How much saved for your kids?

[darada]

Could I get a sense check of how much money and where you have saved or invested for your kid(s)? I have a 7 year old and he has both a junior ISA and a junior SIPP.

I am aiming for 1k per year of life for each child. They are 6 and 4 now.

We have our own savings that we will likely use to help them out on big life purchases, but would not give them unfettered access to tens of thousands pounds at 18, crazy IMO.

None for my 3, don't want them having access to hard saved money at 18 and frittering it away!

Working hard on being financially secure so we can support through uni and with house deposit

We save 200 per month for each of our two. It’s held in an account in my name, the downside is I pay tax on the interest but the upside is they don’t automatically have control when they turn 18

Each time our children have received money from grandparents, friends etc it has gone into their investment accounts.

3.5 year old has £970 in his account. Baby will have the same amount when he’s of the same age.

You are allowed to earn £1k interest tax free (£500 if higher rate taxpayer) so hopefully you're not paying too much tax unless you have quite high level of savings?

Nearly 9 month old has £870 so far. Aim is to save around £100 per month of life (subject to being able to pay double that in to our own savings). We plan to have a second child in a couple of years so not sure if we would be able to maintain that then. We are both on good incomes right now thankfully so may try to over save where we can. We would try for as long as we can to maintain that though. Any gifted money for them at birthdays or Christmas also goes in, until they're old enough to choose a toy they might like in the shop! We don't plan to tell them about this money at all, perhaps until they express a desire to buy their own home one day. When they want to have driving lessons we will part fund through their savings but not tell them about it still. They can fund the rest with a part time job at that age hopefully! I grew up in a really poor household and felt the burden massively of trying to pay for absolutely everything myself with no help. It also made me level headed though, so I'd like to strike a nice balance for my own child! I know I wouldn't have known what to do with a large sum at 18 for the best so we have chosen to keep it all in an account of our own.

DC has about 3K over two accounts aged 8. I had no idea of the value until I changed the postal address on the one I set up! I’m now adding £20 a month plus Grandparents add as and when. I hope for 10K maybe by 18 years, to help with uni or other studies. Not masses but something.

My kids are adults now, we had saved £12k each my the time they hit 18. Mostly the child benefit split 50/50 but there was some money from relatives when they were young (under 11) for birthdays, once they turned 11 they got their own young people's current account fir birthday money etc.

If you can afford it will really help with university, for us it has mostly covered the parental contribution element, and for one dd who had a sponsor bursary at university (from now employer) she used the money to buy a car, which during Covid was really useful, no need for me to fetch her

It's awkward to answer without sounding boastful but we do save fairly substantial amounts for our DS (now in his early 20s). But we are older parents, financially secure, he is an only DC, etc etc so it was relatively 'easy' for us. We also set up a pension for our DS as soon as he was born .. using the CB as we were in the fortunate position of not 'needing' it for day to day living.
Most of the savings are tied up ... so he can't access them even though he is over 18. The pension won't be available until he is 55! He has a Help To Buy Isa which can be used when he is able to buy his first property (I believe these are no longer offered by the Government).
I wouldn't - and didn't - just hand over a large sum at 18 ... we did give half towards the cost of his first car, but he had to match it by using savings he'd accrued from part time work. Fortunately our DS is very sensible financially but I have known youngsters (& the not so young) just burn through large sums of money as they don't understand budgeting/saving/long term investments etc.

We have savings but we never put money away that the DC would get unconditionally at age 18 as you have no idea how sensible they would be at that age. You can bring them up beautifully but who knows what influences they will have by then.

DC are 6 and 9. I put £50 each in a kids savings account and £25 each into a S&S ISA. So £150 a month total for them. This isn't something I've done since they were babies. Started at the same time so I have around £2.8k each in the account and £300 each in the ISA.

My plan for this money is that they use it for driving lessons/car when the time comes. They can use it for whatever they want (like travel instead of a car) but they won't then also get a car. My parents didn't do this for me so they're fortunate. We will support them with education as best we can too.

We did save money for DC at age 18, from birth. I know that there are horror stories about that, but the other side of the coin is that it is legally their money and can't be touched in the event of divorce, bereavement, unexpected financial disaster, etc.

