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.

We were all told it would pay our kids Uni fees. We went for the high-risk option and ended up with hardly anything. I was just grateful it hadn't lost money.

I presume it would only have a chance of paying uni fees if you continued to contribute into it.

I didn’t bother with my eldest’s CTF. Youngest didn’t get one. Both have a building society account which has had money put into monthly since born but I also used money to buy uniforms etc until last year. Both have around £3k. They could access now but I keep the books away from them. When they’re 16 I think they get full access but to be honest I’ll just keep hold of the books until they want something substantial when a bit older. I also recently got some inheritance and opened up a child ISA each - transferring the CTF into one. I e added some inheritance to both of those which they can’t get until they’re 18. I added some inheritance to another online savings each for them which can be accessed as they do get offered expensive residential trips and figured that this money could pay for those.

mine are also lucky that one grandparents has saved for them. Also an aunt has saved for them as well. Not sure when they’ll get those accounts handed over.

When my eldest was given her CTF cheque there was a lot of media hype about how kids would get access in future and blow the lot. This was why we decided to save separately and not use those.

What is a child trust fund?

I have a Junior ISA for mine, but this like something different?

It was something the govt used to do, but haven't done for a long time.

It was £250 at birth (and for a short period a second £250).

These were to start parents investing and to encourage savings from birth.

We added £100 a month to ourselves and before Trump crashed the market, it was tipping £30k. Luckily we've a few years to enable it to recover before DC are 18.

That is a shame. We saved £10 a month initially in my sons and he took out £4K when he turned 18. My daughter didn’t get a child trust fund so we somehow have to find the same amount for her

DS2 got £11K as we paid into it every month.
He’s been told it’s meant solely for University.
So far so good…

Even if you made a mistake - which it isn’t obvious - it’s not like you can do anything about it, so find something more productive to worry about.

I would presume so but the returns you were supposed to get just by investing it were wildly exaggerated too - six to ten times back the original investment. It always reminded me of the song about investing tuppence in Mary Poppins.

I wouldn’t worry about it, it’s not as if you neglected your child over the years?
my daughters both had about 6/7k as I just set up a standing order and forgot about it.
sometimes the S.O was just for a couple of pounds when I was skint then I raised when I had more to spare.

I don't think they are talked about at DS's school. He's not mentioned others getting theirs.

Ours has performed ok and I do agree with a PP who said that a larger sum will be more difficult to fritter away.

My DS14 got the £50, it's now £229 as we haven't added anything. Wasn't in a position to really. He also has a savings account where birthday money and grandparents donations have gone, he's more interested in that. Given his age, and reading this thread, I might suggest to him he pools both of them into an ISA

With investments it’s recommended that you plan to invest for 5 years. Investments can flux so short term you can lose money. So for the car goal I don’t think investment is what you are really looking for