To ask what your provision is for your DC uni?

[Bluffyslummers]

I see it a lot on here in the debates of can I afford another child, especially after 2 children.

No one of course knows if their child will go to university or what university tuition or funding will look like, but if your saving for your children later in life, what does that look like?

for instance for us, we have 2 children. When my eldest was 4 we opened stocks and shares ISAs with a lump sum and we put in £70 a month each. We’ve started claim child benefit too, so now pay in child benefit (minus what we have to pay back- roughly estimated of course).

if you’re comfortable sharing, I’d be interested to know what you’re saving for your DC?

We've been saving aggressively since our three were born. We are in the US and have something called 529 Plans where you can save, tax free, for education. We aim to have $120k per child by the time they go to college.

Needless to say, they won't be getting a house deposit from us!

DD is going into Yr 8 Indy school. We've decided with VAT to pull her out for Yrs 12+13 so will put the total of those 2 years' fees towards Uni. It won't cover 3 years but if she only has to get a loan for the 3rd year then that's better than 10s of 1000s. She had an investment from my mum dying so instead of paying for Uni that will go towards a first house deposit

Haven’t saved anything. My son gets full loan and if he wanted more he could work but he doesn’t because he doesn’t need to

We were asked to pay it back in its entirety

It’s irrelevant what others do. Save what you can for your children. Some will save more and some will save less.

I max out my stocks and shares ISA, LISA pension, and then I put extra money into a general investment account, all in my name. DCs are under 7 so lots of time for money to grow. Haven't allocated specific amounts for uni/wedding/house deposit, but there will be enough for all that.

We live in London within walking distance to the Bloomsbury unis. So those unis would be a cheaper option if the dc wanted to live at home - but I think there's a value to living in a student flat/halls, and experiencing life away from where you grew up. So we wouldn't push for them to live at home, but they would be welcome to if they wanted.

I think aiming to save the parental contribution is sensible, so £5k per child per year. So £15k for three years.

Which is roughly £75 per month from one to eighteen, ignoring inflation and any investment growth.

Effectively Wales has no upper household income threshold for the maintenance element, with, unlike England, that being split between grant and loan elements, rather than all loan. So in England household income of c62,000 means a DC is entitled to the minimum maintenance loan amount, whereas in Wales they could take the maximum amount, albeit with only a tiny proportion of that being a non repayable grant. The maximum maintenance loan in England has also not kept pace with the high inflation of the past couple of years, so is not far off £2k lower than it might otherwise be. And a similar amount lower than the maximum figure for maintenance that a DC from Wales could get.

Is this just for people who live in wales and go to uni in wales.

i went when tuition was £3k in England bit if you were from wales and went to uni in wales the tuition was £1k

Not a great deal, there aren’t tuition fees where we live, university owned student housing isn’t really a thing here like it is in the UK, so it would be living at home or rent a room in a houseshare. We do have some savings for them both, but it isn’t university specific, lots of people don’t go to uni, so it isn’t ring fenced for that.

Use this calculator to tell you how much parental contribution is estimated by the time your child goes to uni and check in each year in case it increases:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/university-living-costs-calculator/

Obviously not everyone has the spare money to save these amounts but if you have, then this is the suggested amount to have by the time they start uni.

Thing is my older son loved his whole experience of living away with all his uni friends so much he didn’t really want to move back home.

Maybe it’s just me but coming home each night from Uni makes it seem more like an extension of school. I know I would have wanted the whole experience of being away.

Maybe my son was particularly lucky as his whole uni experience was everything he hoped it would be.

Yes @boys3 is correct, all Welsh students get maximum living costs, although lower household incomes get a larger proportion of this as a grant rather than a loan.

It applys where ever you go to university provided you have lived in Wales for a qualifying period beforehand. My daughter is at university in Manchester and she has I think about 5k grant towards her living costs, with a loan for the rest and all students from Wales get the same, although richer households get more loan and less grant, but all get at least 1000 as a grant.

It likely just serves to make those that can't afford to save their child benefit each month feel bad.

And inspiration to all move to wales

out of curiosity what is the qualifying period? (May all be moot by the time it comes to my kids going to uni, but interested to know)

Why does Wales and Scotland always fare better than England. Here's me and dh who could never afford to save forking out £750 a month to help kids through Uni and they will still end up with massive loans too !

What do you mean by scam? There is no way my kids would have had the same experience if they lived at home as they did staying in their two different university towns for three/four years.

Of course many can’t afford it, but there is so much to be gained by living independently if possible. The social interactions and nights out just simply would not be the same without the Halls experience and socialising opportunities they had living away from home. As well as having to navigate living and budgeting skills.

Mine both wanted to go away to Uni and we were happy to support that
It is a completely different experience from staying at home
We didn’t save for them,I went back to full time work and paid from that
We gave them £1100 a month to cover rent and spending
No tuition fees as in Scotland

My kids can pay for uni themselves if they want to go. They know that. They both have jobs, and will get what loan they can

@Miley1967 Wales is devolved so it can choose how it wants to spend its funding and this is what it has chosen.

It probably helps that there are much fewer students going to university in Wales than England.

Bugger all - mine receive the full loan and work part time - they manage fine - I'm a single parent of 3 and work in the public sector - no savings to pass on but they are adults and quite capable of managing.

Nothing.

But he's my only child and he will inherit the house and whatever is left of my pension so I'm not overly concerned.

I've raised him by myself from the age of 2. My ex (who does about 20 nights a year) recently asked me what provision I had made for ds' university fees.

I shrugged and said nothing. My earning potential was limited by being a single mum. Ex looked stunned. If he wants ds to be student-debt-free, he can get off his bottom and make provision himself.

Obviously I'll help ds as much as I can but I'm not telling my ex that. Flippin' cheek!!

Just relied on our earnings and savings rising sufficiently over the years to support them as necessary (which it did). Some other relatives did gift them some NS&I certificates and cash which we managed on their behalf until old enough to do it themselves.

in the nicest way, I would be wary of anyone giving specific stocks advice online!

general information , sure , if for example someone was unaware of ISAs or if some universities have different grants available, but not investment advice off random strangers on the internet …