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

4k + £200 inheritance from their grandparents.

We saved very little when they were tiny as there were so many other things going on, but we prioritised them having a bit each to be able to take a step towards their own goals.

My 19 year old hasn't even moved his CTF that the money is in to a proper account he can use yet. He works part time and is fairly content at the moment.

I have JISAs for my three (8,6,3) and I estimate they’ll have around 15-20k when they turn 18. I’m hoping they will be sensible. I got around 7k when I turned 18 and spent it on a car / insurance so I’d expect the same car / insurance / house deposit. I could be very naive and be eating my words in 10 yrs time but although I was a horrible teen, I knew the money needed to spent on something I needed!

I have a Monzo account and use the 'round-up' feature to put into a savings pot for my baby. She's almost 6 months and has £500 in there that I didn't even notice going in as it's just change. Any leftover child benefit (ha!) goes in there too.

Yeah I’m sure she’ll be super cross in her early 20s to find out she owns a half a million dollar house instead of a full set of limited edition Ty teddies

But she doesn't, you do. And if you live a long time, have care fees, any of a few things happen, she will never see that. She certainly won't see it when she needs it.

Christmas money to my DD goes partly into her hand for anything she wants and partly into a savings account for university. What's your plan @CultOfRamen if yours wants to go?

Err nothing although they do have the child trust funds which are about £1k, I never added to them just had them in shares. My 16 year has a weekend job and does overtime in the holidays so saves himself.

I had nothing when my kids were growing up. Nothing. I was a single mum to fiv and could barely put food on the table. There was no money day to day, let alone to save for them.

Every one of them has gone out and bought themselves houses (with partners, not alone, they aren't made of money!), got decent jobs, been through university (all bar one) and are surviving well despite the COL crisis.

I wish I could have given them all a house deposit, or enough to buy a car, but I couldn't. They managed this by themselves.

So everyone who can't afford to save for their children shouldn't feel guilty, their children are not doomed to a second-class existence because their parents didn't put a few hundred thousand aside for them when they were young.

I can’t believe you use money your child is gifted to over pay your mortgage!! That’s absolutely awful! How can you be so selfish towards your own child?

Yes she will get the property when you die (only maybe, as nothing is guaranteed, home fees, partners, remarrying, probate etc) but so will everyone else’s child when their parents die, yet their not taking money given to their child as gifts.

You are delusional and a thief.
It should be going into savings for her, because you do know that when she turns 18 she will have a life and need money to work/live/ by a car/ go on holiday. Instead She will have nothing which is fine, but it’s not fine to have nothing because your mum took it all for herself!

She will not look back and thank you.

We are pretty average I would say. 3 bed semi, 2 kids, average UK take home pay. We have saved around £20 a month each into a stocks and shares jisa since children were born. Reckon they will get around £8000 each from that all going well at age 18. In addition I started saving £150 a month when my first child started high school to help with university costs. It is estimated we will need around £12000 per child for university living costs for a four year couse. It's the absolute best we could do.

I hadn't realised the threshold for the full loan was still only £25k.

Given a single minimum wage income for 40 hours a week is £23,800 that is completely mad.

It makes a mockery of the idea that access to university is in any way equal.

Prioritising a stable roof over my kids head does not make me a bad parent.

yes my names on the title to the house but as the last morsel of food on my plate and breath in my body it’s hers. Get off your high horse, it’s just a different way of saving.

Would she not have a roof over her head if you didn’t use her money towards the mortgage then?

If that’s the case, why are you in a half a million pound house if you can’t afford it?

You are trying to justify why you steal from your daughter, you’re so delusional, you believe it too.

I already see where your mother/daughter relationship will be in 20 years time….

Again, yawn.

No one is expected to pay for their kids uni. They take out a student loan and they work part time.

DD1 will have about £25k in a stocks and shares ISA next month. DD2 will have similar. Regular savings of between £25 to £100 a month since they were tiny.

They may blow all of it on a mad Ibiza holiday (although I don't think they will) but they won't get it again.

For various reasons, tax and others it always made sense for us to put it in their names anyway.

I have nothing for my Little girl, I was saving her child benefit but with cost of living ect it’s had to be used up/spent monthly. I will support with house buying ect. When she turns 17/18 family holidays will fade away and I could stick a few K away a year until she’s ready to buy a house. Will also prob get her a small car on finance.

My eldest had an isa with £1500 in it and blew it in 2 months 😳

The rest was in savings which frankly I've kept back until he's more sensible !
I'm trying to encourage him to open a sipps so I can add to it.

The youngest I'm going to open a s&s isa and a pension, as well as a savings account.

Fuck me, this isn't real surely. It's basically theft. I'd feel so guilty taking my child's birthday money to pay regular bills unless I was absolutely on the bones of my arse and using it to overpay your mortgage is not that. I let my dd spend 50% of birthday money on whatever she wants and the rest goes into her savings. If she wanted to use it to have a bender in Bali so be it. Life us all about having experiences like that and it's HER money

Nothing, I don't have spare money I can save. It's all spoken for.

C’mon now, let’s get some perspective here. Shameful is a strong word. It should be reserved for truly bad people, not a parent who’s acting in the best interests of her daughter. It’s not like she’s spending the money on cheap beer and cigarettes; she’s overpaying the mortgage/reducing interest that she’s paying the bank, which in the long run will only serve to benefit her family/daughter. She can then use the disposable income that comes from not having to finance a mortgage to pay for car, university, flat/house deposit, or whatever she’s financially able to do for her daughter. Hardly crime of the century behaviour.

This. As I said above, I had nothing, four of my five went to university totally self-supporting. They got full loans and jobs and all finished with decent degrees.

If you are very well off then maybe you may be expected to contribute, and with each passing year (my last child finished uni 7 years ago) it gets worse and harder, but they can do it on loans and with working. Yes, they have to pay those loans off, but they manage.

Controversial but if you don't actually need it I don't think you should claim it.

DS has his own account in the credit union, money he has been given as gifts goes there. He has about €1k

I also have a savings account for him. BUT it is in my name. I put €150 p/month into it. I am saving towards his college costs. Again though it is in my name not his. Should the worst happen and I need that money to keep a roof over our head or something enormously serious I will spend it

I tried to save all of my Child Benefit but there were months when I couldn't do that.

DS got the money last year, £14.5k.

He's spent half of it buying a car and his first years insurance and put the rest in Premium Bonds. All that saving doesn't really go a long way 🤦🏻‍♀️

Overpaying your mortgage does not always make the most financial sense, you realise? You should at least have an emergency fund/some decent savings before you tie up all your cash in a non liquid asset. You should also consider the rate of interest on your savings account options against your mortgage interest rate plus the impact of inflation.

I can't fathom the obsession with overpaying a mortgage.

Nothing! We’ve been saving to buy a house