Hasanyone set up apension for their kids?

[moondog]

Any Any thoughts or pointers?

just found this Legal and General calculator, and suffice to say the info in Prima was waaayyyyy out.

This has been a very usual discussion for me - thank you!

useful not usual and now I would like one where the bunny hides behind his ears in shame please.

It will be decades before the child will be able to benefit from a pension that their parents set up for them.

It is very possible that by the child is a pensioner, they would have forgotton and lost all details of that pension, especially if the contributions were solely paid for by their parents whilst the parents were still alive.

Considering the number of times people move and the things that get lost in transit and the lack of interest in things financial (particularly pensions) that young people, I would frankly be amazed if the child would still have the paperwork with them to claim on the pension when they retire, if they remember it at all.

No you are right isitmeor but if the person divorcing my child doesn't know about it, as the child will not know about it then it cannot be claimed against, unlike say a house which is visible for all to see.
Unless of course she is already drawing the pension but frankly if they are getting divorced at 70 i give up.

Milly - I think you'd need to tell your DCs when they start work so that they don't inadvertently fall foul of any legal conditions when they set up a pension of their own.

No I don't think you do, you just listen when they say "oh I've started a pension" and stop paying into it yourself at that point.

PMSL at £64,000 though according to the calculator, why do we bother eh ?

Milly - that does sound odd to me, to be honest. As the pension's in dc's name, won't the provider start writing to them once they reach 18?

They can't withdraw the money anyway can they so i suppose it makes no odds if they know or not beyond 18.

You can cash in on a pension before retirement age, it's just incredibly punative financially as you rarely get anywhere near what you put it.

Can you, bugger plan B then.

Riven - does the national care service thingy announced the other day help your dd at all, or is it all too far down the line?

This one Riven.

I'd also been reading about the Personal Care at Home Bill the other day, trying to figure out whether it would help my SIL. If I've understood it correct, the plan is to have free personal care at home for people with the most severe needs who also need assistance with 4 or more activities of daily living. But I don't think they've said what the activities are yet. Won't be coming in until April 2011 at the earliest though, because of some changes the Lords made.

MillyMollyMoo- your child will have to know once they start working. The rules have changed, and people can only have one pension pot now- if you open a pension in their name, that's the one they will be paying into when they start contributions.

I see both sides to this argument but I also see a fact that is not going to go away however much we want it to.

Unless our kids receive large inheritances from their elderly relatives, then they are not going to be able to get onto the property ladder and as a consequence, they are not going to be able to put enough away to fund their retirement unless we, the parents, sell off our property to help them out.

The generation before me went to university and paid nothing. Not only that, they received housing benefit, unemployment benefit during the holidays and generous grants. I was caught by the beginning of loans but luckily no fees and yet I owed around 15k when I graduated. Today's children, whose parents have not provided for them, despite knowing the problems they would face, will graduate owing over £50,000 and that sum will only increase.

So when they get a job, they will have to pay rent, pay back their overdrafts, pay off their student loans, try to save for a deposit on a property and contribute to a pension. I am sorry but unless they earn £100k plus in today's money then it cannot be done.

My daughter is nearly 3 years old. If she wanted to study medicine in the UK as an overseas student, the cost is about £1.2m for the 8 years starting in 16 years time when she is 19 years old. That is tuition fees, rental of a flat and subsistence expenses.

My putting my head in the sand and barking about how it is not right and how I will not pay it or just pretending it is not there will not make it go away. There is no way to avoid the fact that our children will face financial hurdles which they cannot overcome without our almost lifetime help.

Haven't for mine and I do actually consider myself financially astute. However, we've choosen to prioritise utilising the annual CTF allowance for both DCs and their Halifax Regular Saver's accounts instead as well as our own ISA allowances and pension contributions. To be frank, any other surplus income available for investment after that goes on paying down the mortgage and on holidays! In other words, I've chosen to attempt to subsidise my children's education and give them an earlier benefit in life rather than a later one (when I woudn't care as much since I would be in my nineties!) Horses for courses etc..

Hi,

we have opened a pension for our daughter when she was one month old. We pay only 27 pounds a month and invest in high risk as retirement is WAY off!

About teaching money matters to children: One day you can tell your child by EXAMPLE that saving and investing is a good thing by showing what you have done.

27 pounds a month is not THAT much money. Size down to supermarket own brands, a few coffees less etc.