Saving for child’s future

[IcedCoffeeAlways]

Absolutely useless at all things financial. I have no clue where to start. Can anyone advise on what might be the best route to go down for what I want to achieve please? Any specific types of bank account etc that would be best? DS is 9 months and I still just have his money sitting in an account of mine so would like to get it sorted.

I would like to have 2 separate pots of money:

1 - money given to DS for birthdays/Christmas etc by family. Happy for him to get access to this automatically when he turns 18 or whatever. Would this just be a normal savings account in his name? Currently have £1500 given to him by various family when he was born to “start a wee bank account” so that will be being paid in to open the account if that makes any difference.

2 - Money that we can save for his future that he has no knowledge of or access to until we decide (maybe to help with house deposit etc). Happy for us to have no access to it either if that makes any difference. Would be looking to pay in £50-100ish per month until whenever the money is needed (or we stop being able to afford to do so!). A normal joint savings account in mine and DHs joint names? Some type of ISA?

I really am clueless so any help would be appreciated!

Foe me...

1. Junior s&s isa managed yourself on vanguard or ajbell

1. People will have a variety of opinions Personally..we will keeping tax efficient on our own pensions and surplus to max out adult isas.

Primarily for control both in terms of access and tax

I initially thought baby pensions were genius but now i am verrrrrrrry unsure on them.
I'm no economist but my view is

• It locks up cash for an insane amount of time.
• there are unknowns. The gov can easily change age to access and level of taxation and your child is likely to need if earlier.

-pensions and isas can be invested in pretty much the same thing

So really is a baby pension not just a crappier version of a s&s isa ?

The typos 🤦‍♀️ apols

I know loads of people will tell you that you need to keep the money in your names if you don't want him to have access to it at 18, and while this is an absolutely valid point, you have to be aware that it you ever find yourself needing to claim benefits, you'll be expected to use his savings for yourself. I believe this is the same for easy access accounts in the child's name. Junior ISAs, or similar, are the only way to secure the money for the child. My kids all have jisas for this reason.

I don't know about the implications for benefits but we have Premium Bonds in the children's name and top up via direct debits. Along side those we have junior Isas.

@LivingLaVidaBabyShower Thanks, I’ll look into everything you’ve mentioned 😊

@stingofthebutterfly Very valid point! Thank you. Luckily we’re not in a position to need to claim anything currently and feel secure financially but I’m very aware of how quickly circumstances can change so I’ll keep that in mind!

@Africa2go I’ll look into that too! I actually didn’t know that premium bonds were still a thing!

Consider Uni costs too, my DS is going next year and you’re looking at 60k ish for 3yrs. Of course there are loans but parental help is a big help for them too.

@Darbs76 Definitely! We have separate savings of ours that will go towards education 😊

We've got a junior ISA (Tesco) for him to have age 18, and then we just have a normal savings account in our name for the house deposit etc.