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AIBU?

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Original poster

Disappointed we didn’t save in child trust fund?

163 replies

Bambootrees · 11/04/2025 22:42

DD is turning 18 and received the letter, she has £559. It was always in the back of my mind but never sorted it out.

We have spent in other things for them and given them lots of experiences, invested in their education, trips, opportunities, etc; but I can’t help feeling disappointed; especially since other friends are receiving letters and their parents have invested/saved.

OP posts:
Original poster
Bambootrees · 11/04/2025 23:20

Any advice on which stock and share ISA she could do?

OP posts:
BurgundyZero · 11/04/2025 23:21

What would be so beneficial? Start putting aside money in a savings account for her now, a little every payday. Keep it for her for when she is 34 and despairing of ever saving enough for a house deposit.

It'll be so much more appreciated and wisely spent then.

MadeofCoffee · 11/04/2025 23:21

We didn't either for both our dc @Americanlaw - we traced it though and our eldest just got his. As an aside, we chose what we thought was the safest/recommended option for his but it's lost £20! Youngest dc's is up to £800 (on green businesses so thought risky at the time and still has a few years to go!)

BertieBottsEveryFlavourBeans · 11/04/2025 23:22

I deal with these accounts at work, you get a huge range of how much is in the accounts when the child turns 18, some have a ridiculous amount of money (nearly enough to pay my mortgage off) but it's way more common for it to be a few hundred because no more money has been invested.

I wouldn't feel bad OP, console yourself with the fact that at 18 most of it would probably have been wasted on absolute rubbish (it would have if it was me at 18 🤣) Sounds like you did your best to give your kids a great childhood.

curious79 · 11/04/2025 23:24

I put an additional £3k into my DD’s over c5 yrs. it’s now worth £22k. She’s 16

RM2013 · 11/04/2025 23:25

Same here. My just turned 18yo will just get the basic. We weren’t in a position to top it up but grandparents gifted both DC some
money from an inheritance they’d had and that enabled them both to buy their first cars. We’ve supported them in other ways as best as we were able

curious79 · 11/04/2025 23:25

ps. I selected the most high risk / volatile funds

YawnSoTired · 11/04/2025 23:26

Americanlaw · 11/04/2025 23:11

Gosh, please don’t worry.
i stupidly didn’t change the address when we moved, so although I’d put it in a good fund, we lost whatever we’d earned. It’s just as well as she became trans and would have spent it on testosterone. So kind of glad.

You do know you can still trace this lost account if you want to?

Original poster
Bambootrees · 11/04/2025 23:27

BertieBottsEveryFlavourBeans · 11/04/2025 23:22

I deal with these accounts at work, you get a huge range of how much is in the accounts when the child turns 18, some have a ridiculous amount of money (nearly enough to pay my mortgage off) but it's way more common for it to be a few hundred because no more money has been invested.

I wouldn't feel bad OP, console yourself with the fact that at 18 most of it would probably have been wasted on absolute rubbish (it would have if it was me at 18 🤣) Sounds like you did your best to give your kids a great childhood.

Thanks. They have had lots of opportunities; you can’t do everything I guess.

Just moving it to a more profitable one earlier on and saving a few pounds a month would have been good; not much we can do now. Lesson learned. Will look at moving it somewhere else including DD14 which received only half.

OP posts:
Tea2cups · 11/04/2025 23:28

A SIPP with passive trackers nothing fancy.

SwedishEdith · 11/04/2025 23:29

I had one eligible for a CTF and one 8 years older. Could never have saved for the eldest so didn't with the CTF. The fallout if one child had got tens of thousands and the other nothing doesn't bear thinking about. That's how I rationalise it.

Original poster
Bambootrees · 11/04/2025 23:30

Thank you all. I am going to have a chat to them about moving it to a more profitable one and save some of their pocket money and we start putting a bit too.

OP posts:
blueshoes · 11/04/2025 23:30

Bambootrees · 11/04/2025 23:20

Any advice on which stock and share ISA she could do?

If your dd is going to use the 559 to buy a car imminently, it is very risky to put it in stocks and shares at the moment. Trump has completely tanked the markets in the last month by his tariffs announcements. Even his 90 day pause on tariffs yesterday has still left the markets battered and investors wary. There is talk of a worldwide recession.

Now is not the best time to invest in stocks and shares unless dd does not need the money for a long time and can wait for the markets to recover.

MarchInHappiness · 11/04/2025 23:31

DD was born prior to being eligible for the scheme. We had a savings account that we contributed to when we were flush but we had a bad run of financial circumstances (thanks to the GFC) so raided her account but we never recovered financially so we were never in a position to save much for DD. There was enough left to fund driving lessons. DD has always been sensibile in regards to money but honestly at 18 I wouldnt put it past her to blow at least some of it on a student lifestyle.

I echo others in that savings are probably more suitable for practical things when they are an adult. DD (now 25) and her finance are looking at buying a house, although I cant really contribute to a house deposit, I do have a bit of savings, so might buy a nice lounge suite (they have been making noises about a new fridge as well...) as a house warming present and contribute to their wedding.

