Do you have savings for babies/toddlers for education?

[Tsarina1]

Dh & I have savings a/cs for both our dd's for uni, our dd's are both under 2. Discussing it with friends some either have no a/c, some have trust funds, some have accumulated inheritances for their dcs & some are like us squirelling away as much as they can.
We put 20 pounds into each a/c every fortnight, any money they get from aunts/uncles plus we save our loose change throughout the year, bag it & bank it. I am a sahm & dh has an average salary however we want them to have the money to go to uni when the time comes but it seems we are not doing enough. Both girls would have about 3k each in their accounts now.

What do you do if you save for your young dc? Would you tell them about this money?

Yes, I save £100 a month for each dc. When dd was born dh and I discussed opening a savings account for her and putting in £100 a month. However, due to baby brain, sleep deprivation, bad communication between myself and dh somehow we each opened up a seperate savings account for her. So he saved £100 for her and I saved £100 for her every month.

This duplication wasn't discovered till ds was born and dh grumbled about having to open up another savings account. Cue surprised face from me!

It is scary how much 2x £100 a month for 4 years adds up to.

Yes, until I got divorced and xh (dc's father) emptied their accounts....

For a three year old, from now you need to save £198 a month for University. I investigated it for my DGC to see how much I would need to give them.

We save approx £130 pcm for each, plus supplements from birthday presents.

We save £130 pcm each for ds1 and ds2. Would save more if we could afford to.

Apologies for the double post

Oh no, £198 a month! I've been meaning to start an education account for toddler DD but we can't afford anything remotely like that much :( feels like we can't even afford to have one child never mind another (and I'm on a decent salary, just not decent in the SE compared to everyone else it seems :( )

Hi,

We have the trust fund that we pay into every month for our 2. We are 2 years away from paying our mortgage off (£850 a month) and will still have a few years after that before the eldest reaches 18 so we plan on banking enough to help out.

I am so glad my degree was free back in the day! And, I lived at home. No student loan needed :-)

I understand that people may want to save for their child's university costs, but not being able to do so surely doesn't mean you can't afford to have a child? They can get a loan to cover fees, and one for maintenance (topped up by parent on some cases). For most people, I would have thought putting any extra cash into any debts including mortgage, and quality of life while the kids are home with you, was higher priority.

We didn't save for kids and have two at uni now with loans. It's OK!

But PP not everyone wants their kids to start their working life with a whacking great loan surely? I know I know, it's not the same as a bank loan but it's still a huge amount of money to have hanging around your neck SO if you can save, why not?
Also not everyone is entitled to the full loan whack are they? Isn't it income assessed? I went to University about 13 years ago so not sure if it's changed in terms of how they dish out the loans, but I'm certain myself and siblings weren't entitled to the full whack based on parent's income at the time so they had to fork out for most of the fees AND they were a lot less then!

I think saving for Uni fees is so so sensible.

None. We throw all our extra cash in to the mortgage.

At the risk of sounding like a bitch, having watched a lot of my friends piss their time at university away, I don't think it will do my children any harm to see the long term financial consequences of their choices at university. On the whole, I'd prefer to help fund any post-university opportunities to get good work experience and to put down house deposits.

We put £20/month in an savings for ds but not for uni. He doesn't want to go. He's 16, he wants to train & earn in electronics. His teachers said he's wasting his A* potential.

We are saving for ours but I think it's important to review options. For example the junior isa is a far better return on our savings than a straight savings account. I also think what we haven't saved we can earn and pay as we go. By the time dd1 starts uni I can be working full time and earning relatively well so that money canpay her expenses!!!!