Do you have savings accounts for your children?

[drizzleabit]

I have 2 DC under 4 and have only just opened junior ISAs for them both. Are we a bit late starting this? It seems we are in mine and DH's family, as most of our family members (cousins etc.) have been saving for their DC since they were born.

We were getting a bit embarrassed as we kept on being given money for our DC's bday/Xmas gifts, but weren't able to actually put it in their own accounts and ended up spending it (especially cash as it's just gets put in a purse). We've now put all this money into their savings accounts. Is this a thing for other families? Most of my friends don't do this, they save for their DC but don't gift money or get given money as presents.

Guess my AIBU is,
YABU - this is totally normal and can't believe you've only just started saving
YANBU - this is not normal

My husband's grandmother gave us a generous cheque in DS's name when he was born so we were forced to open a bank account in his name 😂.

We just put his birthday and Christmas money in there though, he's only 2 so he doesn't want to spend it yet, not sure what we'll do when he actually wants money to buy things.

My mum has a regular savings account in his name though, just like my grandfather did for me and my sister.

We have savings accounts for each of the children but in our names as it's us contributing and it's not a random gift that comes without strings when they're 18.. it very much will need to be spent on a car or a house deposit or another agreed upon expense rather than being pissed up the wall.

We also have a savings account with them each as they beneficiary for education, which in my country we put in about £1,500 per year and the government adds about £300-500 per year until they're 16 if you've contributed. Again, it's in our names and if they don't go to uni then it's released back to the parents and the government grants are returned. But in theory even if they didn't go to uni they could have the lump sum minus the grants.

Both accounts are invested rather than just in "savings" though as that doesn't grow much.

I opened a JISA up for my daughter as soon as we had a birth certificate but got cold feet when she was 20 months and I opened a savings account for her and her newborn brother in my own bank.
I don’t want them to have access to it at 18. Ideally, I’d like to continue paying into it until they’re 25 and they can use it to buy a house.
The thought of them accessing at 18 and blowing it on a freshers week and a trip to Amsterdam breaks me out in a cold sweat! While it’s in my bank, I can continue adding to it and give it to them when the time is right. My husband and I agree that if they live with us as adults paying board, their board money will be added to it.
We don’t plan on telling them they have this nest egg.

They have accounts, not much in savings though, in the next few years we will be back on our feet and start saving for them

If we’re given cash in cards for their birthdays or Christmas, we let them go to the shops and decide what they’d like to buy (now they’re 3 & 4). When they were smaller we’d choose something for them. Then they have a photo taken while playing with it and a thank you note written on the back to give back.
We don’t put gift money in their accounts unless the person giving it requests that specifically.

They have had accounts since they were born. I don't contribute as much as I want to but we and other family members put money in for their birthdays, Christmas and at other times throughout the year.

I'm with the people saying yes to savings, but not in their name.
You just don't know how your lovely 4 year old will be when they are 18, or even your lovely hard working 16 yo.

Yes, but I didn’t save for them. I put cash they were given as little ones in. They all ended up with around £300 to put towards driving lessons.

If I have kids I’ll be saving for them but in my name not theirs. My mum saved hard for me and sadly I got the money at 18 and blew it like an idiot on junk. I will not let any future kids do that. I learnt the hard way.

We haven’t started and our eldest is 10. But we are hoping to put in £650 a month from next year with the aim of supporting them at uni. It’s not when you start, it’s what you put in that counts

We save £25/month into a JISA for each child plus a grandparent puts in another £50 each. With that, some birthday money and £1k each inheritance it’s growing very nicely. My almost five year old is at £6.5k so we feel very lucky and aware of what a sum they could have at 18. Tbh the idea of them having access does scare me but if they seem the not very sensible types by about age 16 I will investigate ways to lock it away for longer-even if it’s in their names I think there are ways to put it in trust or something before they turn 18. Will need to speak to a financial adviser if that happens but we’re hoping to raise them to be savvy enough to only use it for a house, education or travel.

Mine have a govt child trust fund account which we pay a tenner a month into.

They have a savings account each where we put Christmas/birthday money and also my mum puts a monthly amount into. We use that to fund big stuff like bikes/trampoline etc and I expect as they get older they will use it for bits and bobs like expensive tech or very cheap cars etc. I had similar and that's what I used mine for.

They now have current accounts/debit cards into which they get monthly pocket money. This has been fun as we're fairly generous (they are 11) but it comes with the proviso that we stop paying for tat so they are thinking really hard about what they want to spend their cash on and we are saving as all those odd bits add up.

They also have some money in trust which has come about through inheritance but money unexpectedly inherited by my mum in awful circumstances rather than direct to them. This is for uni/house deposit/big life stuff and is not accessible by them without permission. They don't know it exists atm.

I'd say any savings is fab and probably is the norm in my circle but certainly not too late and not an obligation!

