Help with son's junior ISA

[darasda]

I have heard time and again that the main disadvantage of a Junior ISA is that at 18 a young person could take control of a potentially huge amount of money.

If taught properly about money they could use it sensibly and this would give their launch into the world turbo boosters.

However, they could blow the lot and also if they have turned out not sensible they could potentially go off the rails more easily with that money.

My son is still quite young but I have been saving into a S&S JISA for him since he was born and he could come into roughly 300K at 18.

Any advice on how to avoid this problem? Best advice on teaching kids about money?

Thanks all

Pressed post too soon.
PS Imagine not being able to afford the deposit for a house or the funds to start a business, but having, I don't know, £20-40k tied up in a pension you cannot access for the next 30 years. That would be hugely frustrating!

If you are among the lucky few who are maxing out junior isa contributions and/or have enough money for your children, by all means, consider a pension, but otherwise I'd think long and hard about it.

The other advantage of a pension is that they have to put in relatively less across their lifetime. Small amounts early, compounded over long periods of time, means they will hit the lifetime allowance with paying in less. So they will have to pay less of their earnings into a pension. If you have girls especially, who are more likely to stop working/reduce hours with their own children, this can be especially valuable. I realise this is not your position. Plus if you are worried about access at 18, locking it up until 60 might be a very good thing. My parents are very grateful that money for my brother is locked in a pension otherwise he would likely have lost it through ill advised business ventures. He's already pissed away a house deposit.

Could someone please clarify something re JISAs for 16 & 17 year olds?

Do they get two allowances at 16 and 17?

And what happens when they turn 18? Do the two ISAs get merged into one?

Thanks

We’ve just maxed out on our ISA’s which ear marked for the kids. Once they have left uni and have their lives sorted we’ll give them the cash for a deposit on a house/flat.

I grew up with highly educated affluent friends and saw what happened… luckily in those days a certain Gordon Brown wasnt chancellor and trusts could be held until 24 (or might have been 21)

However at lot does depend on what sort of company your children keep when they are 18

To an extent, it is unpredictable. The world is full of families where two siblings, brought up in the same family, same rules, same environment, same school, same everything end up radically different, one sensible, the other... not.

If your children are already teenagers you may have a sense of how sensible or not they are.

If they are very little, it's practically impossible to know for sure.

Op my dc have some ££ not that amount but possibly around 50k...I've got some as cash in cash isa and some in index funds.

They also have a few hundred in bank for spending.
.

I have one extremely sensible dc and one who I imagine would blow the lot.

But that's life!!

I plan to teach them both about investing, jl colins the simple path to wealth, and to build up capital so you never have to do a job you hate sort of thing.
It all be spoken of as THE spending money they earn, the car, insurance, etc money possibly travelling.. (cash isa) and the serious capital, house deposit type.... Isa.