Saving for university ?

[HoopyFroodDude]

Are you saving for your children to go to university ? If so do you mind me asking how much?

I have not planned for this but have been inspired by another thread about university debt to start. Do you have any tips ?

TheBride I couldn't agree more.

Labour's policy of getting as many people into Uni as possible was/is ridiculous. Not everyone needs to go to Uni and many don't want to, but are made to feel like failures for not going.

I did not go to Uni as my career choice didn't call for it. I'm now 29 and a senior manager in my company, I'm about to start an OU degree for my own interest.

I'm more in favour of young people getting jobs that offer them day release to Uni, that way they get both work experience and a degree.

Don't get me started on those people who go to Uni for "life experience"!!!!

"I just wonder what would happen if we all refused to fill out the parental income forms"

What would happen is what happens now, mamatomany - your child would only get the tuition loan plus the part of the loan that is not means-tested (70%)
There is a strict list of circumstances where parents don't have to pay, but basically unless you can prove you are completely estranged from your parents or have been living independently for 3 years, you won't get the full loan.

Can I also ask what kind of financial product people are using to save?

There are so many different ways with different pros and cons, in particular in terms of having savings if something were to happen to the family employment as that would be detrimental for benefits.

dh and I decided the best thing we could do is get our mortgage paid off as fast as possible so we could afford to divert our current mortgage outgoings to supporting the children if they need it at university (if they have the desire and aptitude to go). We also intentionally spaced them four years apart so (among other reasons) if they both decided to go then it was much less likely they'd be there at the same time.

DD1 has just finished her first year at university - she took out loans for tuition fees and the non means tested section of the maintenance grant which was about £7000 in total. We give her a monthly amount on top of that and I help her out with a food shop at the start of each term and buying books for her. The burden on us hasn't been particularly onerous on us this year but we are hoping that we will be able to make a contribution to paying off some of her debt when she graduates. Some of my friends have paid for tuition fees/living costs for their kids who are now behaving like fools (for want of a better word!) with their money. We wanted DD1 to make the choice to go to university and to learn how to budget and value the money she has. I hope that when she finishes the job situation will be a bit better but she is at a good university, doing well academically and wanting to go into an area that will need a degree so I think it will be worth it for her.

DD2 has just finished year 12 so we will have two at university at once and then as soon as she finishes DS will start. I do think that the choice to go to university needs to be a well thought out decision these days and that the huge expansion of higher education has been a been an ill thought out government decision.

My husband and I did start saving for our DS when the income was higher, but the circumstances changed and the savings took a major hit. We didn't put in a set amount each month but managed to save quite a significant amount. My husband has since changed jobs and I am looking for work, we don't have 'spare' money to put into savings but hopefully this will change.

I attended university for 1 year and decided to quit. I couldn't afford it, chose the wrong course etc. I had no financial help from family (non-existent anyway) so had to support myself. After only one year I was over 4k in debt.

I agree that it is getting more and more difficult for people from lower income families to go to university.

We live abroad and because my son was born here he should be able to attend a public university which doesn't charge fees, hopefully this won't change. We will probably help with accommodation/food/books etc but I think getting a part time job really will help my son learn to budget, after all it helped me.

I'm currently seeking financial advice on saving for my DS and DC2 due in August, as it's not just as simple as saving money for your kids and having x amount of cash in x amount of years time. You have to consider capital gains tax (a massive issue at the moment, esp if you are higher rate tax payer), the issue of gifting money to your child, and whether you want the DC to have control of that money when they turn 18 or if you want to take control of it.

We will probably be going with the option of saving the money in our names under our own stocks and shares ISA allowance (as person under 18 can't have an ISA) to save on the tax. This also allows us to have control of the money rather than like in Child Trust Funds, where DC has control of the money. If my DCs are anything like my DH, the cash would be blown on drugs and women and I'm not having my hard earned cash going towards that!

I'm worried that lots of people will just save money randomly for their child and not realise in 15 years time that they will have a tax bill to pay on it. Also, just saving in a cash account, whilst a brilliant habit to get in to, is often ruined by inflation.

I don't see why there should be a CGT or a gifting implication. If HMG require us to be means tested for student loans and then to support our dcs through uni; they can't then expect to tax us on it. I expect to pay fees out of a combination of income and dh's lump sum when he retires, so no gifting implication there as far as I can see. I will ring HMRC to find out though.

We are saving child benefit monthly for the two of thwm into an ISA.

We have avoided saving into the Child Trust Fund as we want to have control over what we use the money for and when we support them.

I don't want the money used for travelling/good times I want them to work for that, and if anyone is going to use it for good times it will be us.

But we do want money ringfenced for the children so that we can support them, partly, with uni or some other situation where we would chose to support.

I really can't understand handing over 20grand on thier 18th birthday. Why?

