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.

We have family savings. We’ll decide when the time comes. If ds wants to go away to uni a lot will go on that. If he wants to stay home for uni we will spend on a loft conversion.
If we have a family disaster along the way (life changing injury or illness, house burnt down) it would go on that.
To me it doesn’t make sense to separate savings at this point.

Also the more we save for our old age care the less burden we’ll be in dc so we are focussed on that first. My parents have sorted their elderly care (my dm worked in social care) and knowing that is worth 100x more than any inheritance or gift to me and siblings.

We invested child benefit in a fund to pay out for when they went to university. It's now paid out. The DC are taking out all loans available to them and we're going on a cruise next month!

Nothing. We have family savings.

We're working on making sure we are in a position to help them out financially with uni/first car driving lessons/house deposit so there's no need for them to have anything in their own name. Every single person I've met who was given a lump sum at adulthood (including dp and siblings) blew it and family were less inclined to help out financially with anything after as I suppose they thought 'you had your money'.

As soon as they start earning their own money I will teach them to save a percentage of their earnings so they get some responsibility and money management. They will be set up with everything they need when the time comes but no way am I handing over a lump sum of hard earned and saved money at 18 for them to do what they want with. I want them to know the value of it.

We're not saving anything. We've got 2 DD's; 12, 11 and 8 yrs old and can't afford/don't want to put anything aside for any savings, let alone savings particularly for the children.

Our mortgage is massive and our outgoings are fairly substantial. We don't live the high life and go on expensive holidays etc, but we have nice cars, eat well and all have hobbies etc.

DH and I got absolutely NO help from our parents other than £1k from mine towards the wedding an £1k from in-laws towards the honeymoon. That's it. We paid for our own wedding, saved for our own deposits for house, and pay for everything ourselves with no family help at all, no inheritance, nothing.

We personally would rather we paid off our mortgage and put a decent amount into our pensions, than go without to put money aside for our children; money which will be worth very little by the time they need it. I am sure we will help to fund university if needed but will expect our children to work for what they want and save up for their own house deposits etc.

We do 20 a month for each of them ( have three) and any cheques they get for birthday/ Christmas are paid in then any cash they get is theirs to spend ( this will obviously change as they get older and take control of their birthday/ Christmas money)

Hopefully, we'll have a decent lump to give each of them when they are 18.

Nothing. Put him through med school paying 6 years of fees and all living costs so he started work with no student debt to pay off. When we die he will get c£1m house to sell.

£25 a month for each child, but some months we can't afford it.

I'd like to have 5k in each of their accounts by the time they are 18.

None specifically for them. We do save a lot each month though.

I think everyone will be better off if we pay off the mortgage ASAP. Even £25 pcm will reduce the overall term, I'd rather do that before putting money away for the kids.

They've both got saving accounts and PIL put in £10 pcm, plus Christmas and birthday money. If I notice the interest has been paid and the accounts are not a nice round number any more I top it up to the nearest £100.

We have 4 children, and our aim is £15k by the time each turns 21.

One child, I put in a minimum of £20 per month, also xmas & birthday money go into his account. He had some money when he was born that I opened the account with. When exP pays maintenance then £50 goes in a month instead (only 4 months so far). He has not long turned 3 and had just under £2k.

Nothing. We have family savings that will be used to support them through uni etc when they are older. If funds allow we would also support cars/weddings/houses etc but it will depend on our family situation at the time.

There will be no pot of money gifted to DS at a set age. No-one gifted me or DH a penny and we made our own way.

My financial advisor suggested a pot of £50k if you want to see them through university

No-one gifted me or DH a penny and we made our own way

Unfortunately the education system has changed significantly

I’m amazed that people still think that squirrelling money away is the right way. In 18 years that money will be worth so much less than one puts in.

Erm do you know how investing money works? Unless something horrendous happens and is sustained if you invest wisely your return will be way higher than the 1.9% or whatever on the mortgage.

We've been investing the CB in a pension scheme for DS sine he was born; he also saves most of his birthday & Christmas gifts (all family members give money) - his choice, we don't insist he saves it but he seems to enjoy using his bank account and seeing the savings mount up, now he's a teenager he adds his part time earnings to that as well. My DPs have also set up very generous investments plans for all their DGC, should be enough for a house deposit, appreciate we are in a very fortunate position.

Areyouactuallykiddingme-i work in education so am aware of the system. As I said the family savings pot will support DS as much as possible. Having it in a separate account with his name on it is unnecessary and runs the risk of him choosing to blow the whole lot of a weekend in Vegas at 18 if it’s all signed over to him.

Students have access to student loans to support them. I had one myself for a 4 year course and worked 3 jobs to pay for food etc. I am still paying it off now. I know it’s not ideal to start adult life with such a debt and so will support wherever we can.

Our family saving pot gets between £500-£800 a month added to it. We use it for holidays and large house expenses but there should be a fair amount there by the time DS is 18. If we could support by evening paying the first years fees that would help cut the student loan down.

There's a couple of grand in an ISA which the grandparents pay into every so often. But at the moment we spend so much on childcare and then it will be school fees, I think it will be a while before we can put money aside.

My parents put aside money for me and my sister, but they saved the vast majority of that money when they were in their 40s and 50s and at their earning peak. I guess that's what I envisage us doing. Also, sad though it is to think about, dh and I both have wealthy parents so I think we'd put aside a good chunk of any inheritance for our children.

£50 a month but only started 3 months ago and she's 9. Hoping it helps with uni/car/travelling.

@nonarnas you don’t need to put it into a separate account with their names on. I agree junior ISAs are an incredibly bad idea and I can’t really believe they exist. I’d have spent it all on drugs and festivals at 18. I put the savings for them in a normal stocks and shares ISA with my name on.

I too want to reassure some readers that not all 18 year olds will blow cash. I received a decent chunk when I turned 18, and then saved from a part time job through uni and my first year’s grad job the same again, giving me a 15% house deposit. I saved 40% of my net salary in my grad job and paid 12% of gross into a pension at the same time.

I do understand why you would save in your name (so you can choose if they are responsible enough) but I think some people tar all young people with the same brush.

Anyone thought that the only you save might be worth nothing in 18 years?

18 years ago £1 could buy a lot more than it can now