To want to help kids get on the property ladder

[Heps9]

Are you saving money to help your kids get into the property ladder? .

I think the starting salary for a graduate salary is about £24k, it’s higher if you get on a graduate scheme but most don’t. Even if you’re living at home, the most you can save is around £8k a year, which won’t get you anything in the South East.
We have started saving and have a £800 in their child stocks and shares isa. We had hoped for more, but it’s a struggle to find spare money on a regular basis to invest. They are 10&8 so, hopefully, the odd £100 pound here and there will help.

I think you can save a lot more living at home. Where would they spend 16k unless you are planning to charge them market rent. They may not want to live in the SE, property market may collapse... I just don't think you can plan this fat ahead into the future. By all means pit something aside if you can afford it but don't go without on a basis of a hypothetical scenario.

I think it's always good to save for your children's future if you are in a position to do so.

We’re not saving specifically to get them on the property ladder, we’re currently saving for the imminent university years (academic kids so assume they will go, fine if not). We plan to let them live at home as long as they want/need to after uni and will charge them rent but secretly put that money aside to help them with a house deposit.
It’s natural, I think, to want to help your children get on the property ladder, we have been lucky enough to receive parental help each time we’ve bought a house. We will certainly give as much help as our circumstances in the future allow and as much as we deem sensible when the time comes.

We don't own property ourselves. I'm 50 and don't earn 24k. We've never got parental help. Our kids will have to make their own opportunities.

DH and I have flit from country to country, city to city, all our adult lives. We're in one place until DC leave school, possible university if they go. Then we might move to a small town in the Catalan Pyrenees or possibly the French side. Or Basque country. Or Ireland. We hate being tied down, so will never buy. DC may follow our lead and travel, or buy a flat here.

It's not everyone's priority to buy or to offer €20,000 down payments!

I think that parents these days are generally not willing to make sacrifices for their childrens future.

A pair of financed cars either sat on the drive or in the works car park. Buy a couple of cheap cars and put the finance equivalent into the kids savings. Blowing a grand or more on a six foot telly when a small one from Argos will do. Same with top of the range phones or tablets. The kids might think they are living the life but all that stuff will be landfill by the time they are 18.

I know its not common now but encourage them to take a paper round and get them used to the idea that hard work brings its own reward.

Those small scarifices put into a S&S ISA will reap dividends (literally) and put them in a much better position when they move into adulthood.

I feel a bit conflicted about this. My mum helped with my rent at uni but that’s all she could afford. I was terrible with money as a young adult and made many mistakes and had to learn over the years. My dad as well as us have been saving in an account kids can get at 18 (which my DH foolishly told 8yr old about grr). I feel uncomfortable by the entitlement I feel this is likely to breed in kids, but perhaps because I have no frame of reference for anything different. But I always valued my ability to work my way up and think that challenges like that are good for them. Equally I want them to have a nice life!

Take it out of a child's stocks and shares ISA and put it into one in your name. A child's stocks and shares automatically becomes theirs at 18 which is a tricky age and risky if you specifically want to use the money to support with something like property. If it's in your name, you can decide how to distribute and when!

I saved for my 2 DC so they could buy driving lessons and their first car. My younger adult son is beginning to look at buying somewhere with his GF, We will help out with some money, probably not as much as he would like though, but I would rather do this, as I know if they put most of their money down as a deposit, they will need help buying things. My parents let me take my wardrobes and my in-laws paid for our bed, when I bought my first property.

Yes we’re saving for house deposits for our DCs, and contribution to university if they choose to go. We currently only save £100 a month as I’m on mat leave at the moment, but will up it when I go back to work and will keep upping it when we get pay rises and nursery fees end.

Yes we are saving towards house deposits. I recognise the ratio of salary in their 20s to average property price is very different for this generation so taking them longer to get on property ladder.
My in laws helped us so we plan to do the same for our kids

Yes.

I feel it is my responsibility to fund a deposit for my children - and also university costs.

I wasted a lot of energy (and money) in my twenties and beyond renting a series of terrible flats and living with flatmates. It absolutely impacted my choices.

I have a S&S ISA for each child and put money in when I can. I have also made my family aware of this, so they can do the same if they want to.

I met quite a lot of people at university with ‘generational wealth’ and it has absolutely impacted how I view my (and my children’s) finances.

We have a Child S&S ISA plus S&S ISA’s in our names for a house deposit and Uni fees. We have split the these from the child ISA so that DS will not have access to a potentially large sum at 18, in case he fritters it away on crap.

Saving for them is one way of helping I agree and if you can, good. Also remembering to vote on Thursday given the cost of housing increased after the 'fiscal event' of the Tories.

For a while now we’ve been saving into junior S&S ISAs for 3 still young Gdcs. There should be fairly substantial sums by the time they’re 18. We just have to hope that they’ll be reasonably sensible when the time comes.

We will leave letters, in case we’re no longer here (quite likely) pointing out that it’s an awful lot easier to spend money than to save or otherwise acquire it, and one day they almost certainly will want to buy a house or flat.

If they want to blow a bit of it on a holiday or something else, that’d be fine with us, though.

🤞🤞

I would never advise opening an account that could have thousands of pounds in for them to have access to at 18. My sister and I are from very poor backgrounds when we were teenagers we inherited 1k each, this was the 1980’’s and is the equivalent of about 3k now. I already had a small amount of savings from working so I added to that and started dabbling once I was 19 in investments. She blew the lot on just going out and enjoying herself with her then boyfriend.

That financial gift did sent me down a very different road and was Incredibly helpful. I’m backing up what @cheeseplease3 has written with a personal story.

DS did manage to get a paper round at 13. He then worked as a kitchen porter when in sixth form in a pub. Then took a manual job as a freight handler at an airport while he contemplated his future. He ended up on a degree apprenticeship and is already on 29k PA in year two with zero tuition fees to pay and a guaranteed job.

We do have money set aside for DS for a house deposit. he has absolutely no idea. I did buy him a car outright when he passed his test because I had promised to buy him a car if he got all A grades at A level. We also gave money as an incentive for GCSE grades, it’s frowned upon on MN but it was a motivator. I agree with you @Beginningless about making them entitled.

The best thing you can do is teach kids to be clever with money. We have already taught him about investing. We have just been on holiday and when we got back he told us he had transferred his ISA again for a better rate and I thought that’s my boy.

Sorry! I was feeding a newborn and writing earlier and sounded very blunt. We do actually still have a Junior ISA that will have some savings in for our kids to access at 18 but we didn't want them to have access to a potentially large sum. I absolutely agree with financial education and hope we can teach our children to be sensible but some of the most sensible people I know were idiots with money at 18. Also, my husband was burned from his own experience and regrets so we're taking a different approach.

That stupid idea again. If the parents go bankrupt or need to claim benefits, you can't just suddenly claim the S&S ISA in your name really belongs to the children.

If needs be, put half of the childrens S&S ISA into a Junior SIPP so that, if they do blow all the ISA, half of it is still untouchable for 40 years and the magic of compounding can build it up to a decent pot.

That’s great that your financial skills have been transferred to your son so successfully, well done. I do feel a bit flummoxed about what to do about our situation. DH grew up with a good example about managing money and was quite good from the start. He is quite blasé and assumes we will stipulate to DDs that the money is to be used on things like gap year, deposits etc, and that they will respect this. I, having been a young person who just cared about good times at that point, feel a lot less confident that they will be this sensible. And it will be theirs to access and do with what they like ultimately. I don’t know if it’s too late to just move it into an account in our name, I guess there are tax implications etc?