I think Quattro is right it will be uncapped soon and then we will be looking at 80k. 20k won't even scratch the surface. With massive house prices as well our children are going to have a harsh future even if they do really well.

yes, we save about £120 per month plus birthday, xmas money, etc. We've been doing this since DS was born. The way things are going, I don't expect this will cover fees and living expenses by the time he goes to Uni (year 2020), but it will definitely help. Neither me nor DH had to pay fees, so this is the least we can do for DS. I had a very small loan (about £2000) and a p/t job, but I know it would have done better if I hadn't had the pressure to find work during term times and summers.

We're saving child benefit for DS (3) into our ISA allowance so that we have cash to pay for the things our parents paid for for us, - it could go towards uni, a house deposit, or a wedding maybe - without having to find it from scratch.

But I do agree with the poster who said that you don't appreciate the value of money if you never have to work for it and just get it handed out, so that money is staying firmly under our control. It's not money we've saved for him, IYSWIM, it's money we've saved for us so we can afford to help him out later.

We also save £15 a month into the CTF - I had an inheritance of about £1,000 in my early 20s and blew the lot - I'd be gratified but surprised if he was so much wiser at 18 than I was...

No. I never saved/am not saving for the university years. At 18 adults make adult choices, and should be prepared to pay for them.

That's not to say I won't help them!

I have 3 adult DC.

DS1 is nearly 30. He spent 4 years at university, and has now paid off his student loan. He was sensible with his money, so didn't get into too much debt. He worked during holidays,and was fortunate to be sponsored by his future employer for his final year. We helped with the cost of books, train tickets to and from university, some money towards food when needed, and free board during the holidays. He was very fortunate that he unlike most of his friends only paid rent at university for the weeks he was there. So many student have to pay a full years rent once they are out of halls.

DD is still paying off her loans, but she had more holidays, and a very full social life whilst at university. She did however work during her holidays. She was a bit , when I pointed out that DH and I would not be funding the trip around Europe, or the gap year that some friends parents seemed happy to fund. But she got over it. She will enjoy these things much more if she pays for them herself.

DS2 did an apprenticeship. No loans, no debt, bought his car for cash, has lived in his OWN home for over a year.....Very sensible young man.

Still got it all to go through again with 3 teenagers. I will help them to go to university, but will not fund it. It is not simply a continuation of schooldays with mum and dad footing the bill.

I may have felt differently if I had gone to university myself. I am now an older parent. The majority of my generation left school at 15, or if they were lucky at 16 with O levels. At that age we were adults.

My dsis has a dd who is at medical school. Dsis is not particularly well off but her dd qualifies for almost nothing.

They reckon thay by the time she gradutes it will have cost them £56,000.

That is tuition fees and accommodation costs. In the first 2 years niece could work every holiday (in a care home) and pay for her food and fun money, but from 3rd year they have only 3 weeks holiday so my dsis has had to pay for everything.

Thank goodness her other 3 dc are not going to university at all.

I do find it almost amusing how het up people get about state school and quality of free education and yet happily are saving/paying out £50k for three years of extremely average education where your child does the vast majority of the educating themselves.
Why not pour some of your principals and outrage into getting rid of tuition fee's.
Somebody mentioned our children starting out with student and high house prices, again that will only happen if we keep paying ridiculous amounts of money for them, if we all said they'd drop.

Venus. DH and I have discussed what we would do if one of our younger sons did choose dentistry/medician. Thet are such long courses. I think in those situations parents would need to help more.

DS2 has already volunteered financial help if little brother goes down that route.

Architecture or veterinary is my biggest worry, 7 years.
Dentistry would be fantastic 5 years and walk straight into a £60k job, we spend a lot of time talking about how fascinating teeth are and what a wonderful career it would be in this house

Scary isn't it? DD wants to study medicine. The fifth year, they get paid, so 4 years, or so I believe.

mamatomany. that's what i want my DS to be as well.

Not at the moment but will start as soon as the mortgage is paid off. DS (2.5) has got a private pension though and we put money in that every month.

Mingg - I started doing that too but then somebody pointed out pensions are taxed when they are withdrawn, the annuity rates are awful and the pension dies with the person, we're loading up our ISA's every year for us and them now.

Our older children all had 20,000 deposited in a bond by their canny grandmama for their university fees when they were born 17, 15 and 13 years ago. Unfortunately these funds have not grown much over the last x years and are roughly at the same level now. Still, it's 20k they wouldn't have otherwise.

Child 4's child trust fund is going to be her university fees. I save £20 a month into it, as does her grandmother (making £40/month from birth), and I will make sure I top it up to the maximum permitted at each year end.

I will not save for mine.
I worked hard at a part time job. I paid of my loan myself. It is an acheivement that I did it alone.
School should be funded by parents. Uni by the student.

We have DCs aged 4 and 6 who are in state education. At present we are putting everything into clearing the mortgage, which we hope to have done in 4 or 5 years time. After that we will start putting money aside for university. DP and I were fortunate enough to leave university without debts, we want the same for our children. Starting working life thousands of pounds in debt, unable to think about getting onto the housing ladder, and having restricted life choices is not something we want to wish on them.