Savings accounts for your children.

[frolicmum]

How do you manage it? We have one for our DS and we contribute monthly, the same will be added for DS2 when he arrives in May. They're small, DS1 will be 2 in January.

When do people give this massive pot to your children? At 18? At 21? Would you want to have a say as to what the money is being used for?

I clearly got my head way too far in the future but just wondering.

DD has two accounts. A stocks and shares ISA in my name, which is where any big chunks of money go (family gifts etc). This will be used for university fees if we need it.

Then DD also has a much smaller stocks and shares JISA which I save £25 a month into. She'll be legally entitled to that at 18 and I imagine she'll use it to go backpacking or buy a car or something.

We're saving in accounts in our children's names but we have complete control of the accounts up until they turn 18. I imagine nearer the time, I'll move the money out somewhere else and then give them money towards uni fees or a house deposit depending on what is happening in their lives. It probably won't be a massive amount of money, but I'm definitely not planning on giving them access to it when they turn 18 to do whatever they want.

I'm planning to set up accounts for my DSs. I'm not sure whether to put them in their names of have them in mine and hide the account numbers etc! I would want control over what they spend it on e.g buying and insuring a car or money towards a house. Makes sense to have them in my name however I don't have a will yet so I guess it could prove tricky to ensure they got the money if anything happened to me.

My two DC have savings accounts in their names where Christmas/birthday gifts of money get saved. It'll probably equate to approx £2k when they are able to access the money at age 17, but I figure it's their money that they were given so if they blow it, that's their issue.

Separately I save £50 per child per month into an account in my name with the aim of helping them towards a house deposit. They don't know it exists so hopefully it'll be a nice surprise.