Am I the only parent not saving anything for their dc?

[WhoeverYouWantMeToBe]

My ds is 9, and he has just £460 odd in his child trust fund. I stopped paying in few years ago even then it was only £5 a month!

I feel really guilty especially as a friend's dd is about to turn 18 and has a £10,000 trust fund coming to her, friend not particular wealthy just good at saving!
I'm single working full-time and feel terrible that I can't afford to save anything for him, I could maybe start saving £10 a month into it at a push.

My parents never saved anything for me, when I turned 18 I had £700 worth of shares left by my grandad bless his heart, which bought my first car.

Please tell me I'm not alone in not saving much if anything?

DS is 3 and only grandchild of 3 couples (my parents are divorced and remarried).

He has about £2,000 in a junior ISA, £1,000 cash in my account and a few hundred in premium bonds.

I did subscribe to the 'you have to trust them sometime so 18 is as good a time as any' view, but these comments have made me change my mind. I think the Jr ISA is a bad idea.

I'm going to switch to your approach, talkinpeace.

Didly squat here (apart from a few CTF somewhere).

We save £20 a month for ours. He can get a job like we had to. he'll get the house when we're gone and his uncles. What more does he want?

Mine have about £3k each which was mostly saved by grandparents for them. We are trying to add about £30 each a month so that hopefully by the time they turn 18 they will have about £5k each which will help with driving lessons, car, uni or whatever. Would like to save more but with 4 kids it is difficult.

But you don't have to TELL them about the ISAS.

I'm not going to tell them. Only I put money in, and they will get told when I think they will be able to use it wisely.

CHRISTMAS & birthday money goes into a bog standard savings account and I'll give them that at 16 and see now it goes, that's what other people give and it's not for me to control it.

I am not sure why this bloody thing keeps shouting CHRISTMAS.

4yo DS has just under £1.5k in his CTF. I'm stopping at the 1.5 mark though as the interest rate is 0.something. DD has a junior ISA which has a lot less in it as she's only 2. I'll put more into a normal adult savings account to use as needed for university etc.

I'd love to save for DD but there's no chance - we've got to pay off our debt, save a house deposit (will need around 20k deposit to get a family house in our area) and then attempt to pay off the mortgage - if we can ever buy - before we're 70. I'm 31 now. Can't see how we'll be able to put anything substantial aside for DD let alone the two hypothetical additional kids!

We can't afford put put money into savings for ourselves or dds - I do worry about it sometimes but there's nothing we can do about it

Ds has more savings than us (well, almost)!!

He inherited as much as I did from my late mum and whilst we have spent mine on house improvements, his is still in an account waiting for him.

It legally is his at 18 but I know mum would not want him to have it then. She once told me not to tell him till he was ready to buy his first house.

We put aside £10 a month for our 2yo DD. Between money we've invested, gifts from others including GPs and kidstart - one of those cash back sites, she has already got £1200ish. Most is in children's bonds so she can't touch it.

She will be allowed to use it for uni or a house deposit. I wish I had the sense to buy a house earlier than I did hence giving her a cash sum.

i was paying £10 a month for mine. Gave DS half of his for his 18th, which he blew, on nothing as far as I can see.!
stopped it for a while, now back to £5 or £10 per month for each.

it adds up, slowly, but it does.

H has money invested for the children....about £100,000 each.

24 is a good age,

DS very nearly 20 and I am still unsure about giving him the rest of his half when he is 21.

Nothing other than what the government put in the pot. And dd doesn't even have that. But we literally spend everything that comes in (and sometimes more). It would be nice to think we're in a position to help them when they're much older, but who knows how it'll go.

My late uncle has left a substantial amount of money in trust for my DSs, which they will have access to at 18. It's an amazing gift for them, but i really wish the age could have been raised to 25 or so. As it is I can see the entire amount being blown on trivia when it would be vital for uni fees or a deposit on the house.

We have about £15k saved for ds(10) so far. We are not wealthy, but I'm a worrier and always been a saver when I can. £5k came from a PPI claim, £5k from small inheritance. Rest saved over £10 years. We prioritise having some savings to fall back on over luxuries like holidays (been 3 years since last holiday).

We have an old 25 year endowment plan for about £15k maturing in 2017 which we think will be kept for ds to help support through uni if he goes. (We'll be mortgage free by then too).

Harold - you will have to tell them about is a as soon as they start work. Otherwise they could get in trouble if they ask for government suppose ie tax credits if they already have savings.

Personally I think 18 is fine. By 25 I had x2 children, owned a house and had been working since 16. Any savings would have helped greatly how quick we could save for deposit on house, and how quick I returned to work after babies. I would be annoyed if my parents told me at 25 I had savings of say £20k as that would have allowed me to take longer maternity etc.

I'm going to be saving for my children, my parents didn't save anything for me but when I got married they expressed their regrets in not doing so. I never expected anything from them but I think if you can help your children later in life and they deserve it then it's a nice position to be in.

I wouldn't have an age set, I will just offload funds for various things as they progress and mature.

I try to put £10 a month away for both DC's but its a struggle tbh.

We live in social housing and can just afford the rent never mind a mortgage soi do worry that the DC's will have nothing to fall back on but unfortunately we're not in a position to do anything of use financially.