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.

They have about 600 between both. This was gift money when they were born. We made the decision I would stay at home until so saving wasn't a option. I'm doing some pretty intense hothousing so hopefully they'll make it on their own and I won't feel guilty.

We only have family savings, I don't really see the point in separate savings for a 3.5 year old. We spend most of our money on her anyway

We also have the account in our name but just earmarked for the kids. We put the same amount into private pensions in the hope that we can be reasonably well off and enjoy retirement when we get there!

As for birthday/Christmas money going into savings, that’s at the request of the grandparents who give it.

Both my dds have trust accounts. Fil puts money into them for their birthdays, and we have separate accounts for dds where we put in £20 a month into. When it reaches £4/500 we put it into the trust accounts.

Dds have about £4k each 7 and 9.

My mum saved money for me since I was born, I intend to do the same when I have children as I’ve been able to buy a house at 24 with the money saved as the deposit so I want to do the same for my future dc

My DD is almost 2 so doesn’t understand buying things with her own money yet. That’s why I save her birthday/Christmas money at the moment. When she’s a bit older, she will absolutely be allowed to use the money she’s given to buy a toy or save up for something big. This is also why it’s in a separate account to the money DH and I save for her every month.

When we had children our oncome was lower so we have not specifically aaved for them. As we have progressed through our career we have given them private education, donations to new (old) cars and will be able to pay part deposits when they buy properties barring any massive change in circumstances but it has alwaya remained our money until we hand it over.

Not a penny saved for either of them. They are 12 and 15. But we'll support them through uni and give them a house deposit.

What is everyone saving for?

We don’t save for our children as I don’t want them to have access to thousands at 18 . I would be most disappointed if I had saved for them to then go out and buy a brand new car at 18 when I’ve never had a new car ever !
They both have child trust funds and all Christmas and birthday money goes into it so it’s essentially their own money . It’s approximately £200 a year each . Eldest hasjust over 2000 and youngest will have 1501 when he puts his birthday money in next week .
I do save though into accounts in my own name and husband has various savings accounts and investments.
If I had a mortgage I wouldn’t entertain saving for my children , my advice is to overpay your mortgage instead, the feeling of freedom to not have that to pay would be worth more in the long term .
We are saving to buy either another rental property or more land which will benefit the kids more than cash in the bank earning minimal interest .

We haven't saved anything for DS.
He is very lucky to have a trust fund which his Grandfather arranged to be set up for him in his will. DS isn't able to touch it until he is 25, so hopefully he can use it for a deposit on a flat.

He does have a savings account that has been added to over the years. I think there's about £8k in there at the moment.

We overpay our mortgage and also save for the children, £300 per month split between them, and when my grandma passed away there was some money left to them and so that went into their ISAs as well. Dd has about 15k (she's currently aged 7), DS slightly less because we haven't had as long to save in his.
Having read this thread I'm wondering if maybe we should hold it there now. The ISA is fairly high interest (was 6%, then 4%, now 3% I think) so will continue to grow even if we stop paying into it. I've always known the money will be theirs and in their name at age 18, but I obviously hope that it might be used towards uni or living costs or house deposit rather than frittered away. given we still have a mortgage (that we also overpay) wondering if we should up that payment for now instead, as I can see a.massive lump sum at age 18 could be problematic, whatever our hopes and intentions!

Nothing at present but we have put away a decent inheritance for them in trust (50k each) which should help with uni fees or house deposit.

I would like to save more when we pay less for childcare (or earn more).

Dm is saving £50 a month for them each.

I save a token amount (£20 per child/month).
I’m not keen to save more than that into accounts directly for them, as I don’t think 18 year olds are best placed to make great decisions about money, so I wouldn’t want to save hard and then see it frittered away. But I wanted there to be something there for them in case anything happened to me/ for driving lessons or travelling or university.

My bigger focus is overpaying our mortgage and building a general saving cushion which we can then spend as seems appropriate as they reach adulthood (university/ vocational courses/ house deposit). I would plan to still be working when they are young adults anyway.

We have no specific savings for ds but he will get anything that is useful for him from our savings if we can afford it. He will never be independent so we have avoided separate accounts for him as they could effect social care provision when he is an adult. He will have money held in trust when one or both of us die.

Ours is in rags and tags.

Dh saves them just £10 a month each, but they don't know about it. In his bank though.
I give them £25 a month plus their dinner money. Dd1 gets it all into her account as she's at college. Dd2 gets just the £25 as I pay her dinners separately. This goes into their accounts.

Any Christmas or birthday money they get goes into their money tin. They don't usually want big things, so they dip into their tin money as and when they want things. Then that lets their pocket money build up in their accounts.

Dd2 got the £175 for her own account from the govt, dd1 didn t.
Then dh and I save an amount for them in my accounts that should come to £3k by age 18. Not to gift to them, but to pay for 18th party or trip, driving lessons and maybe help towards a car or uni cost of living. I won't stop saving this amount at 18, but I imagine I will carry on saving for them until they are getting a deposit. Even a few £k should help but we won't be in a position to give them lots and lots.

I got nothing from my parents. Except the cost of my £1k wedding, no driving lessons etc. No help with money for University or getting our house So I think anything we can help with is a bonus.

So many of you have said you would be worried about your 18 year old coming into a large sum of money and blowing it all. We have a nearly 19 year old who inherited a fairly large sum of money from his grandfather when he was 14. The money was put in his name when he was 16 and apart from him buying a computer that he wanted and needed for school, he has never touched any of the money. He has an old banger of a car and is happy with that. I can honestly say hand on heart that he wouldn't touch that money as he knows how much it would upset us and he was told from the time he first inherited the money that it is to help him later in life. He is very keen at the moment to invest his money in a small flat to rent out and this is something he/we will be looking into. Not all 18 year olds are party animals and will piss it all up the wall, some can be quite sensible!

Rosti- overpay your mortgage , it will be of more benefit in the long term .

Absolutely nothing.We are saving for ourselves (pensions, paying off mortgage etc) and into longterm savings in our name. We will help them through university (cost of living - not tuition fees unless the grant system is cut) if they want to go. Would also help w house purchase one day if we can afford it, but not at the risk of leaving ourselves in poverty as pensioners. Fundementally I expect them to be financially independent as adults and do not want us to be reliant on them for care etc. Theyll inherit of course, if anything left once we're gone.

I’m sure my children won’t piss any money up the wall but it’s not a risk I’m prepared to take .

I know a young man who inherited £100k aged 20. Now aged 25 it has all gone. His grandparent’s life’s savings all gone on nothing.

We weren’t able to save at all for our dc when they were small. Now we are much better. Off and I’m glad we didn’t stretch ourselves any more back then.

icequeen

The bit if money we gave ds1 for his 18th is in premium bonds

Nothing. Our savings go to the mortgage and later to school fees which will both benefit them. If we have more spare funds later we will help them but it’s far more important to us to invest in bringing them up, ideally equipping them to be able to be invest in themselves.

And I would never give a young adult a chunk of money. My parents gave each of us some money from grandmas estate but they are waiting to tell youngest brother as they think he will just spend it. He’s mid 20s and will appreciate it when he’s looking at a house and family.

Not in a position to save anything unfortunately.

A poster upthread asked why save birthday and Christmas money. We did it when ours were little because they were too young to know or understand it and they had lots of toys, treats, trips out etc already. No desire to give them more for the sake of more. So in the family a few of us made agreements to put the birthday money in their savings accounts instead. Stops once they're old enough to have some concept of using the cash to buy themselves something though. I wouldn't do it with a 9 year old but it's a good thing with a toddler.