Luckily none of those things arose for us and we can now help top-up their university loans from income due to successful careers, but it was good to have that safety net. DD got £25k which she is moving at £4k per year into a LISA (while taking £1k per year as 'spends'), and DS will get similar when he turns 18.

About 3.5k. DC is 6mo but that’ll tail off as it includes some cash gifts (made clear they were to be saved for the future- not for toys, baby supplies etc) from birth. We put £100 between us away each month but absolutely not in their name and we’ll never tell DC about this. (When they start getting birthday money etc to spend themselves, they’ll have their own account but big gifts to be saved according to relatives’ wishes won’t go onto it.) We are hoping to have at least 30k by the time they’re 25 with this but also hope to put more aside with pay rises etc. (currently on mat leave too of course so not saving like I did when at work)

If it helps anyone reading this thread who are concerned they don’t have much leeway to save for kids atm, my DH was asked this Q by his friendship group and he was the only one who had started despite his friends having much older children and more than one in most cases.

I save £20 a week in a random little pot (in a bank account) which would be over £26k over 25 years so going small with savings can still generate a decent amount. I tell myself that I easily spend that on crap when I’m out and about eg unhealthy snacks I don’t really need.

None from us, 9k from grandparents. Currently paying school fees, will pay similar amounts through university and will help with house deposit with pension lump sum
In 2034. DS 15, year 10. Only one, will get everything from us and DM when we go.

Same happened for me, private school, then uni funded (went in early 90s so no fees) and 50k deposit in 2003 for house- funded from DM income, not previously ring fenced.

None here but then we don't have any savings either.

Interesting thread. I was left money invested in childrens bonds (50k) and premium bonds (10k) by my grandparents when they died to inherit when I was 18. It was made explicitly clear to me that the money was for significant things like a house deposit. I didn’t have easy access to the money as my mum held all the paper work and didn’t hand this over. Now aged 40 the deposit went to the house and also paid for a couple of career enhancing training courses and I still have the premium bonds. I am forever grateful.

I post my experience as I do think that depending on how you save and the message given to children when the money becomes theirs, can make a difference.

We are not high earners but we save £100 each per month into a savings account for the children. It’s not in their name but will be theirs to use as I used mine.

We have around £10k in a stocks and shares ISA for them - they are 5 and 2. My husband and I, and my parents put money into their account monthly as a direct debit.

I put £50pcm for each child away, my parents add £20pcm and I put all their Christmas and birthday money in too.

5 year old has £4K and 2 year old £2k

It’s just in a savings account which probably isn’t ideal?

It really depends doesn't it, we haven't been able to save much for DS, but he inherited £300k from a relative which is held in trust until he's 18. He will also get our house when we die should we not need to sell it to pay for care or whatever else- I see that as an investment of sorts albeit not as guaranteed as cash. Conversely I didn't have a penny saved for me as my parents lived month to month, and I've never thought lesser of them or anything. You can only save what you can save, it's often 'luck' regarding whether they'll get inheritance from relatives, and keeping them warm and fed as children when they have zero earning potential themselves is most important.

Almost 8 year old 8k. 5 year old £0.

i became a single parent when 5 year old a few weeks old and can’t afford to save. 5k of oldest is inheritance that was left when he was a baby. Ideally I’d split it 4 k each but it’s a non access account

We saved £50 per month, plus Christmas and birthday money. Both have CTF aswell. They both know it's not to be frittered away, but only used for something big eg house deposit.

Presumably if you save this money but in an account that is your rather than theirs if you need to claim any UC this will be counted as your savings and in the case of divorce half could go to a parent who doesn't use it to support the child etc. So although there are risks there are also benefits to it being in an account that is the childs.

I’ve just started saving for mine (they are 13 and 11 but we’ve had house moves and so on until now). Saving £200 per month for each of them. Aiming to get them driving lessons, a little car, get them through university with minimal debt.

They each have a JISA into which their grandparents have paid a nominal amount monthly since birth. This obvious isn't going to rack up to anything huge, but is a decentish sum over the long term. We have a stocks and shares ISA in my name which is intended for them into which we save £200pm.