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

We help with expensives.
We paid for accomondation and books for dd1 while studing for a midwife degree in Europe and we pay ds' accomondation and books at university in England.
We pay the tickets then they travel to see us.

They are not handed a sum of money to play around with.

This. DS knows about his, is still a student, hasn’t asked for a penny of it yet because he knows that he’ll need it all for a deposit if he’s to have any chance of owning his own house in the current climate. Not all young people are idiots.

That seems like a very sensible thing to do.

I think it varies a lot - my oldest got one of those savings pots that were automatically set up for a short period and my youngest didn't, so I set up a Junior ISA for him, and I think the older one's got transferred to a Junior ISA later. I didn't add anything in for the first 5-7 years as we had no spare money when we were paying for ft childcare and I didn't earn that much.

About 10 years ago we were on holiday with friends and a few were talking about putting money in their kids' accounts each month and that made me feel a bit guilty as I'd imagine they were giving them quite a lot. I started with a fairly small sum, about £20 each a month, it went up to £50 about 5 years ago and during COVID, seeing as our outgoings vanished I put it up to £100 a month for around a year, but now back at £50. I'm the only one who contributes as DH's income is a bit variable.

I don't have a goal amount, but it will be in 5 figures by the time they are 18.

Nothing. I don’t have a lot and I have learnt to do what my mum done with my upbringing and use the money to give us an enjoyable childhood rather than saving that money. I have a friend who’s parents saved their birthday money, didn’t give them Easter eggs or allow relatives to give Easter eggs and instead asked for money to put in an account for when they were older. They spent their childhood saving for adulthood rather than enjoying their childhood. So with my son, I’d rather give him a £5 Easter egg or spend £30 on a day trip that he’ll enjoy than deprive him of that.

I do put money aside each month for my son, but as I’m a single parent that money gets used for clothes, uniform, the odd toy here and there. It’s not a future savings - it’s a spending savings

Zero

DS is 2, We put in 25 a month and birthdays or Christmas he might get a couple of hundred from grandparents, I think to date it’s 1400 roughly. When there is a bit more I expect we will invest it to try and grow it.

I don't save anything in my child's names. They do have small savings accounts where money from grandparents etc in birthday cards go's.
I remember so many people from university blowing massive savings on holidays and crap.
Honestly you are better off being able to support your child and perhaps step in later if house deposit is required. Ie just build up your own savings.

£35,000.
but …….
I got £250 from the govt
I only had 1 child
He’s neurotypical and has no additional needs
I have always worked full time
I have been lucky and been fit & health & never had to have any significant time off

I couldn’t save anything regularly before he was school age. Nursery was expensive but I set up my life to afford this and so when he went to school, I carried on putting half the nursery fees away in a child trust fund thing that was around at the time.

The money was spent on uni degree and on setting himself up in a flat with a car to start his first job last year. No partying, booze etc. He was incredibly grateful and very careful and I think a lot of 18 years old are.

Mine is 18, he has about £13000 in a Child Trust Fund thingy- that thing where the govt at the time was giving £250 to every new baby, but you couldn’t spend it- it had to be used to open the child trust fund, which you could then add to ( or not) with more money. We put the £250 into a share -based one, plus about £1000 we received from grandparents, my brother etc ‘for the baby’ and just left it there. And it’s grown to about £13,000. He’ll be off to uni in September so I’m glad it’s there as back-up, as neither I nor his dad earn much so we can’t contribute much to supporting him at uni. He’s fairly sensible so I don’t think he’d fritter it away, and I can’t access it anyway as CTFs belong to the child once they turn 18.

DS will hopefully have about 30k by the time he's 18 but we have kept it in our name so we can give him it as we see fit.
There is no right or wrong you do what you can and everyone is different.

£100 a month in CTF, currently worth £25k.

This is approximately 13 years saving.

Try not to compare, every little helps. When we can we put our child's child benefit into a savings account for him, and any money for Christmas/birthday goes in there. We tend to not buy many presents ourselves as relatives like doing toys etc so we put £100 in at birthday/Christmas.

It's only if it can be afforded that we do the child benefit though - if we needed to buy school uniform etc on an expensive month then it wouldn't go into his savings, and since increases to overall costs that becomes more frequent!

It isn't your money, it is hers and she cannot consent to you using it. So actually yes, she should either have her investment realised through being on the deeds or through you returning her investment with interest at a later stage. The latter is more risky for her as who knows what your position will be later on - even if you plan for her to inherit, it could be eaten up in care fees etc. So actually yes I do think it is shameful to take your child's money. Just because they're your child doesn't make it better than if you took anyone else's money without their consent.

Not a bean. Not everyone can, not everyone thinks they should.

We saved over the 18 years about 3k. My parents saved similar. They also got 10k inheritance.

Eldest paid for driving lessons, bought a car and went travelling

Youngest bought a laptop, watch and a new bed and blew the rest on nights out/ clothes/ makeup

Yawn

£60k JISA at 18. £60k SIPP at 21. Appreciate that is extraordinarily privileged.

Planning for little to zero inheritance though.

£0

I do hope to have enough savings of my own which I could use to help them if needed but I don’t intend on putting money in their name to handover. Personally think it’s foolish.

£100 a month in CTF, currently worth £25k.

This is approximately 13 years saving.

Wow, that’s a big return on a 15k saving,

Do the people who kindly give money to your daughter know that you're using it to pay your mortgage? I think that's awful

I’ve got an only child too. I don’t spend their money on MY house. You don’t know what’s going to happen- your house might be sold for care home fees, your daughter might need access to her own money before you die? Bottom line- not your money to spend, it’s hers. Do the people who give her money know you’re doing this? I wouldn’t give money to a child in these circumstances.

My DS is 2 and has £2,000 saved in a regular ISA so I can decide when he has access to it. We save £50 a month and all birthday and Christmas money. Have another DS due in a few weeks and will do the same for him too.

If our situation changes we will look to reduce the amounts but for now it's ok for us

Just do what you can manage. It all adds up

18k currently, she's 16. Aiming for 20k by 18, she knows about it, has known for a few years, and plans to use it towards university and travel before she goes to uni.

We've been very fortunate and she's had it drummed into her what a privilege this money is and she's not to take it for granted. She's gone and got herself a part time job on her own steam so she can add to her personal savings, which is just birthday money from relatives and such, so I've got my fingers crossed we've taught the lesson well.

If she was showing any signs of being irresponsible or reckless she wouldn't be getting it. So it's conditional money, not guaranteed. I'm not sure if that's the right thing to do, but it felt right to us.

DS 10 will get the houses eventually (it's planned well including Switzerland if needed ) we have enough saved to give him a decent house deposit at 21 and a nice friend's holiday at 18. Driving lessons, car, uni living costs etc will just be paid from our salaries. We aren't in massive salaries but live in a cheaper area to give us a better quality of life