To ask what you’re saving for DC university?

[ELS20]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I have one DC who wants to go to university in 4 years time. We both have a good jobs and pay a bit extra into our pensions and also have about £20k in savings/shares. We put money into the savings/shares every month, which includes a savings account for DC to help with a house deposit one day.

I love to travel, as does our DC. My DH also loves to travel but he worries that we should be putting money aside to pay for DC’s university. The way I see it, university fees are so high now that in order to cover the cost of a 3 year degree (about £30k and increasing just for tuition fees) we’d have to sacrifice our travel and other things such as home improvements. My plan is to do some more family travelling before he goes to uni and then pay his university rent for the years he’s at uni (with consequently reduced travelling), and DC will get a loan for tuition fees and living expenses. Most people I’ve spoken to plan to do the same thing because student loans don’t impact credit score and only start being collected once the graduate is earning a certain amount of salary.

I’d rather spend money travelling and showing DC the world and making family memories. I’m not talking just beach holidays. So far we’ve done things like African safari, Central American rainforest, Ancient sites etc. I think this is of huge value to DC as well as very enjoyable for us all.

I do understand the need to save, and we do save, but I also don’t want to restrict what we can do as a family to save every penny.

I guess my question is: what do you all think/do? Am I foolish to want to spend so much money on travel and should I be saving more than I am? I know it’s a fortunate dilemma to have believe me. Years ago we were struggling a lot financially and every spare penny was ear-marked. Our careers have advanced a lot and we’re now in a better position and I just want to enjoy that (as well as saving some money).

I guess for the vote:

YABU: I should be saving as much as I can to pay for DC tiring fees and sacrifice travelling

YANBU: We should continue to travel and DC takes a tuition fee loan

Thank you all so much

Still a few years away for my DC but rough plan is that we will contribute the expected amount and they will get the available loans. I expect to be able to absorb the c£500 per month or above if we decide to pay rent instead without having to save - probably not that different to current cost of extra curriculars, food, clothing, pocket money etc tbh. Ideally we would save up the loan she has and possibly repay it at a later date, but I’d never contribute tuition fees in advance - I think part of making the choice to go to uni in the first place is knowing the cost and sacrifice and therefore putting in the required effort to succeed, so I don’t agree with paying it on their behalf. Would be nice to pay it off for them afterwards though.

Everyone qualifies for a maintenance loan. It's just the amount borrowed varies.

I will add that both of my children are now on about 50k a year and neither of them feel as though their tuition loan is a bother to them. It’s just some money they pay back every month and they see it in the same light as other taxes they have to pay. I have been able to help them with house deposits, which I wouldn’t have been able to do if I’d paid for their tuition.

@Daisy12Maisie That’s wonderful that you have the house deposit saved, I hope u can have enough for DA when it comes time for him to buy a house. Who knows what the house prices will be by then. That’s such a shame about the father, I’ll never understand parents who don’t want to contribute to or support their children. Sounds like you’re doing amazingly to support your DC without him anyway!

DS is in his first year now.
He got the minimum maintenance loan, about £4500.
We paid his rent, £7500
He's worked since he was 16 so had money to cover living costs and he's actually just repaid the maintenance loan as he didn't need it.

Next year he'll live at home and get the train there so no maintenance loan. He's working full time during the holidays. So will cover his own travel costs next year

He's actually trying to save enough to pay off his some of his student loan as a lump sum when he leaves.

If you calculate the 9% of salary of the next 40 years it's a massive amount of money so the sooner it is paid off the less interest the better. They need to be covering the interest each year if they can once they graduate IMO.

Also look at apprenticeships, some give you a degree so depends on what his career choice is

We overpaid our mortgage and had holidays. Holidays didn't always cost a lot tho. We did Florida which was most expensive, Greece in Villas. We also went camping.

I didn't save for my DDs uni but we had repaid our mortgage just before she went.

We paid her accommodation. My DS got an apprenticeship which paid just enough to live and to pay his own rent (in a shared house).

https://careers.baesystems.com/locations/uk/apprentices/degree

I'm a single parent and I didn't have help from my parents when I went to uni ... but I always like to "do better" than my parents, because I know how I've struggled through life.

DD gets the tuition and maintenance loan, but her course is full time hours - she's in lectures more than I work some weeks 😅 - so I help her enough to not need a part time job (although she works for me in the holidays and I pay her more than I should!). So things like a big food shop, toiletries, paying for phones and electronics, tickets to do things with her friends, driving lessons. I've just paid the deposit for next year's housing as it's due before her loan arrives.

It's a manageable middle ground for us both.

If you’re both earning then his loan will cover tuition but not necessarily the entire cost of accommodation, living expenses will be on top of that. I’d still travel but go for cheaper options so you can build more of a buffer. The poorest students on campus often come from richer families who don’t hand over their expected contribution.

Just be aware of how much rent is, dd's rent is £880 a month inc bills. She was lucky that she managed to get a 9 month contract but they are normally 50 week contract.

She is then left with under 5k to live off which isn't a lot. I'm hoping she will manage but I'm expecting to possibly have to top up. So we might need to find 1k-1.1k a month. Which we can. But it's a drop in our income for us.

I've been saving for their tuition fees and will be able to help with living costs too (although I expect them to have jobs while they're in uni). I'd like them to leave debt free with a clean slate.

I won't vote because your circumstances will be different to mine and your choice is for you to make.

I made my choice because I worked with some people in their early 30s/late 20s who felt so defeated about the fact that their uni debt was increasing, even though they'd been paying it off for years. And I was in the very fortunate position to be able to save the money.

