Disappointed we didn’t save in child trust fund?

[Bambootrees]

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.

I know these don’t exist anymore but a small saving can add up. We put £50 a month into the ctf and grandparents added at Birthday and Christmas. It matured at over £25k. Enough for extra spends at uni and the rest into an isa for travel/car/house deposit. It’s not too late to stick a little bit into a LISA, which the government adds up to £1000 into.

I wouldn’t worry about it. My DD and her friends all blew their CTF money on a piss-up to Spain the summer they all turned 18. A lovely memory for them indeed, but not really a good use of the UK taxpayers’ money.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

We don't save in our children's names either. They have birthday/ pocket money savings so a few thousand only in their names. That is all they will know they have
We do save in our own names and will step in with money when it's really needed! Nobody in this family will have the opportunity to blow huge amounts at 18 or early twenties like so many I knew at that age .

I dunno, are they likely to be talking to mates about how much they have received in their CTFs really?

Very likely, in my experience! They were all getting letters and it was exciting for them so they talked about it with their friends.

We put in a little bit each month by direct debit - not much! It’s paid for two years of university accommodation.

I think it just proves that a little goes a long way if you start early enough. It’s something I’ve tried to drill into my dd, so when she starts earning I’ve asked her to start a private pension, even if it’s just £10 to £50 a month, and the same with her mortgage, overpay a small amount to start with and it’ll result in big savings.

I paid in £10 a month into the CTF with the occasional £50 when I could afford it or someone had given me money for her and it’s forecast nearly £6000 by the time she’s 18 in 8 months time.

I paid £5 a month into each of my children's. Ds 1 got £3k and the DS2 is about to get his and it's about £2.5k. I am sure they will both spubk the money and I'm OK with that!!

We did the same amount from birth, and it’s currently at £24k with a few months left to run.

The figures for CTF varied so much amongst my DC friends...one had 80k! Parents suddenly realised the risk of handing that amount over to an 18 year and then had to backtrack and get it away from their child.

Op, don't beat yourself up. When your child gets to Uni the difference in lifestyles become apparent. One DC has a friend at Uni who has enough money to buy a student house outright, others struggle to live on the maintenance loan.

I set up a monthly investment in DD’s stocks and shares CTF fully accepting the risk that she may turn out to be a wild child who burns through it all in a month. Luckily she had a sensible head like me and I’m as confident as I can be that it will be used for a house deposit. It is the single best financial decision I have made in my life. I wish I had started doing the same for myself at the same time.

Is there a particularly easy one that anyone knows of and recommends?

Correct. I don’t think it is a good lesson that we didn’t put any,

To be honest I have no clue how we even save on it? This is not like a bank account where I transfer money?

My in laws gave each of our children 3000€ when they were born and we opened savings accounts for them because we didn't know where else to put the money.

We also save monthly for them, but into something sort of like a discretionary trust fund which we don't have to pay out to them ever if we don't want to. I feel like 3000€ plus any birthday money they get over the years (50€ here and there) plus all those years of compound interest is more than enough money to let an 18 year old get their hands on.

No neither of my children’s Trust Funds performed very well so don’t beat yourself up - saving would have been a good idea generally but not necessarily in CTF.

@NancyDroooIt’s a nice feeling to know they have that small cushion. My DD knows she’s lucky to have it and welcomed advice on what to invest and where when it matured. No way would she have just burnt trough it. The money is just handed over to the young person so you have to get them prepared!

Don't beat yourself up OP.

These posts only get 2 types of responses.

Group 1 that did the same as you
Group 2 that added extra and have larger sums.

Group 2 then get vilified for it with posters gloating that all DCs are financially irresponsible fools who'll burn through it on drink and drugs in 6 months of turning 18.

So it's lose/lose.

I'd recommend a SIPP (pension) as doing this would be as beneficial as if you'd invested in the CTF but has the added bonus of no one getting their mitts on it until 57.

(From someone who is in Group 2)

@Echobellyas someone who got her savings a few years back, yes they do talk about it. A lot. 😂 In fact, I didn’t know about my savings even existed until my friends started individually excitedly talking about how much they had gotten. My parents never spoke to me about it, and I never got a letter or anything. It’s kinda obvious tho, yes youths will boast and discuss how much free money they’ve got to waste on partying n cars etc 🤷🏻‍♀️ that’s literally what they do 😂

Honestly, as someone’s who’s not quite yet a mother so opinion may not mean much, it wouldn’t have done any harm 🤷🏻‍♀️ but I wouldn’t say it’s the end of the world for not doing it. Unless you were putting away a decent amount religiously every month; it wouldn’t have wielded a crazy amount. But it still would’ve been a nice bonus on top. Don’t beat yourself up over it!

We didn't have these when I was younger (I'm 32 now), but my mum put a little bit in to an account she set up for me whenever she could. When I bought my first flat in 2020, there was about £2000 in it, so she paid for my new sofa and a couple of other furniture bits and bobs with it. It was extremely appreciated.
My dad bought me my first car in 2010. It cost him £900

Kids blowing the lot is my big fear with handing 18yos wads of cash.

Yes I have saved for DD and upon her 18th birthday she had access to those savings but I instructed her to move the funds to a fixed high yield savings account. There is no way on earth I would let DD have thousands at her age. She knows the money that I saved will contribute to a house deposit in the future or for a serious emergency.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself, the best gift you can give your DD is to encourage her to save and manage her own money: high yield savings account, ISA’s, ETF’s etc. She will learn nothing by being given a sizeable sum on her 18th.

My ds was happy with the £500. We gave him every opportunity growing up, encouraging all his interests, which were often expensive so we spent it that way really plus we just didn't really think to save more. He's working pt now and pretty good with money.

As a taxpayer I think you are being a bit snippy to describe the free CTF money your child was given as a “product”. The fact that as a parent you chose not to take the opportunity over 18 years to turn the initial free sum into something more substantial - as others have done - does not make it “the worse product ever” and says more about your financial acumen than the quality of the “product”.

Indeed. Both mine have money coming from grandparents when they are 21 and we’ve financially planned to be able to subsidise as much as possible when they go to university and pay a bit off their loans when they graduate. At this stage in our lives we are able to afford it, whereas until they were each about 11, we just didn’t have the excess cash.

@Bambootrees don’t beat yourself up - the £599 is still free cash and you have plenty of time to make it up to them later with deposits on houses, weddings, college if they go, or spoiling their grandkids (my in-laws gave us money to kit out the nursery/buy buggies etc - money that was really helpful and meaningful at a time we were old enough to appreciate it!).

The stock market is quite volatile at the moment because of Trump. I’ve got. Stocks and shares ISA and I took it all out before the US election and I calculated I would have lost thousands.

My dc got about £400 for their CTF. One put it in the lifetime ISA we got her for her eighteenth and the other is keeping it for extra money when she starts university.

One of my friends put loads into her ds’s CTF and he spent it all in about three months on going to Ibiza and other such stuff.