to them at a time we think right eg they want to buy a house / start a business / do some travelling.

If we can’t afford supporting them at university without them needing to get a loan, then we will use the nest egg

We save his child benefit, so £80ish per month. We're thinking probably towards a house deposit but won't tell him it exists until the time comes. We're lucky to be able to save it.

Nothing wages cover rent and bills so we buy food and anything else with tax credits so nothing spare.

DD gets around £150 for birthdays and Christmas from various family members who prefer to give money rather than buy toys. Sometimes I use it for some nice clothes for her but I mostly save it. The money we put in ourselves is in an account we control so she won’t just get full access to it when she’s 18.
No particular plan for what it will be used for, just nice to have it there for her if we want to make a big purchase (first car, big school trips etc).

DD is 1, I put £20 a month into a private pension for her, she got cash gifts from grandparents and great grandparents when she was born which is about £3k which we’ll keep adding her birthday and Christmas money to and we both save £100 in our own names per month but I really don’t want her to get a lump sum at 18 so we’ll just keep it in our names.

For us, when we say save until 18, we don't mean they will be handed a lump sum at 18, but more that it will become their own responsibility to continue saving into it, rather than us paying in.

The time at which they will gain access to it will depend on their circumstances and what they want to use it for. I'd like it to be used for a house deposit, or something related to their career choice like training, starting a business etc. I personally would not like it to go on university education, as I feel that in this day and age a university degree is not as valuable as it once was.

80 pcm since birth.

It won’t be just given to them on their 18th

If it's in their sole name then you're unlikely to be able to stop them if they want it.

We saved enough for our eldest ds driving lessons and insurance. Will be doing the Same for the other two. So around £3000 each.

To be honest our focus is on paying off our mortgage as fast as possible. After that’s out of the way we’ll then speak to an IFA about the best investment options. I don’t think I’d gift her money as I don’t want her to blow it on a car or something. I’d rather pay for uni or give her a house deposit.

Two DCs.

They both have stocks and shares JISAs which I put in about £600 per year. They will be given these on reaching 18 (as per the rules). I'm hoping I will have taught them not to piss it all up against the wall. Hopefully they'll continue with the ISA and use as a house deposit or similar in the future 🤞

I have around 2k in an ISA and it is for dd who is 2.5 but the ISA is in my name

Our aim is to either pay university costs/living expenses (although tbh we could probably pay this from our wages as will certainly be mortgage free by then and if we can that would be fine) or a deposit on a property/towards a property the way that house prices go she would probably need double what we can save!!

I would not just give her a lump sum at 18 and I wouldn't even tell her about the money either- I see it as a pot of money to help with the big things when she is older

reallybadidea

Ex has put it in some kind of investment vehicle that means we remain in charge until 25.

Aiming for 20k by 18. It will be towards a house deposit.

We don't have a lot of spare cash, but me and DH put £10 a month each into savings for both of our DDs (so each DD gets £20 a month). It won't amount to millions but by the time each of them are 18, with interest, it should work out to about 4.5k each, which will hopefully help them with something, like driving lessons, a first car and some insurance; or the costs of University; or towards their first home.

We're a bit mean though and both savings accounts are in the names of me and DH, so they won't get it automatically when they turn 18, and we want some input into what the money is spent on. I'm actually fairly flexible about what they spend the money on, as long as it's not wasted (I have a couple of friends who got a few thousand each when they turned 18 and literally just wasted it in a few months on nights out or a 18-30 holiday, and I just don't want this to happen on money we've spent 18 years saving).

My kids are 4, 2 and baby.
All their birthday, Christmas, any money from gifts goes into a shared account in my name. I then let them buy something of less value that I pay for. I realise I can't keep this up forever.
Then we add £10 per month..
I'm hoping they'll have at least £2k each by the time they're 18, for a car, or whatever they need.

£10 a month into savings account. 50% of birthday and Christmas money goes in too. £30k saved separately from sale of shares for deposit on a flat one day.

We have 2, saving around £1k a year for each between myself and DH.

Between 50-100 a month for two. Depends on how much money comes in and with it being the holidays, spending more on days out.

My child is disabled and will be dependent for life so I’m saving as much as I can for their adulthood as possible - which isn’t much. In 8 years I’ve managed to save only 2k - I’m so scared for our future.

Just £20 a month at the moment, I'm concerned about access to large amounts at 18. I figure this is enough to add up to something but equally I won't miss it. Wondering if it would be better to save more then have a plan to move it back into mine and DH names when they turn 16. I'd ideally like to be able to assist with house deposits.