Your childrens' savings; bank accounts, bonds etc and what did you do if your dcs were given different amounts?

[bramblina]

When dc1 was little, his eventual money gifts at around age 3 or so totalled £750 (I think) after a few birthdays and Christmasses plus birth gifts. I bought him Premium Bonds, he won two £25s which i re-invested. No wins for the past 6 years.

2y9m later dc2 was born, eventual money was £450 which is still in a bank account of mine, I keep meaning to buy PBs.

4y later, dc3 was born, and there is about £200 in cash in his baby box (poor 3rd child, money didn't even make it to a bank account!! I am 3rd child so I wholeheartedly sympathise ).

Dc 1 birthday was this week (now 11yrs old) and wants to open a bank account. I have their 3 birth certificates here and think we will open accounts for them all this week.

I need to get to grips with their money first, and will buy the PBs for dc2 and 3. I'd like to make them all have the same- I think this is wise. What do you think? I would like them all to have the same, at least to begin with.

But, Dc1 got the child trust fund which we do not and did not add to, so it's ticking along. It began at £250 and I think has barely incresed. Dc2 got one too but we had a lower income when she was born and so hers was doubled and had £500 originally invested. When dc3 was born, he did not get one. Poor dc3 has very little!!

So how do your children save? What do they save? Ours do not get pocket money regularly. I will encourage them to invest some gifts in to bonds and spend or save a little of birthday money etc.

Did you top up your children's birth gifts? Do you make them save all money, or part of it?

I'd like to give this a good bit of consideration and would welcome your thoughts, thank you.

Mine have accounts but they don't know about them. They weren't given money as babies so get the same direct debit each month.

Any birthday or christmas money is free to be spent as they like, it's in lieu of a gift and not meant to sit in an account for years.

Pocket money is given monthly so they learn to budget.

Works well for us.

Hmmm you have a nice simple plan there!!

Dc2 got s fair bit less than dc1. I split the money evenly so they had the same and invested it in ns and I bonds.

Why premium bonds? They are safe, but a punt in terms of returns. It may be fairly low inflation now but since the year 2000 it's totalled up to 55%. If you don't win, which often is the case, give it 15 or 20 years and you've halved the value of their money. For me they are that, a punt, but for those with money enough not to care v

Interest rates may not be great but childrens bonds or a long term ISA in your name would surely at least have a chance of compounded returns.

I've often wondered this as dd has an inheritance (£5000) which any future hypothetical chdren wouldn't have and it's a substantially large amount that we couldn't necessarily just give other children the same amount straight away to start building interest as dd's has already started doing

Any other ideas out there?

My DS is little but I think it's my responsibility to save for him as he grows up not his. When he's old enough we'll open his own bank account & give him a set amount monthly to learn to budget for things.

At the moment I have an account in my name for DS that I save £100 a month into. We'll keep the money to give to him to help towards big life things when he's older. When we have another LO we'll do the same and try to make up any difference between the two gradually. I wouldn't consider premium bonds but once there's a bit more money in his account I'll shop around for a better interest rate.

I had a similar situation with my 3. I bought premium bonds in their names to a varying amount. I had this awful thought after a while that if one of them won, it would be a disaster. How could I have a millionaire child and not the others! So I sold theirs and put the equivalent money into a single set in my name. I don't know whose are whose, plus a lump of cash from me. Any winnings get added back to it. If we do get the biggie it'll be split.

At DC1=18 I'll take 1/3 of it and give to DC1 leaving the rest in - and so on until there's what's left for DC3. Likely to be less than £1000 but it's something.

Exact same situation here. So I put all their money in together in one account and when the time comes (when eldest is 18 I guess) I'll split it 3 ways. As they get older (eldest is only 3 yet), I'll stop putting the small birthday gift amounts in the pot and let them spend it as their own.

My two sons had stocks and shares child trust funds - this was back in the days when you got vouchers from the govt to start one...in fact ds1 (13) got 2 more vouchers from the govt iirc.
Just recently transferred them to a nationwide cash isa paying 3.25% interest (highest paying isa for kids)
So at least if I chat pay any money in they will get interest paid.
As its nationwide we also have paying in books so any cheques etc from birthdays can be paid in
Ds1 now has £7.5k in his and ds2 has £4K
We hope to start paying in a small amount each month as we did with the ctf

we have a spreadsheet with all the gifts and what age they got them and make sure it is fair.

we covered some gifts that DD2 won't get (like from my gran who passed away before she was born) and so far at the similar age they are fairly equivalent... by the time they are 10 or 12 we will see if there are major discrepancies, but we want it to be fair for DD2

(we are both younger siblings so we have a strong notion of fairness in cash and gifts... we both got burnt from relatives who decided to stop giving cash when out elder siblings were 16 and stopped giving us AT THE SAME TIME meaning we missed out on 4 years of gifts...)

I have two children 3 years apart. Both have children's isas started from birth. my oldest had a larger amount to start with, think he had £2k compared to £500 for ds2.

I do a standing order into both each month but change it around often, depending how much £ I have. I usually give ds2 50% more. thy won't end up with the same at the end but they will reach 18 at different times and I can always adjust later on too.

I've also set them.both up a stocks and shares isa for £50pm just for the hell of it. That one will be equal, although ds1 will receive his £ from that first so d s2 will come out on top with that one.

I think if it's broadly the same, is fine.

why don't you do 20%, 30%, 50% of your contribution for a couple of years and see where that gets you

This is all very interesting, thank you all very much for taking the time to reply.

Kerberos I have thought the exact same thing!! I think I would cash in the winnings and split it- never telling them which one won. Or, buy a yacht and sail off....

Badders123 Can I do that now? I invested dc1&2's ctf in to the children's mutual but I thought it had to stay where you put it until they were 18? Can I transfer it in to an ISA? But they cannot cash it in or gain access, yes?