There are science and engineering based apprenticeships. GSK offers them, for starters, as does mbda, Airbus etc etc.

We have Dc planning to go to university soon.

Both will take out loans for tuition and living expenses, we are working on the basis that they are only entitled to the minimum loan amount, although actually I think they might get slightly more.

We have saved enough already that each Dc will have around 3k per year to add to their loans (which I think will probably go completely towards accommodation costs). If they do a 4 year course then they will have to spread it a bit more thinly.

We will carry on paying their living costs, just as we do at home - they already have an allowance for clothes, phone, travel, fun, so we will just add a monthly extra for food and books, which hopefully the normal household budget will manage to absorb.

Any extra will have to come out of part time jobs.

We are still going on holiday as we always have, but we were thinking a few years back about building an extension onto our tiny cramped kitchen, and we have put that on hold until all Dc are through university.

Whatever you do make sure your dc works throughout their degree. It’s so important now, so many of dds friends who came from wealthier families haven’t worked at all and are struggling to find jobs - any job, even working in Tesco type jobs- having graduated (from a good university with a good degree) because employers value work experience so highly now. Many of dds friends have found themselves struggling to find anything at all, let alone graduate jobs.

I googled it very quickly last night when posting. There are certainly degrees apprenticeships in those kinds of areas, and with some major and well regarded employers.

And a degree apprenticeship is a degree, it's just one combined with work experience. You still end up with a proper degree.

Maybe encourage some research on the topic.

We saved for uni maintenance for our DC, but in the past year, DH has had a breakdown and currently is unable to work more than a few hours a week. My DS1 is due to go to Uni next year, At the moment we'd be eligible for the maximum maintenance loan, so I think financially it would make more sense to keep that money in the bank for DS2/emergencies. I have told DS he will have to work as well, as I want him to have a work ethic and not expect handouts from (currently) me.

My dd1 is at uni and I only have to help her out with little bits as her rent is covered by her loan, she’s doing an nhs course so gets £5k a year grant and she works as a student ambassador which earns her a reasonable amount. She’s managed very well on this and we’ve only helped her out with big expenses.

dd2 will be applying this year. I haven’t saved much for her specifically as I know I can give her enough to cover living expenses monthly. I plan to let her pay her rent with her loan (they’re both very sensible when it comes to accommodation choices) and then give her £4-500 a month to live on. She also plans to transfer her part time job so can work a bit at least. Though it’s a busy course she wants to do so realistically I don’t know how much time she will have.

as long as they’re sensible with accommodation and don’t insist on expensive choices then it’s not all that bad.

Very few people pay their fees upfront even if families can afford to. It's not an effective use of money to pay it upfront. I really recommend you go on Money Saving Expert and read their advice. MSE recommends you do not just fees upfront and explains why. My DD gets the minimum maintenance loan and we pay her accommodation costs (c£6k a year) She has worked every summer and has managed very well. We saved into an ISA for her so she has significant savings for use later on and they are earning interest now.

My dc will need student loans - 3 dc so I know we can’t put 90k away to cover that. I’m more concerned about living costs, especially the year I’ll have all three at uni. Dd1 goes in 2026 and knows she’ll need a job and has a job now so she’s saving. I’m covering driving lessons etc so she has very few costs right now in the hope she can save. I also want memories with my dc of lovely holidays. I’m not going to give that up or what’s the point in life if you’re not living. It’s a balance though.

A loan for tuition fees is standard, I wouldn’t expect to pay those for your child.

As you say you have good incomes it’s likely your child will get the minimum student loan, it works out around £5k. This is not enough to even pay accommodation in most places. So they’ll need to top it up. I would suggest budgeting to pay all their basics and then they can get a job for fun money. Just keep in mind you don’t want them either completely financially dependent on you or so flush there’s no incentive to work. Mine needed an extra £1k a month in financial support. Their very part time job also helped them get a graduate job and develop time management skills, very few want to recruit someone with no work experience.

also I’m saving nothing for my others uni at the moment, I consider it another round of nursery fees so we will be skint for another few years if the kids decide to go.

Hmmm mine get the minimum loans and we just top up £300 a month and a couple
of times in the year when the loans don’t completely cover rent so it probably works out at £500 a month. I think £1k a month is excessive. Not all degrees accommodate working throughout term.

Even with a tuition fee loan and a maintenance loan, you may find you are having to fund them to afford to live.

Most of us love to travel and those holidays sound fantastic. But, whilst you're in a better position than many, I wouldn't be throwing money at awesome holidays. I'd focus on saving

@ELS20 Science degree tuition fees are LOW! Nowhere near the actual cost. Take a look at the international student fee for, say, Aeronautical engineering, at Bristol. They will be at least 3 times the home student fee. Your DC would be getting great value for money!
It’s subsidised by other students.

Start looking at suitable degrees. Degree apprenticeships are far fewer in number and rarely MEng. MEng in Aeronautical engineering at somewhere like Bristol gives lots of alternative jobs and employers. The loan repayment isn’t always a hardship.

You must start saving for him. You need to help him financially whilst at university. If you keep spending money and he has to work, he won’t thank you. He would be working really hard on a degree like a MEng and they require long days. You need to understand that his studies should mean more than your holidays. Invest in your DS. It’s only 4 years! Also start looking at suitable degrees and what dedication they require because others who have posted aren’t talking about doing science degrees with a high volume of work,

My DC didn’t know anyone at university who worked. Neither did DH who did engineering. You need to understand the work volume required is much more on some science degrees. The best degrees lead to the best jobs.