to think that adding massive amounts to you child's (gov) trust fund is a silly idea?

[bogie]

I think saving for your children is the best thing you can do obv... But with the child trust fund they have complete control of that money when they turn 18, you have no say in what happens with it.

I speak from experiance my mum saved 20,000 each for me and my brother, I was given acsess to 10,000 when I was 16/17 and I shit you not I spent it in 5 months on going clubbing, out for meals, and genral tat.

I have spoken to people who are planning on (or already have) put thousands of pounds into this account.

I understand that some 18 year olds will be grown up enough to use the money wisely but surly you would rather invest it in a high intrest account that you could control so they used it for things they really need (uni fees, car, deposit for a house ect.)

Exactly what we have done Bogie - all our money for them goes into savings. We have invested the 250 but not added anything to it - far too dangerous!

I don't want to still be controlling DS's money when he's an adult and at 18 he will be just that. We're putting money into his trust fund in the knowledge that it becomes his money, not ours.

I hope we'll bring him up to be good with money and spend it wisely. I would have done at 18 and I know that most of my friends would have done too.

Maybe I'm being idealistic and will regret it in time but I do think that 18 is old enough to be responsible about money without parents' control.

I was given £3,000 when I was either 18 or 21 - can't remember - but was so clueless and naive that although I tried to spend it well, I really got it all wrong and ended up without anything.

I was no way mature enough. I think I spent some of it on learning to drive then bought a camper van to live in, which fell apart so I had to sell it for much less - anyway, I agree it is wiser to keep hold of your money until you really reckon your child is sensible enough not to waste it.

Supervision and guidance is the key I think. Neither of which I had enough of - rather, I was naive and thought I had some of the answers. I was also still reacting to my upbringing at that point rather than being sensible and mature. I wasn't really an adult at all, mentally.

Well I guess if you knew that £250 is all you will ever be given in life then maybe your attitude towards it would be different and you'd respect it.

I used to put my kids child benefit into a pension for them but have come to realise the pension company were doing better than them out of the deal.
Not sure where/how to save at the moment for them, stuff it under the mattress maybe.

It has been my observation (mr silverten's brother went to posh private school with lots of well-to-do friends) that having plenty of cash to play with when you are 18 generally does no favours in motivating anyone to sort themselves out and get themselves a constructive occupation sorted out. There were plenty of entitled layabouts who seemed to think that because Mummy and Daddy were rich, they didn't have to lift a finger..

We're not adding to the gov £250 either, partly for the same reasons as the OP but also because you never know what life holds and whilst we are saving for the DC we may need the money ourselves at some point (maybe a redundancy or illness, death etc).

My parents saved for my siblings and I but then they had a very rough patch and they had to use the money to keep the family going. I therefore had no help later, paid for my own wedding, bought house without help etc and I think they felt bad they couldn't help. I think they did the right thing though, not sure what would have happened to the family otherwise.

Flightattendent - that is my point exactly even if you think you are grown up enough to manage your money having a massive amount given to you at a young age it is soo tempting to spend it on things that you think are a wise investment but just arn't!

Totally agree, hence why I won't be adding to any of my three. I do have savings accounts for them though.

We have just sorted out our wills and our lawyer strongly advised us, in the event of our deaths, to put any money left to our boys in a trust fund that they cannot access until they are 25yrs old. He said they would just spend it on shit at 18yrs.

YANBU.

No way am I adding to the money.

When I was working I dealt with a horrible case where parents had saved a considerable sum of money for their DD in an account in her sole name. At 18 by law it was hers to do with as she wished. She was a heroin addict. The parents tried to obtain an injunction preventing her from accessing the money but couldn't. She got the money and died of an overdose.

They were a regular family who when they started saviung could never have imagined the situation they'd find themselves in

my kids have a small inheritance and i will no be handing it over for them to spend as they wish.

dd is thinking of taking a holiday to Japan with it when she is 18. I think that is an excellent use of the money and thereore i shall allow it

I will continue to add to dd's, not huge amounts but enough so that at 18 she can have a computer or driving lessons or whatever. If she chooses to blow it all on clubs and tat then that's the daughter I raised and I accept that.

I got some small amount of money at 18 and used it to help me through university. It paid for a laptop, books, food, theatre trips etc and no overdraft/debt to worry about.

We havent added anything to our ds's ctf,we have set up a seperate savings account & save whatever we can into that.

When dh started working he was told advised by his parents to save £50 a month into an account for his ds,she is 10 yrs younger than him,well he did & as soon as she hit 18 she spent the lot on fancy haircuts,clubbing outfits,clubbing & drugs .

DH promptly stopped any more money going into it for her & we will not be giving our ds any money from his account unless he needs it for uni or a house deposit.Otherwise we will let him have it when he is at least 25.

Same as TheCrackFox - if I die, my DS will only get enough to see him good until he's 25 - my sister and BIL will control it until then. I know damn well that if I had inherited hundreds of thousands at 18 (and it would be a lot because he is my sole beneficiary) then I would probably have been dead by the time I was 25.

I would have spent it on booze and shoes. Just goes to show how little I have matured since then.

I was lucky enough to have 8k at 18. It saw me through uni without any debt, when my parents divorced and couldn't manage to top up my grant, and bought my first car.

18 year olds CAN be sensible with money...

YANBU - my parents gave me money that they had saved up when I was 18 and I wasted the lot. At the time I didn't see it as a waste but now I really wish they had kept it until I got married last year. However... they sneakily only gave me 1/4 of what they had actually saved for me, waited until I got engaged and THEN told me about the other 3/4, which we are now using as a deposit on a house. They knew I'd blow the whole lot if they gave it to me all at once so this was a very good call on their part!

Agree totally with the OP (only skim read rest of thread)

My fil wants to put £1000 a year into our 2 dss child trust funds and we have asked him to reconsider for precisely these reasons and instead invest it somewhere we have control over.

I would be perfectly happy for the boys to spend the money on something frivalous / travelling / whatever they like but if they are going to waste what is not an insubstantial amount of money then I would like that to be done with some thought (if that isn't too much of a contradiction)

I am also concerned about them getting used to a lifestyle that they cannot sustain when the money runs out - while 18K is a huge amount of money it is easily blown as the op illustrates!

Fil not playing ball at present and we're having a bit of a dilemma whether we tell him we don't want the boys to have the money and therefore they losse out on the benefits it can bring, or instead trust in our ability to bring them up to appreciate money and perhaps some blackmail (along the lines of - you use the money to put yourself through university / buy a flat / start up a business etc or something similarly practical and we will give you same to do as you wish with when you are 25 - we are saving for practical stuff anyway)

I had a child and was pregnant again at the age of 18, i wouldn't have blown any of it belive me.

in Scotland a trust account only runs until 16 it has to go into their name then, we opened accounts for all 3 of them when they were born our son's will go over into an Isa in my name next year as he is disabled and has no concept of money the money is in his account to look after him when we can't.

the reason for having access at 18 is for university fees. by the time any kids of mine go to uni they're going to need tens of thousands of pounds

anything i save for them in a ctf or otherwise will be peanuts in comparison

i spent all my childhood savings plus my summer between 6th year and uni wages on my first 18 months of uni - it allowed me to work only during holidays and therefore join sports and other clubs and societies i could not have joined if i was working during termtime.

We will be putting baby's child benefit into a savings account and she will get it when she buys a house - and only then. If that's at 16 she can have it at 16 and if she's 50 likewise

I would have been very sensible with money at 18 (I am very dull). If I got it now however.... gone in seconds it would be....

I want to set up a savings account but not sure at what age it should become his. I was thinking 22?