Kids accounts - what have you done?

[sunlover1123]

Have a 4 month old baby and trying to figure out the best choice for savings. I fondly remember buying a car with my savings at 18 so hoping to do the same for my LO (their choice with what to do with the £)

So far I have looked at:

• wealthify junior stocks and shares ISA - with initial investment of £500 and £10 monthly in an ambitious ethical fund. Investment over 18 years would be circa £2620 if the market performs well it could be around £6k DC and if it doesn't then near what i initially invested. Would cost around £7 pa

• bath building society cash ISA currently at 5.49% AER and who knows what will happen in the future with interest rates 😂

What have you done for your DC's future?

Ideally I'd like to open 2 accounts for example DC would get a savings account and pension but I've gone and read too many posts and now my brain is leaking out of my ears!

Pensions and stocks and shares ISA's for both. Max them out each year. Plus, pocket money for the oldest (youngest in due course). I am also going to start showing them in turn how to invest - it's a life skill they will need to know.

Mine have an ISA with Nutmeg, some money in premium bonds, plus their own current accounts.

Forgot about pocket money!! Another thing to think about! Want to link that one to chores! 😂

Do you chose the risk level with Nutmeg?

Yes you choose the risk level, I've got at least a decade to play with so I've gone maximum risk. You can also choose ethical investments as well I believe.

We decided to overpay the mortgage instead because interest rates have been historically dire. If we can be mortgage -free when they turn 18, we can give them a generous monthly allowance.

That's a great idea! Our mortgage has gone through the roof so will need to wait for rates to hopefully come back before we can even start to think about this

Our eldest got the Child Trust Fund, shes 16 now. She has 10k in there now. IIRC, it's linked to the stockmarket. She has another savings account with 3k in it.

Our son is 11, he has about 7k in his Junior ISA I think.

They're the only savings they have, but it's a damn sight more than DH or I had at the same age.

Same, I had a couple of thousand which was enough to buy a car which was named 'the tank' no power steering and gear change was awful but it did the job until it's wheels fell off 😂

We opened a Child Trust Fund for DD in 2006. It was converted to a Junior ISA and we'll use it for her Higher Education in a couple of years time.

She's got a debit card account for pocket money, which will change to a student account if she goes to university (highly likely now).

No other savings, we don't have a lot to spare.

JISA with Vanguard. Low fees. Lifestyle 100% fund

Halifax regular saver - was 10% when first opened it (!) now about 5% I think.

Pocket money from about 12 yrs old and a simple current account - used Metro bank but not thrilled with their customer service.

Teach them how to spend money (as in let them use £30 of birthday money and practice thinking about what to spend it on and that you can't but everything in the shop!), how to save, and from about 15 years old that they have a junior ISA that it's a long term account and update them on the account every 6 months or so.

We've saved a decent amount of money for DS in Premium Bonds, but I think we'll focus on throwing any spare money at our mortgage going forwards. We'll then be in a better position to help DS from monthly income later.

One set of grandparents put into a NSI account in their name. Even if they don’t win on any draws they’ll have about £10k when they can access it, which is plenty at that young age!! We put an initial lump sum into a high interest savings account and then £250pm direct debit and the other set of grandparents put money in too for birthdays and Christmas. This is in our name, just in case they can’t be trusted. Will see what they do with the money when they have access to the NSI account before heading the rest over!!!

Stocks and shares ISA's for both too.

We started off saving in their names but recently decided to stop doing that and save in our name instead. We decided that we want to have control over what the money is spent on when they turn 18 (or whatever age they gain control over the account) and don't want to risk them wasting it all for one thing. Right now I feel like they would spend it wisely but who knows what they will be liked in 15 years times! Like another poster, we also decided that paying off our mortgage was also a better use of the money than saving for them due to interest rates. Once we pay off the mortgage we will still save in our names only though but may start a pension for them although need to look into that more.

We did have a small amount in premium bonds for them each at one point too but decided that if one of them won £££ we would feel really guilty for the other child so took that money out and put it into their bank accounts instead where they will get similar interest.

Pocket money and birthday money goes into a debit account that they can spend/save as they wish.

I had regular saver with Halifax for first 12 months, then moved it over to vanguard JISA. That’s just being left to grow unless they have some birthday money.

Have set them up pensions with Hargreaves lansdown. Just put in £20 a month but it’s more for their financial education and just having one really.

We are now focusing on paying off the mortgage. Once that is done I will save for them in my name.

We haven't saved a lot yet, DD is 8 and we have about £8500 in a s&s jisa (with hargreaves lansdown) Plan to continue paying into that some level of spare savings each year (probably more like £3k/year rather than the maximum £9k) until she's about 13. Then we will continue maintaining that but not pay in any more money and save into cash jisas until 18. This is because I see s&s as a longer term investment which should grow long term but can be impacted by economic situation and the cash jisas are a bit safer but growth likely to be less.

Also trying to pay off mortgage, pay into our own pensions and investments (s&s isas) and save money for school fees from 11 in bonds so we don't need to worry at the time! I have the first 3.5-4 years school fees ready to mature at the right time let's see how much they go up. If it gets ridiculous or she wants to go to the comp we will overpay mortgage instead!

@sunlover1123 as someone with children aged 20 and 17 can I give you some advice? Like @Icedblondelatte we also chose not to save money that a child has control over at 18. You have no idea what your child may blow their money on. We basically set up a few pots of savings, some that we would hopefully hand over to the children at some point but if we needed it ourselves we would use that money. You never know when life will throw you a curve ball.

So firstly, cars, not cheap these days and insurance is a lot. Ds is a named driver on my car at £1k more than it costs for just me and Dh. As my eldest, he is at uni, there is no parking on campus or outside his accommodation so he cannot have a car there. He is away from home for 30 weeks a year. So pointless him having his own car.

University funding, around 50% of 18 year olds go on to university. The tuition fees are automatically paid but the maintenance loan they can take out is based on household income, as it stands Ds gets the minimum amount of roughly £4.5k we are expected to top him up by just over £5k per year. His first year accommodation was £6k and that is normal. We chose to save for that so that we don't feel the affect monthly. It is there to fund them. But if we had ever needed that money then we would have used it. We have the uni saving pot and a general saving pot for other things.

The hardest thing children these days will face is getting on the housing ladder. So maybe think along those lines too. Ds1 has a LISA already. My advice would be, pay into your own pension and over pay the mortgage if possible. That way that mortgage payment money can be used for other things once you no longer have a mortgage. Plus if you need to take early retirement due to ill health you already have a healthy retirement pot.