I probably am bu and very nosey but...

[Ciggarettesuffragettesandboys]

Aibu to ask if you put money into an account regularly for your DC? If so how often and how much?

Me and DH put money in monthly (£40 each) and one of us thinks this is a good amount and the other doesn’t. I’m totally aware that it comes down to circumstances and income but just looking to gain some perspective really.

It’s financially far more savvy to overpay your mortgage by whatever you would have put away for your kids, so that when the time comes they might need it you’ll be in a much better off situation to give them money (the money accruing on your mortgage is a far greater rate than any interest rate on savings or in a fund however clever the fund managers!)
My kids have bday/festive money all put in their bank but we overpay our mortgage with any spare cash we have.

the money accruing on your mortgage is a far greater rate than any interest rate on savings or in a fund however clever the fund managers

Not necessarily. Our mortgage rate is 1.1%. I have a variety of savings products that beat that rate.

Same here barbara

So much so that dh has used the overdraft function on the mortgage to buy shares which give a generous dividend

I think the isa the childrens money is in pays something like 4%

we have savings but nothing for kids and no child benefit to save either. not sure what the grandparents will/won't do - they're our children after all.

the money accruing on your mortgage is a far greater rate than any interest rate on savings or in a fund however clever the fund managers

Our mortgage is currently 0.75% and we get much more than that on our savings.

I don’t understand why people are putting money away for their children. Put it away for yourself so when you’re old you won’t be a burden on them. What are you gonna do had over a few grand when they hit 21. That’ll go down well. Image if they spent it on drink and partying. You’ve saved all your lives for them and they’d fritter it away at that age. Better to give them chores to earn their own money at a young age. Then Saturday and holiday jobs when older. This is how we treated money for my daughter and she’s a great saver now. Even finishing 1st year of uni with a few grand still in the bank that she’d earned herself. If you want to help maybe put away a bit to help with a deposit for a house or help with wedding money. Far better to let them earn their own money, less likely to waste it when they know how hard work feels.

@FoodologistGirl yes we save for ourselves too, we are mortgage free so it is a lot easier to do i suppose. Any money I save for them is in accounts under my name also so I can access when needed (university, car etc) and yes I absolutely expect them to get weekend/summer jobs, I did it from the age of 14 so they will too!! They will have no choice in that matter!!

FoodologistGirl we over pay on our mortgage, have good pensions, no debt, our own savings. The money we are putting away for the children will be given to them for 'big' thibgs- wedding, house deposit, uni etc. We won't be a burden on them and the savings will help them.

I don’t . They both have child trust fund accounts which they put Christmas and birthday money into . I’m not letting an 18 year old get their hands on thousands of pounds.
We save in our names and they will have everything they need when they need it .

We stopped saving into kids accounts (for college) and massively overpaid on the mortgages of our rental properties, they are now mortgage free so the income generated pays for college, etc. I think it worked better for us, as a pp stated, if you save in their names they can spend it on anything.

We have one DD and put £50 into long term savings and £30 into a bank account that when it reaches a few hundred we buy premium bonds in the hope she wins!

Put it away for yourself so when you’re old you won’t be a burden on them

We do that too.

I put away £75 per child per month. When the eldest hit 18, and with his full knowledge (couldn't do it any other way - signatures required) I transferred it into a Lifetime ISA which can only be used for a house deposit and/or a pension. The Government adds 25% to it, so it's a very good scheme.

The £20 a week child benefit goes straight into a savings account where it will stay until she is 21 unless we deem the expense savings worthy - uni expenses, driving lessons etc

We have 6 children and 2 grandchildren and are on a pretty low income. We aren't in a position to save anywhere near what we'd like, but do our best. The youngest 4 and dgcs have ISA's that we save monthly in - £20 month each for DC and £10 for DGC. It has occasional extra top ups-Christening money/grandparent gifts etc. This will be held by me until required and does not automatically belong to DC.
The oldest 2 have had their money-only about £1500 each as we weren't in a position to save at all when they were young. Eldest used it to pay for a wedding buffet. 2nd put it into a help to buy isa then withdrew it and pissed it against a wall! Luckily she was given it as a loan to start things off and has repaid it at £100 month so still has her pot should she ever decide to marry. (Only 19, currently single and in the military earning more than either of us)
The DC also have pocket money accounts that we pay £2--3 a week into. That money mounts up and birthday money goes into it too. When the holidays come around we have spending money to pay for their expenses or it's there for expenses we can't just conjure up on a bad week like shoes. 12 year old uses it to pay for cinema with her friends etc.

It's all relative to your 'disposable' income. I don't work (both DC under school age) and OH is on pence above minimum wage. I put £10 per child from each child benefit payment into their savings accounts, but we do dip into it now and then if we need to, but only ever to pay for things for them. I'll sometimes take a bit out if I can't afford the full terms fees for one of the classes we go to. We've managed a cheapy city break as a joint Christmas gift, but with food and entry into the one place we're going that costs an entry fee, we won't have anything else spare, so I'll be taking a little out of each of their banks for them to have spends for the gift shops in the places we visit. It mostly stays put though. I'm hoping there will be a little pot for them when they're older to put towards traveling, driving lessons, car/insurance or similar, but if we need things for them now and haven't managed to get the funds together in time, we do dip into it. (I often pay the money back in if it's just a cashflow issue).

I would describe us as very well off (we are lucky, two v well paid possibly over paid jobs) and we put in a tenner each a month. It’s not supposed to buy them a mansion, it’s a little nest egg for adding to their own savings for something like travelling or buying their first old banger.

But then I don’t want to set them up for life. I want them to do what we did, make their own money from scratch and live according to their means in the meantime. Providing a very large financial fund at 18/21 would fly in the face of this principle. We don’t give them loads of stuff now either for the same reason - so they associate money with endeavour, not bank of mum and dad.

i put £10 a month into each account as we have two DS

grandparents have put in £1000 each, and I'm now balancing out the accounts, with a lesser payment in the first atm, as i lumped in several hundreds when first was born.

plan is to put in the child support money each month, and then top up to £50 a month by end of this year

DS's are 2.10 & 4, so nearly at free childcare for both, which will allow this to happen and free up cash for both us as parents too

£80 per month but we only have one DC. We both work full time so don’t really need the child benefit so we decided to save it in her account for when she’s older. If/when we have a second, the amount will probably decrease a bit.

£10 a month since birth plus birthday money, if it comes as a cheque.

I did this for my kids although not to that extent as I couldnt afford it, my DS reached 18 and pissed it away on cars which he wrecked and was generally an arse with it - he still is an arse (different story and he is now 25) My DD reached 18 never spent a penny of it. Still hasnt and has moved it to an ISA, where she still doesnt touch it. Shes 20 now.

Look into government sponsored savings plans for kids. There are some very generous ones.

You need to check with the bank but as far as I know children are encouraged to manage their savings from the age of 7, this means this is the age at which they have access to the money although parents may still have control. However by 16 they d o have full access...what are u going to do if they decide to withdraw the lot ....

Br1256 entirely depends on how you've set it up in the first place but that's certainly not standard in any of the accounts I looked at.

We'll set up a second account for DS to learn money management in due course.