Dc given quite a lot of ££ by GP, will be richer than us at 18..

[Whereiswarmth]

We are extremely low contact with pils, I certainly would be very happy to never see them again... Dh can't speak to them and has not seen them for a few years now.

Long story! However they do put ££ into dc isa.
It's quite a bit now.. Near 30 grand... Probably a little more, they are 11 and 7.
Obviously this is a first world problem and a nice problem to have but it's worrying at 18 they will have access to this.. They seem very sensible at the moment but I'm aware it could even put them at risk from unsavory people when out socialising..

What will they do with it?

Although I dislike pils obviously I'm grateful for this.. But I'm wondering if they will contribute every year?
Dh and I are not high earners at all.. But something also makes me feel slightly uneasy.. Neither dc have been enraptured with pils.. I'm certainly not going to encourage contact at all after past issues etc. Pils are very well off..

Just wondering if anyone else's dc has more money than them and what they would do with it?

That is a good way to put it.
My son has been buying and selling shares and shorting and lots of interesting things he keeps talking to me about and I see it as an educational exercise in a sense and he knows he could lose all his modest savings, but there is no way the money I gave him for a house (which thankfully is now in a house) should be used for that. However my uncle's wife to whom I wrote for about 40 years and had no children very kindly left my children £2k each when the older ones were university stage and I did not mind one using that for various university expenses and a trip to central America with friends etc as it was not a vast sum to "waste" like that .

Very interesting to read about not paying university fees and maintenance in favour of house deposit.

We’re saving into a junior ISA for my child. We are older parents, and plan to be retired by the time she goes to university, so no new income coming it. I therefore assumed that at least some of this money would therefore have to go on university fees. It does make sense however to use student loans to defer payment until she is earning well if interest rates for repayments are below mortgage.

The annual JISA allowance has been £9000 since last year. If we can save that each year, then it will be about £140k plus interest. That’s a heartbreaking amount of money to fritter away, and it cannot be replaced by us, certainly not anywhere like that amount.

I do worry about it sometimes - not just that the money will get wasted, but that, with such a large nest egg, she won’t be as motivated to work hard as we were. All I can do is hope that we can install the value of money into her before then and teach her to be responsible with it. And after that, I guess, she will be an adult, and it will be her life.

My DS was in the same position and when he was 14 he inherited £30,000 from my dad. When he was 18 he bought a 1 bed flat (DH had to go in the mortgage with him as DS was about to start Uni and only had a part time job). DS still lives at home and rents the flat out. Luckily he has had a great tenant and DS uses the money from his flat to pay for his Uni expenses. He is now 21 and still lives at home but about to finish his degree and it has worked out perfectly.

You could have a chat with them when they're older & suggest they allocate an amount to 'play' with (say 5k), then the rest is to be used sensibly (uni, car, house deposit etc..)
Stress that you won't be in a position to financially assist should they chose to waste the whole amount on frivolous stuff.

It is one reason I was happy to pay money for a house or flat purchase by direct payment to the solicitors handling it but not to give the money as cash in advance. Not that I think my children would take money they were told was for a home and spend it all ASAP instead but it just felt safer to wait until they were buying somewhere and it was going directly to that. Like Icea with student twins each let out a house (one of which was their older brother's which we kept when he moved about a year ago to get the twins on the property market whilst still students - not least because I just wanted to get over with my stage of helping the children financially) and they find the rent very useful and because they earn no money it is not subject to income tax. Then when they leave home they can either live in the houses or keep renting them out whilst they live with friends elsewhere and once they know where they want to settle down can sell and put the money into their first home.

Our Gdcs are still little, but I do like the idea of telling them about it once they’re old enough, maybe once they start senior school, and emphasising that ultimately - the bulk of it at least - is to go towards a property purchase.

Must mention it to dd in case dh and I are not around by then! (We’re both getting on a bit but 🤞).

Not that I’d object to a little of it going on treating themselves. It’d be hard at 18 to come into any reasonable chunk of money and be told that if you fritter any of it away now, poor old Granny and Grandpa will be turning in their graves.