We opened accounts for them almost immediately for this exact reason, to put cash gifts in. We don't regularly save for them, it's just Xmas and birthday money that goes in there. Not anticipating it to be a life changing sum of money for them to go wild at 18

We have multiple savings accounts.
We are lucky one grandma is doing small amount of savings which should be a few grand lump sum at 18. Other grandparents are savings much more (they are significantly better off) but that is in some form or trust so can't be accessed until we say so.
We are also trying to save some too. An account for birthday and Christmas money which we pop a but into when we can and also some savings in our name which we plan to spilt better all our children when older.

Personally I think this works well from having seen friends. A few grand for uni/flittering but house deposit for later.

They won't be told about house deposit until they are old enough and have shown themselves to be trying to buy.

@MayorGoodwaysChicken

We save £25/month into a JISA for each child plus a grandparent puts in another £50 each. With that, some birthday money and £1k each inheritance it’s growing very nicely. My almost five year old is at £6.5k so we feel very lucky and aware of what a sum they could have at 18. Tbh the idea of them having access does scare me but if they seem the not very sensible types by about age 16 I will investigate ways to lock it away for longer-even if it’s in their names I think there are ways to put it in trust or something before they turn 18. Will need to speak to a financial adviser if that happens but we’re hoping to raise them to be savvy enough to only use it for a house, education or travel.

I don’t think that will be possible. It’s not your account so you have no access to it other than being able to pay into it.

It's a shame that the government stopped the CTF/Junior Isas - they used to put money in to start them off - as that started a habit of saving right from the beginning.

Both ours have had CTF/Junior ISA from birth and we put a regular small amount in so they're not too disappointed when they hit 18. We prefer to invest most of our money elsewhere though - better financial products, we have more control in case they wanted to blow it all on beer aged 18 etc. They'll benefit from these savings, but won't have direct access.

Once they started getting pocket money aged around 5-6, we opened savings accounts for them, even thought they were only getting tiny amounts, and that increased as grandparents started handing slipping them a tenner here and there, and cash gifts for birthdays etc. HSBC had the best interest + reasonably accessible this summer we found, and Virgin for under 7s, but you need to keep it under review.

At 7 we did a little exercise on bank accounts, interest, compared interest rates across 3 accounts I'd pre-selected as being suitable, then discussed how often they wanted to access the money, and they got to weigh up what they wanted re: accessibility vs. higher interest. Pocket money increased year by year and they got to decide how much to save vs. keep in piggy bank for immediate spending, every month. They also keep an eye on the interest rate changes and decided when to move to a better value account.

At 11 DD got her first current account alongside the savings, and now her pocket money is split across the 2 accounts.

Both (primary aged) are now avid savers who like to read their statements (we taught them), and think carefully about how they use their money - saving/spending/charity, needs vs. wants etc. I think there's huge value in starting financial education young, but obviously we're lucky to be able to save for them.

We save her child benefit in our name (in a stocks and shares ISA), with the intent that we control access and can give it to her at a time that is helpful (such as for uni or house deposit). We haven't yet got round to opening an account in her name, but will open a savings account for money given directly to her. Our families tend to give gifts rather than money though, so this account won't end up with much in it!

My three eldest have child trust funds and junior ISAs (I don't think they're actually supposed to have both though) and my youngest two just have junior ISAs. We have put £40 a month in since birth, with the aim of them having £10k each when they reach 18. Enough to give them a small boost.

@MayorGoodwaysChicken

We save £25/month into a JISA for each child plus a grandparent puts in another £50 each. With that, some birthday money and £1k each inheritance it’s growing very nicely. My almost five year old is at £6.5k so we feel very lucky and aware of what a sum they could have at 18. Tbh the idea of them having access does scare me but if they seem the not very sensible types by about age 16 I will investigate ways to lock it away for longer-even if it’s in their names I think there are ways to put it in trust or something before they turn 18. Will need to speak to a financial adviser if that happens but we’re hoping to raise them to be savvy enough to only use it for a house, education or travel.

This is what we are planning on doing. (trust). It's particularly an issue for the older one who has LDs and is deeply vulnerable (he gives away robux to people hoping they will be his friends for example).

We opened a JISA for DS when he was five and put a certain amount in every month. Sometimes relatives give us money to put in too, but generally we buy him things with Xmas or birthday money.

We have a savings account and a junior ISA, I put in his child benefit every month. He is gifted money for Christmas and birthdays. I will not tell him about the money until he is ready to do something with it, for example buy a house or travel etc.

Yea but there’s only about £1000 in each.

We opened them when they were born and pay £10 a months in ourselves plus birthday/Christmas money goes in there. It wont be a fortune, but hopefully will help them out. Once they're old enough we'll open cash accounts and then their birthday money will be split between the 2.

We do because we are given money monthly from an aunt for them but we only recently got to the point we could afford to save for them ourselves.

We put £50 in each account every month (2 children, £50 each), and started when I found out I was pregnant with each. The accounts are in mine and my partner's names (one each), as I had one and probably wasted a fair bit of it when I got the money at 18! So this way we can wait until they want to buy a house, or similar. We'll buy their first cars, and if they want to buy a property we'll give them around £10000 each alongside their savings as a deposit.
I don't think it matters when you start, or even if you do, my partner never had a savings account opened for him as a kid.