To ask for help?

[mathshelpppppp]

Disclaimer - I know months are only used for babies but I'm using months so it's more precise

I have two children. Before second was born, I was unable to save much for my first. Financial position changed and now I can.

Child one (80 months) has £1417 in savings
Child two (35 months) has £742 in savings

I save £50 per month per child. When they are 18, I'd like them to have the same amount. I have tried work out how to get child one to catch up with child two. Even if I put a lump sum into child one now and save the same amount for the rest of the year per child, child two always seems to come out as if he's had more per month?

HELP

You’ve got 12 years before one of them turns 18 (I’m not working that out in months), it should be easy to correct, your circumstances may change over the years anyway so I wouldn’t stress about it so much now. Work out how much you want in both accounts at the end, calculate how many months until the reach 18 and then calculate how much you need to put in each account per month to reach the target.

I don’t know if this is a fair way to do it but I would add the total savings together (1417+742)=2159
Divide 2159 by the sum of their ages in months (35+80)=115. 2159/115=18.7
multiply by their respective ages
child 1 18.7x80=1501
child 2 18.7x35=654
So I would say each child should have that amount in their account. Child 2 already has more than that so either take some out and add to child 1 or add an extra £88 to child 1.
Remember interest too so child 2 will end up with more money by their 18th birthday because of extra time for interest but I don’t think you can do much about that.

I think this is exactly what I am trying to do!!! I just didn't know how to calculate it

Say I add all months up and divide them though.

How come if I do that. As suggested above.

But then give them BOTH £50 for the next 8 months. And then divide totals again but the months of their ages (plus the new 8 they have aged).... child 2 still ends up on average with more per month??

E.g.

Child one 1501+400=1901. Then 1901/88 months is 21.6

Child two 657+400=1507. Then 1507/43 months is 24.5

How??? If I have evened them out and paid them the same every future month

Surely your making this far too complicated, would it not be easier to even them out then just put the same in each as and when you can afford it and ensure there is always the same amount in each. Just in case anything happened that you couldn't top them up then they would both have the same amount at 18 (or whatever age you stopped being able to save for them if the worse happened).
I also am very careful to give my 3 the same having it clear as a child that my brother was always favoured.

That's my point. I am trying to even them out as they DO get the same every month (prior to my second being born my first got less just because that's what was affordable)

But in TRYING to top them up and then continuing to give them the same, it's not working out as I expect. Which I why I'm asking if my sums are wrong

If I give them the exact same now, my oldest will get 4 years less savings than the youngest..

The maths is making my brain hurt. You’re right, I can’t work it out. Hopefully someone much more maths-ey will be along soon to correct us!

Your logic was definitely the same as mine as it's fried my brain!!!

It must be because 8 months as a proportion of 88 is lower than 8 months of 43 but I can’t work out how you would fix it

So far you have (on average) saved £17.70 per month for C1 and £21.20 for C2.

So to make them equal you would need to add £279 to C1s savings now.

they won’t both turn 18 at the same time though? So you continue to save for dc2 at the same rate after dc1 has had theirs.

Because you didn't always put in £50 a month. So because you put in less for child 1 for longer than child 2 then child 1's monthly average will always be lower, even if you continue to contribute equally to both.

I wouldn't get too worked up about it. You can always do a bit of evening up when they're closer to 18.

If you are wanting them to have the exact same amount in their accounts when they turn 18, does it even matter if one seems to get more each month now? As they will be getting the same in the end anyway just even it up now, save into a separate account that you can then transfer lump sums from to make sure they end up the same.

For child 1, you've been able to save £17.71/month so far, for child 2 it's been £21.2.

For the simplest way to get them to the same place, you need to first top up child 1 so their balance is £1,696. Then save £50/month until child 1 is 18.

For child 2, save £21.2 per month until they are 80 months old, then switch to £50/month. They'll both come out with the same amount at 18.

Was just coming to write this exactly.

Because by dividing the amount you have by the number of months in total you come up with an amount per month that is less than the 50 you are putting in now.

So your dc1 has had the lower amount for a longer proportion than your dc2 once you move them both to the higher amount.

In order to even it out, you would have to make it proportional to their ages as well.

I'll do this in years so it's easier to follow. Suppose you have a 4 year old and a 9 year old. You even up the amounts they've had, so each gets call it 400 per year so far. You then continue to give them each 500 per year.

So at the end of another year, your 9 year old (now 10) has had 400 for 9 years and 500 for one year, so 400 for 90% of their life and 500 for 10% whereas your 4 (now 5) year old has had 400 for 5 years and 500 for a year, so 400 for 80% of their life and 500 for 20%.

To make it equal you will have to make it so that they both get the same proportion of their lives at the lower rate.

There is an alternative if you have spare funds available now.

If you had saved £50 per month for every month the children would have the following:

Child 1 £4,000
Child 2 £1750

If you made the current savings up to this level and then added £50 per month, they would both have £10,800 at 18.

18 years = 216 months
£50 x 216 = £10,800

£50 x 80 = £4,000
£50 x 35 = £1750

Why don't you just carry on what you are doing and save any other spare money in your own name? Then if your eldest gets say £5k at age 18, but your youngest has less than that, you have a spare pot of money in your own name to top up their pot to £5k.

You're overthinking this. They're still very young. Your outgoings and earnings will be different when they are 18. They may need to dip into those savings at some time before 18. Carry on saving. It's great that you are saving at all! Many parents would struggle to do that. When they turn 18, you can top it up a bit as needed depending on if any has been used before/savings rates/etc.