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.

50 a month each. It'll pay for first car or go some way to higher education costs.

It is definitely not for a summer long blow out in Ibiza when the time comes

We put £50 a month into a savings account for them each month. Two kids so £100 a month.

I saved nothing for mine. It wouldn't have even crossed my mind to do so. Why?

I have one dd and she gets all her child benefit (£82/ 4 weekly) paid into her ISA.

Birthday & Christmas money goes into her post office account for when she needs/wants something like a new bike or something or we bought a nice paddling pool for her this year.

We intend to pay our new baby's cb in aswell but we'll top it up to be the same as first child as the weekly amount is less for subsequent children.

We never had that money before so we don't miss it. We are hoping to save more once the huge childcare bill goes!!

We each have a standing order for £15 per month for each, so £30/month or £360 a year. Plus probably a few hundred more from family as they often give money instead of loads of presents.

Single mum of three. 40 quid a month in my eldest’s ISA and 35 in my middle son’s. Nothing for the baby yet, but will do about 30 when my hours go up in September. It’s a real struggle every month, but they’ve got to have something for uni, although the UK will probably resemble downtown Detroit by then, and six or seven grand will only buy you about twenty food credits 😂

Nothing right now. Everything is being ploughed into paying of mortgage so we'll have a tangible asset in years to come and not just cash in the bank.

Two year old currently has just less than £2000 in his account, about £150-£200 in his money box (been meaning to take it to the bank) and I put £100 a month into a share save scheme for him.

I didn't have anything from my parents (not that they have to, they couldn't afford it and help out loads now they can) so I'm determined to do as much for him as I can to make his early adult years easier.

DD17 and it's for a house deposit. It's in my name and atm is £17k which is being added to until she buys. She knows about it and understands it's for this only. She's not daft with the money she earns, she does save and looks for bargains/works out the best deal etc but her priorities are make-up, clothes, holidays, car, going out and the odd gadget - fairly normal for that age. If we downsize or inherit again in the future she'll get a lump sum then too. No point waiting until we're dead we want to help out when she needs it rather than her being 60.
We have prioritised saving for ourselves as well.

We save for our dc’s future but not in accounts in their names.

If the account is in the child’s name I’m not sure you can withhold money beyond 18 or make any decisions about what happens to it beyond then.

Our dc’s will have an inheritance at 18 but beyond that, the money is in our names and we will support them in anyway we can.

£500 per month into an investment account. 2 children (nearly 3 and 12 weeks). Grandparents also contribute, one side do every month, the other on birthdays/Christmas.

As for what for, it might be for further education if we’re not in a position to pay for that if/when it rolls around. Or help them onto the hoisting ladder.

Housing not hoisting!!

£20 a month for nearly 6yr old and extra £100 every three months if I have it. Plan is to give him access to account at 11 but clear most out and put it into an account he doesn't know. Then if he still living at home when he gets a job, any house keep minus a little towards food to be put away for when he needs a deposit for a house. Plan is he won't know about it but as always, will depend on finances as it's a way off yet lol

That’s the problem, though, isn’t it? The plan may not be for summer-long blowouts in Ibiza, but the money’s legally theirs at 18. They can put it all on the 4:40 at Kempton, if they want to.

£100/month into their savings accounts. Odd that people are asking what it will be used for? Definitely for helping getting on housing ladder or uni costs, depending of course on what is important to them when they're adults.

We have relatives who have given DS a very generous amount of money for his adulthood. So nothing.
I'm not sure about it either, as like PP I can see it getting blown, and there's a part of me that would rather have had it to give for university fees or house deposit or whatever. However, both DH and I have very uncertain careers with no tenure, and the only way we've been able to follow them is by having a cushion to cover us over lean years (of money we earned in fat years and saved ourselves, but still). So I do think having savings can make a huge difference to a child.
I think we will be having a lot of conversations about the power of compound interest, but fundamentally the relatives have given the money to him, so if he blows it all in a holiday, there's nothing we can do about it.

We’re focusing on saving some money now towards parental top up of uni maintenance loan, as they won’t be eligible for the whole amount, so we don’t feel so stressed about finding it when they both need it at the same time.

We save £50 a month at the moment but will increase once the free hours kick in. It is for a house deposit and DS won't get control of it at 18 but when he is ready to settle down and buy a house. I checked and double checked that the account we chose wouldn't just hand it to him at 18. One child and no more coming so we hope to be able to build up a good amount for him.

What will it be used for? Er - the usual: in exchange for goods and services . . . 🤔

Nothing. We use the little money we have to make their lives as good as possible now.
I definitely wouldn’t be scrimping and saving now to give my 18yr old a lump sum to piss up the wall...

2DC, saving nothing for them but have 2 BTL which we will own outright by the time they are 18 so they will get one each plus when we downsize the family home they will both receive lump sums from the equity.

We are saving child benefit for DS, plus his grandparents pay a monthly sum into an account for him.

Am hoping it will be house deposit rather than uni fees - hope we can cover those ourselves.

The ISA allowance, so just over 4K a year.

Hope you don't mind me hijacking the thread...

I don't (and almost definitely won't) have my own children, but have four lovely nephews and nieces. As parents, do you think it would be weird for your sister/brother to put aside savings for your children?

I pay 10 a month into their child trust funds, it's all I can afford.