Original poster
Bambootrees · 11/04/2025 23:31

Tea2cups · 11/04/2025 23:28

A SIPP with passive trackers nothing fancy.

Will look into it. Thank you

OP posts:
Original poster
Bambootrees · 11/04/2025 23:34

blueshoes · 11/04/2025 23:30

If your dd is going to use the 559 to buy a car imminently, it is very risky to put it in stocks and shares at the moment. Trump has completely tanked the markets in the last month by his tariffs announcements. Even his 90 day pause on tariffs yesterday has still left the markets battered and investors wary. There is talk of a worldwide recession.

Now is not the best time to invest in stocks and shares unless dd does not need the money for a long time and can wait for the markets to recover.

Show quote history

Thanks; maybe we should wait a bit; she really wants a car so perhaps we should look into this first.

OP posts:
blueshoes · 11/04/2025 23:39

Bambootrees · 11/04/2025 23:34

Thanks; maybe we should wait a bit; she really wants a car so perhaps we should look into this first.

Show quote history

Yes, get your dd to open a ISA account and ask the bank to transfer the 559 from the CTF (which will now be closed as dd has turned 18) directly from the CTF into the ISA account. This way, it stays within the ISA tax shelter.

Your dd should put it into an instant access high rate cash ISA account.

NotDonna · 11/04/2025 23:45

Don’t beat yourself up. Sounds like she’s had a lovely 18 years of memory making - priceless! Put it towards the car but do check insurance first as £££! Before investing really, really look into stocks & shares ISAs or LISAs (for house deposit) very carefully as the market is currently chaotic. It’s worth doing your homework before investing. They don’t always go up but can come crashing down too!

Happilyobtuse · 11/04/2025 23:49

My advice would be get you DD to invest it in stocks and shares ISA and it should grow from there. Also I would rather save money in an ISA in my name and my husbands name instead of the junior ISA. When the child comes of age and gets the lumpsum you can’t control what they will spend it on. Instead if you have the money saved you can just use it on the child but have more control on what it is spent on. My parents spent money on my education and masters degree. Also funded my wedding and helped with purchasing our house. They definitely didn’t hand over any cash when I was 18 and would probably have spent it on frivolous things!

Darkclothes · 11/04/2025 23:51

I'm not sure I fully understand. Was the fund started 18yrs ago? Why have you not been able to see that in all that time, its only earned a faulty £56 interest??? I'm sure you are doing your best, but in 18yrs- have you never checked the balance and interest rate??? 😕

Confusedformer · 11/04/2025 23:53

Wasn’t the original amount £250?

in which case it’s doubled?

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 11/04/2025 23:59

Auldy · 11/04/2025 23:16

We had one child within the CTF era and one just after so we had to open a junior ISA for the youngest otherwise it just wouldn't have been fair.

Show quote history

Yes we did that too.

The older one has currently got more in hers though as there were better funds available at the time - so we’re trying to catch the younger one up a bit.

(It’s being used to save for Uni fees and my dd will definitely use it for that)

LoveHeartsFan · 12/04/2025 00:17

You could encourage her to save into a LISA (Lifetime ISA) as part of her ISA allowance, as she will get a government-funded top-up of 25% and it is in a tax-exempt wrapper.

There are some caveats: you can only pay in up to £4k a year, but as the government will top it up with 25%, £1k on top of £4k is worth having. It’s intended to be used either to save for your first property or to be taken out at 60.

https://www.gov.uk/lifetime-isa

Given her age she’s unlikely otherwise to benefit from a tax wrapper in a standard cash or S&S ISA - that’s probably more for when she’s earning and saving enough money to be liable to pay tax on interest.

At her age, she may be better off saving regularly into something like a high interest regular saver account, or even more than one with different banks or building societies.

They typically start from fairly low sums, as little as £1 or £10 a month, typically for a year, although some are shorter or longer periods, and many pay a decent rate of interest at the moment, around 5-7%. Their advantage is that they encourage a savings habit without being too onerous a burden if studying or starting out in a career.

An easy or limited access one will allow her immediate access to funds to put down a deposit to purchase a car, or she could stay fixed without access to the money for a higher rate for a year and reinvest some money in a new regular saver and use the rest to help with the car.

Lifetime ISA

Tax free saving for your first home and later life: what is a LISA, who can apply, 25% government bonus, withdrawal charges.

https://www.gov.uk/lifetime-isa

Pinepeak2434 · 12/04/2025 00:24

I put my sons in shares and I forgot about them until two years ago but I never knew how to move them somewhere else, they are only worth about £800 and my son turns 18 this year. I never added anything to it. He knows nothing about it, so I might remove them and try to build it up for when he is 21. He has a part time job alongside doing his Alevels so I’d rather set up an ISA for him.

Timeforchangeornot · 12/04/2025 00:28

I didn't pay into mine for three reasons

  1. zero spare cash at that point
  2. disagreed with the ethos of an 18yr old being handed a load of cash
  3. a third child two years later missed out on the ctf so I didn't want the other two to have loads more. As it is, I'll be able to match what their siblings have.

Don't feel guilty!