How much are you putting away for your children?

[Pinkdreams]

I have a 10 month old, I've recently opened an NS&I account and have started depositing small amounts in here, my plan is to continue to do this every month and then give it to my daughter when she's older. At the minute I can only afford to put £50 a month, which would work out around £10,000 when she is 18 (probably won't give it her until she's older), this got me thinking, besides inheritance, how much if anything are you planning to give your DC's when they're older to purchase a house etc.

£150/month in a savings account, plus my own savings (around £1000 per month, depending on how much commission I get). Plus £200/month in a workplace stocks and shares ISA which I'm intending to use to support her at university. (She's not quite 8, so hopefully a reasonable amount by the time she's at university).

Question for those saying the money will be their house deposit money. If they are buying with a partner are you still happy for that money to be for a house deposit?

I would ensure the money was ring fenced

Thanks Vroom xxx I'm glad your DCs are all doing so well 😊 that is reassuring. I do live in my overdraft too. Keep meaning not to but feels like it's an impossible task by about the 5th or 6th of the month!!

I saved about 13k each for my two dds gave it them at 18. Eldest did driving lessons, car , laptop and went travelling for a year.
Youngest redecorated her bedroom (unnecessary) bought ££££ of you tuber merchandise and an Apple Mac.
Should have saved it for house deposit.

We can't afford anything at the moment but hoping when they are older we can put some money aside for helping them with a house deposit. My parents weren't able to help me with money but have done things for me in other ways.

My two are 15 and 17, I'm dreading them turning 18 as their friends will probably get ££££ and I have nothing put aside for them. I don't want them to hate me for it.

I saved my CB for DC into an ISA each month. Single parent doing my best.

I’m sure someone else has said this, but just in case. Cash savings over 18 years are a waste. Get a stocks are shares JISA

That £10k will spend like £5k now, so lovely but not as great.

I’m based in Ireland where child benefit is €140 per month per child and it’s not means tested. We are quite well off so I save this for the dc. They will have quite a bit including interest by the time they get to university. It’s not in their name, but it’s in an account that we have assigned for their needs.

My kids have a junior ISA each, 7 year old currently has £13k, 5 year old has £10k. Some of this came from my grandmother before she died last year. I save all birthday money they are given at the moment, although I think my 7 year old will start to want to keep it soon, and we save around £100 each monthly. When the ISAs get to £15k I will stop and save in my name as I’m aware the 18 year old I think they may turn out to be might actually be a much more irresponsible one.

DC 1 had ctf recently matured to give him about £9k of which he has put £7k into starting his own savings. DC2 has ISA that will have about £9k at 18. So we saved around 30-50 per month per child. We didnt save more in their names because we prioritised overpaying our mortgage, maximising pension contributions and building our joint savings.

Fortunately we’re able to fully fund DC1 first and 2nd year at uni from our personal savings and will do same for DC2. This is to reduce the burden of loan repayments in future. If there is any inheritance in the meantime we will prioritise fully funding every year of uni for both.

After that, we will downsize our home (mortgage free there for the last 10 years) and have £100k per child available for their deposits.

We made this financial plan over the last 20 years with an eye to the future at all times. I’m so glad I wised up to this when I did in my early 30s when I was single and had a large disposable income, and being able to siphon money into savings before I wanted to spend it!

DH and I have similar approach to money and prioritising our spending which helped a lot. We’ve also been able to make the most of rising house prices, geographical relocation and a time when the mortgage interest rate was very low so it wasn’t just decent judgement but a healthy dose of favourable economics around us.

If you're in the UK, won't they have Child Trust Funds?

We saved significant amounts and will be paying for university in full and giving each child a six figure sum towards a flat.

However we didn't put anything into their CTF/JISA beyond the initial grant. We were concerned about them getting full access at 18. For us, although our estate would be subject to IHT if we died now, keeping assets in our names made more sense- hopefully we won't both die in our late 40s/early 50s. This has turned out to be a good decision- one child would have been fine receiving hundreds of thousands on their 18th, the other would not have been.

£35 a month, plus £250 child trust fund payment from birth and a further 1k inheritance from great grandparent. Will get 15k+ at 18. The power of compounding!

I have thought about this, although my kids wont have anywhere near some of the sums mentioned here. I will expect it to be ringfenced, and am watching the ridiculous (in my view) notion of co-habiting couples being treated as married with interest too.

I think so, I don’t think there will be much in that though! Only my eldest will have one though as my youngest missed the cut off.

Lots of people put them in cash accounts so they won't have increased by much if they haven't been added to

We saved all her child maintenance and then used it to support her through uni and we paid the difference, our financial situation changed as she grew up so we were also able to support her with some of her house deposit snd bought her a car from our own money, and she has been a very prudent saver, and is a high earner, she’s now late 20s.

we didn’t gift her the money for no reason, we always provided it for a purpose,

I put £100 a month into an account in her name, but I don't plan to tell her about it.

If I feel in her mid-teens she is not sensible with money, I'll look into getting it put into some sort of trust.

If I think I can trust her, the deal will be that I'll keep putting the money in either until she's 25 OR until she makes a withdrawal. She can have 7 years more of payments (£8,400 + interest) or she can spend it. That's my idea anyway, if she gets to 22 and decides to buy a house or something then I might relax that rule.

We did regular savers accounts for our kids, but if I had my time again I’d invest instead - the money would have been worth much more

I was, they put in equal share of the deposit, had it been otherwise they would have put a deed of trust in, no biggie,

I managed to save around £15k for my DD who uses it for university rent now. She has two accounts, one with the savings, the loans etc, plus contributions from her GPs, her Dad and me so she doesn't get into financial bother, then a different account for her job money, and the extra money I throw in for groceries. I earn well and I don't mind. She stands to inherit from her grandparents and me in the future, so I think she's going to be ok. She's very sensible with her money. There was a period of overspending, and I had to bail her out, but she's got an Excel spreadsheet to keep on top of it now!

You hear stories of young people blowing their savings in the first month of university, but I think alongside saving for them, you need to educate them on budgeting and fiscal responsibility.

University - unless your child gets full amount of loan then accommodation costs £500-£600 a month. Wedding- minimum contribution will be £6-8k even if they fund most of it themselves. You basically need to save £20k and that’s by todays prices!

£50 a month each. Home deposits will be raised by us downsizing, when my oldest is about 25.