Saving for your child

[Anony123]

How do you save for your child? My dad was saying about setting up a child isa but I don't want her to have access to lots of money that I've worked hard to save when she is 18 incase she blows it all. She is only 11 months old now. So I was looking in to setting up an adult isa in my name to save for her...but I don't really understand how isas work. How do you save for your lo?

We have a savings account for our children. Every week I deposit some of my earnings in there. Look at what options are available to you.

Go to see the bank. Ask about child saving accounts. I also hoard some cash in a savings jar under my bed for our son and daughter too. My penny pinching ways are useful here. I make sure to take advantage of any financial advice and assistance available to families of children too.

I have a child regular saver and most of ds's savings in shares in my name. He has a child trust fund with a nominal amount in but I stopped contributing to that because it was a rubbish interest rate and his dad insisted on having control of it and I don't want him seeing what I put in it.

I have a savings account in my name which I contribute monthly to, which he won't 'know about' until he is financially responsible i.e. preventing it being blown, e.g for a house deposit or similar.
He also has a savings account in his own name c/o me, which I'm putting his cash gifts into, which he will know about when he's old enough to get pocket money, add it to his piggy bank and to be wanting toys of value etc. I'm keeping a spreadsheet with what I've banked into it so he can see when he is older that he had a gift if £x from aunty X for his baptism etc.

We have savings accounts in DD's name. We can withdraw from them though, so if by the time she's 18 we don't feel she's responsible enough to have access we can always move the money to our own account.

I don't want her to have access to lots of money that I've worked hard to save when she is 18 incase she blows it all.

Err you raise her to be financially responsible? Ultimately you trust her with it, or you don't. You can always just open an ISA in your name and keep money for her there. You can open it in a bank and deposit up to £20k a year tax free. You can also set up a trust that she can't access until she is 21, 25 or whatever.

My mum saved up money for me and told me about it growing up and it was always clear that X was earmarked for education, y for a wedding, etc. Shame she never saved for a house actually, it would have been very helpful today. But she is an old fashioned woman who assumed that I would work until I married a rich man she's still clinging on to the £10k for my wedding even though I've made it clear I'm not getting married!

I had a friend who spent her money on driving lessons and a nice car when she was 17. I heard of a boy who used his £13,000 of bar mitzvah money to start trading and ultimately make a million, but that was a stroke of luck of course.

It all depends on what a person's priorities are when they get the money. When do you want her to have access to it? What do you hope she will spend it on?

@PaintingOwls

Well my sister and I were raised the same and I'm good with money whilst she on the other hand will spend any penny in a heartbeat so I don't want to take the gamble.

I want her to spend it on something good like driving lessons, towards uni (if she wants to go), a house, travelling etc.

Then I suggest you open your own ISA and ear mark it for those things and pay for them when the time comes. But do bear in mind depreciation.

Maybe open an account for her when she's, say 10, and put a bit in there and hand that over when she's 18 so she has control over SOMETHING?

We have a savings account and even though she's over 18 only I can access it to transfer funds. It's on trust until 21 but being used for university fees