To ask how much you have saved/aim to have saved for your child when they reach 18?

[Pringleeo]

We have 400 quid so far and dc is 2. Friends seem to already have 5-10k!! This is not possible for us. Is this the norm to save so much? I know housing etc will be crazy in future so I would try and save more but just can’t at the moment

Presumably because the compound interest is so nuts over such a long time. It wouldn't be my natural inclination but for every £1000 saved by the time the child is 10 they'll be £15,000 by the time they retire. (5% return.)

In the insane and imaginary world where you could put £25k in for them at birth it would be worth half a million quid by the time they retired at 60.

DD is 10 and we have around 20,000 currently.
But, we were much older parents and more financially stable now than we were in our 20s and 30s. In honesty, I'd trade it all to be a younger parent. Years with her are more important than the cash I can give her.

Nope. Affluence is not required, as the current government tax relief and compound interest over the years will do the job.
You also don’t need to max any allowance out, just commit to what is affordable.

https://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/junior-sipp/junior-sipp-calculator

Why tie up money? See the concerns about 18 year olds blowing the savings, or the many threads about adults with no pension/pension awareness. The ISA and the SIPP can co-exist.

I don’t own a property, so won’t be mortgage free. It doesn’t mean I can’t afford a contribution to my daughter’s SIPP or ISA. I may not max out the allowances, but it may serve the purpose of putting better financial planning on her radar.

In any case, this is just another option for setting the children on the path to financial freedom. Given life is so expensive and the retirement age keeps moving out of reach, it can’t hurt to start them early.

You can’t add an under 18 and a mortgage lender wouldn’t allow someone to have an interest in the property who isn’t also
party to the mortgage.

@MrsDTucker it is for the benefit of that child, no stipulation that benefit should be immediate - for all we know the OP lives frugally or in a cheaper area of the country which allows them to save.

Child benefit used to be a universal benefit for all children. That stopped during this Conservative term in Government & became means tested (a bit unfairly but that’s another debate) but it means the OP is not in a higher earning household. I stopped getting child benefit for my children at that point, but living in the South East it it would still come in useful!

If the OP is saving hers for her kids it’s surely better than the minority of people who will use it to fund their habits e.g. smoking or drinking. What I mean is if people are eligible for it you can’t then determine what they spend it on & savings for children’s futures is preferable to wasting it.

What happens when your home has to be sold to cover your care costs in old age. The state won't accept that your DD has any interest in the property simply because you used her money to pay down your mortgage.

And how do those who are gifting her the money feel about it? Surely if they wanted you to have the money they'd pay it to you in the first place.

I think most people will have paid off their mortgages long before they need a care home, so how they got the money isn’t that relevant

I agree with your second point People usually gift children money because they are not sure what the child will like, so the child can choose for themselves. They do not expect the money to go on mortgage payments!

Its totally understandable to not help your kids out if you can’t afford it but this idea that they won’t understand the value of hard work unless they’re down the pits 23 hours a day is really dim

We have £100 that goes into a junior ISA monthly which he can access at 18, and £50 monthly in a junior saver that he will access at 16, so should total around £30k although god knows how far that will get him by then but will hopefully be able to finance driving lessons, a car and then maybe some kept back for part of a deposit on a property later on. On the flip side I had a grand total of zilch saved for me growing up and gained huge satisfaction out of doing all that on my own!

I won’t be selling the house in my old age.
the house is hers when she needs it.
whether to continue to live in, or to sell for something she wants.
and yes people who gift her money know that she gets half to spend and half gets put away for her future.

So if your daughter asked you for the money 'put away for her future' so she could learn to drive and get a car (for example) would you remortgage your house if you had to to give it to her?

Plus any interest she would have earned had her money been in a bank?

Also, when you say your house is there for her when she needs it, are you talking about after you die? I think I already pointed out up thread, average age to inherit it 61.

Enough to get them started at uni with a laptop, books, maybe an old banger of a car. Currently saving £25-50 per month. Sometimes nothing. It won’t get them on the housing market but might help uni costs.

I assume you’re not in the UK? Here, if you need care in old age the state takes your house, and if you’ve given it away they will go after your DD for your care costs.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/care/paying-for-care/paying-for-a-care-home/deprivation-of-assets/

Eityer way, your attitude is pretty shitty and you reap what you sow.

No, she will have to work to pay for driving lessons and a car as I believe this is important for a child to develop a sense of responsibility.
whatever she saves for a car I will match 50% from my personal savings to ensure she can afford something safe and reliable.

No I don’t live in the uk.
how is my attitude shitty? Because you disagree with me? you don’t think my financial plan for my child is as good as yours therefore I’m a shitty person?
reap what you sow indeed.

I don’t understand why you’re getting so much stick for this. As you said, it’s a different way of saving. Nobody here knows the full picture and the way you speak about your DD you’re clearly a great mum!

You say the house is there when she needs it. Does that mean;

a: You'll have moved out
b: She has to live with you if she wants to live the house
c: She’ll inherit

The second 2 don’t sound great! Perhaps I’m biased as a friend recently inherited from her mum at 66; her brothers were in their 70s!

OTOH, if you are mortgage free, you’ll have more disposable income, so perhaps you could help her that way.

My parents kindly gave £5k to each of my kids - to try and avoid inheritance tax. We pay in £100 a month to each of their accounts plus some odd Xmas and birthday money goes in. It’s not loads but hopefully enough for uni/first car or - depending on our circs at the time - will encourage them to keep it towards a home.

One child (11) and he has just shy of £20k in his account but £10k of that was left to him in wills by two family members.

Nothing. Until 5 years ago, every spare penny went on staying afloat, and by then our dc were already 14 and 16.

Now we have spare cash left at the end of the month, we are trying to build up a pension for our own old age... something we could never afford to do before.

We'll help our dc out where we can if they need it, but we've brought them up to be independent and to stand on their own 2 feet, and now they're adults, it's on them to make their own way in the world.
The youngest is meant to go to uni this year, so we'll support them and top up their loans to the maximum amount, but we'll also expect them to get a job in summer, etc, to contribute to their education/social life.

Will your child know she has some of her money, that people gave you for her, buried in your house? Will you tell her when she's 18? You've said you won't give her her own money back for driving lessons. What if she wanted to buy her own house, would you give her her money back then? Or just wanted her own money back, that people gave to her, not you.
I asked a question a while back that you didn't answer. In fact a few questions.
I asked if the gift givers knew you had paid your mortgage down with the money they gave for your daughter?
You replied that they knew you had invested it in her future. This implied (to me) that, no, they don't know you bought yourself a house with her money.
I think it's very wise to put money away for children that relatives have given until early adulthood, but this is not what you have done. I think you have no intention of ever giving your daughter this money back, not until your dead anyway. I would be furious if I'd given money for a child and the parent had kept it like this.

I should add, I think it's fine to clear out children's bank accounts, of every single penny, if you are on the bones of your ass and are all going to be made homeless without using it. In fact it would be stupid not to. You should be prepared to give that money back though, even if it means selling up, when the kids are young adults and want it back. I don't think this is what's happened here though.

The irony, when you haven't worked to overpay your own mortgage. You've used other people's money. Money they thought they had gifted your child. Money that she could have used herself for driving lessons or whatever else she wanted. It's shocking that you're trying to justify using your daughters money that way. 100% you will not tell your daughter that you used her birthday money to benefit yourself as I imagine that would have serious repercussions for your relationship