Are you saving for your child's future?

[nappyaddict]

If so what do you plan to spend it on?

Higher education
Towards a deposit on a house
Wedding
Driving lessons
Car
Something else

Travelling
Working/volunteering abroad

We're putting away £50 a month, along with a lump sum DD received from her grandparents for her first birthday. We intend this, depending on the market at the time, to be a deposit for a house.

As soon as she is old enough she can have her own bank account for pocket money/birthday money. House money will be a secret.

I'm saving for dd's university and have got a tidy sum set aside (though - grrr - amount keeps dropping due to poor performance of investments).

When she died, my mum left dd a low 5 figure amount that I hope dd will put toward a property deposit when the time comes.

Yes. A monthly savings plan. I don't know what it's for - it's their money but I'd try to encourage them to use it for university costs. Not that it will be enough for that I suspect.

No.

Firstly, we are earning a lot less now than we will when they are older. I expect that when they will nedd money for uni/car/house etc that we would be able to pay for it out of current income.

Secondly, if I did have spare money just now I'd spend it on school fees (so they would be able to afford house /car etc themselves) or paying off our mortgage earlier so we'd have more spare cash for them later.

Saving (at a low interest rate) is a bit pointless when you have debt (at a higher interest rate).

So basically if you've got a mortgage you might aswell pay extra on that each month until it's paid for than try to save for the future?

yeah, pretty much.

That's how banks make money- have people in debt and saving concurrently. They cream off the difference in interest between the two.

You should have 3 months income in easily accessible savings, though, for emergencies.

I get the argument about not saving until debts are paid off and apply that to my own finances. But I've always liked the idea that my son has an independent fund, outside of my finances that if - god forbid - I was made bankrupt or died or something, it would be protected from the debt-collectors and death duties. Too many people spend 'the college fund' and never get round to topping it up later. Life has a way of getting more expensive the more money you have to play with.

Most of my son's money came from his great grandmother. As an intelligent woman denied a proper education, I decided a long time ago that the right use for it would be to support him through further education. He's a bright lad so it's not unrealistic to think he'll go to uni. She'd have liked that.

(should have read 'as she was an intelligent woman.... etc)

So is anyone mortgage free who is not putting savings away for their child(ren)?

Should have read mortgage or debt free.

Yes, each of the children has EUR 150,000 in an account that will mature on their 18th birthday. And DD has an account in England that my parents save into on her behalf (as they do for each of their other GC).

Probably not. I mean, I will open a bank account for them for money from other people (bday/ christenings etc) but I imagine we'll just fund school/ Uni/ house deposit when the time comes. We definitely would help them out though as both of us had Uni/ first house deposit funded by parents so I can't exactly take the "if you want it you have to pay for it" route without being a massive hypocrite.

I suppose we might ringfence some cash but probably keep it in our names so we can plunder it at will

Bonsoir's children are obviously far more sensible/ cash savvy than me as there would have been a high risk that I would have wasted quite a chunk of my EUR150k aged 18.

God no, I can barely afford to pay my existing bills.

At the moment I'm putting £100pm away for her. It leaves me very tight, but with compound interest it should be a really good start for her at university, as I'd love for her to be able to graduate without debts (I am rather looking ahead here - she is 21months old!)

nope, but am saving for my own (am mortgage and debt free).

nope, can barely afford to live

Yes - I put my DS's child benefit in a pension plan - it will be tied up until he is 50 . His grandparents very generously save £1k p.a. which will be for further education.