If you save for your DCs how much are you aiming for your DCs to have in savings when they leave home.

[atticusclaw]

Just trying to work out whether to amend the DD we have going out of our account and into theirs each month.

Depends what you can afford. How much do y put into their account each month and what is it aim?

We save £75 p/m for each of them (roughly equivalent to CB), they should end up with about £25-35k by the time they reach 18. We'll also have paid off the mortgage by then so have some money in the pot to help them start out.
Even relatively small monthly amounts add up over time, due to compound interest.

I suppose we were thinking house deposit however with the crazy price of houses these days….

You can't control what things will cost when DCs grow up, you can control your current budget. If you can save for DCs without foregoing essentials, then do. Anything you can save is better than nothing.

£100 pcm per child into their CTF's. We have 2 DC and have managed to do so from their births. The aim - to offset some of the cost of their higher education so they will have less debt upon graduation. The majority of any money that they may receive for birthdays and christmas are deposited into their savings accounts (Halifax). We do allow them to spend some of their money but I don't encourage it!

They are still primary age and I was brought up to be frugal (successful self employed small business owner parents) which I believe has stood me well in my own adult life. Well, it worked for my parents, it is working for me.....so, hopefully, I'll pass that on to my DC.

InMySpareTime, given interest rates, wouldn't it be better to overpay your mortgage by that amount, getting rid of it earlier, and then really going for it with savings?

I saved enough when they were little to potentially cover all secondary school trips. So if they come home with a letter about skiing in Austria, I can say yes.

That's all though. I couldn't see myself being able to give them a lump sum of 35k (or whatever) without strings attached, or feeling resentment if they frittered it all away.

Imperial, we already overpay the mortgage substantially, the children have low-fee All-share tracker funds which have a pretty decent return (better than bank savings anyway).

Nothing at the moment, although I plan to start with £10 a month from February. Whenever they get money eg for birthdays, this gets saved.

Hoping to increase this as our finances allow it. Plus we will try and help as much as we can when they get older eg uni fees, deposit for home etc.

The in laws pay £2k a year into DD's account, annually, we are currently saving £100/month for her too. She can then either put it towards university (should she go), or use it for a house deposit

If you have saved and have the spare capacity a big decision you have to make when they get older is whether to use funds for university fees or let them take the loans.
Even if they take the maximum loan it will not be enough to live on and you will need to subsidise.
At the moment they need £9k a year for tuition fees plus about another £9k to live on. They can take out student loans for the fees and some towards living costs but these attract huge interest rates from day 1. On a four year course they will be looking at around £60k excluding interest.
In our case at the moment we have followed the advice to let DS take the loan and save the money until he needs a deposit for a house but we will keep it under review year by year.

We save £80 per month between 2 of them.
We have been doing this for 14 and 11 years respectively.
It's not going to cover uni if that's what they choose.

Can I ask what kind of account you are saving into? Is it in the child's name and will it ultimately be in their hands when then reach a certain age? I'm just thinking of myself as a teenager and the terrible decisions I would have taken if I had been given a lump sum of money.

We currently put £10 per child per month (which is what we can afford at the moment) into savings for them, in their joint names with me. They are special accounts for children's savings. Their birthday / Christmas money from aunts and uncles goes into the same account.

The CTF are separate, and we don't add to them.

The plan is that when they are 18, they can have their CTF money. However, I know what I was like at 18, and so the rest of their savings are protected from a massive spending spree!

When they are 14, they are able to withdraw funds from their savings when countersigned by me, but until they are 18 they can't make independent withdrawals. If DH & I feel that we need to, we can move their savings to a different account, and not tell them where, as they approach their 18th birthdays. If needs be, it will be locked up in trust until a later date.

I know on here that can be controversial, as I've seen MNers posting before that it's "their money and they should be able to do whatever they want with it". BUT I also know that the great aunts and uncles who have contributed over the years would not want it pissed up against a wall - it was given to them "for their savings account" with the intention that they could use it for something they need in the future.

They are 6 and 3 at the moment.

They will have about £1000 each when they reach 18. The rest is in our name from relatives until they are old enough to not waste it around £15k each. It's hopefully for a house deposit.

Without wanting to be a downer, too many parents are saving for their DCs when they should be saving for themselves. Before you save for your child ask yourself tough questions about your own pension and care home fees.

What RequestUpgrade said.

I am trying to up my hours at work atm, which would see us considerably better off (several hundred pounds per month) than we are right now. As soon as that happens, I will finally be able to stop having to use the measly £20 a month I get from my ex as child support. I feel absolutely dreadful taking it from dd. I hate that I really do need it some months, even though it is technically there as 'his' part of financing the costs of raising our child. So as of the end of March, that £20 will be going straight into dd's savings account. She also has her Child Trust Fund set up after we qualified for the £500 grant when she was first born. That's just sitting gathering a tiny bit of interest as the years tick by.

Ideally, I would like to save a little money for her each month. If I could match her dad's support money, I could be popping £40 away for her every 4 weeks which would be £520 a year. But the fact of the matter is I have no savings myself, I live in a rented house and can't afford to buy and things have been financially tight for years. Immediate plans so far have been arranging to speak with work about upping my pension contributions and typing up a budget to see if I would be able to put £100 into savings every month.

Whilst it's a lovely thought to save for dd's future, I really do need to start planning for mine. I also need for dd to be able to stand on her own two feet without looking at me like I'm a walking ATM. I cannot finance her through life. Much as I would like to take the pressure off her somewhat, she eventually needs to head out into the world and realise just how crappy and tough it is at times. And it sucks, because two of the most important things in life - education and having a roof over your head - are becoming so horrifically expensive.

I need to win the lottery. It would solve all the problems

I split the CB between his CTF and his pension. Birthday money goes into a savings account as well. He'll probably have £20k or so by 18.

I agree with request which is why we are saving £10 each month.

anne will he have access to that whole £20k at 18? Doesn't it worry you?

Not judging - some parents are totally happy for their children to have the whole of their savings at 18, maybe we are just a bit more cautious.

Currently 35wks pg with first DC, and have been thinking a lot about saving for her future.

I plan on putting all CB into an account for her with the intention of it being used for university fees, as I highly doubt that there will be student finance as we know it today in eighteen years time.

I do however worry that having access to approx £17,000 (not including interest) at 18 years of age is a disaster waiting to happen. Pookamoo how have you managed to safeguard the lump sum you are saving for your DC's? I have done some research on this but from what I can gather if its in an account in their names you can't do much about it.

Also does anyone know about the tax implications of saving? I thought if they earned over a £100pa in interest deposited by their parents it becomes taxable.

Sorry should say on funds deposited by their parent.

We can't save anything for her at the moment as saving for a house deposit ourselves, however my dad puts £50 a month into DD's saving account (and will do the same for DC2 when she arrives), which she can't access until she's 18. We will hopefully be able to start doing the same in a couple of years time. I haven't even really considered how much will be available for them, I think of it more in terms of what we can afford. Anything will be a bonus for them! My parents didn't save anything for me to access myself, just said they'd fund things as necessary such as uni, driving lessons etc.