How much to have in savings for your child at 18?

[Pineapples198]

I was lucky enough that my parents set up a cash ISA for me as a child and this was given to me at 18 with around £3k in it, this helped with a house deposit (our deposit was £8900 for our first house).

My husband and I have 2 children and they both have a cash ISA too. Realistically what amount should I be aiming for to give them at 18?
It’s on track to be at around £10k currently if we keep paying in at current rates.
I feel like that isn’t going to go far for a house deposit or something in the current climate. It would buy them a car.
what are other people planning on having saved for their children?

We're saving but in our own names, not DC's- the small tax benefit of it being in their names isn't worth the flexibility of being able to decide down the line how much to give them and the certainty that it won't get wasted.

there is no set amount
whatever you can realistically afford

and it is up to them what they spend it on,
tbh 18 may be a bit young for too much money,
i did half at 18 and half at 21.

I wouldn't hand anything to an 18 year old. You were sensible and put it toward a deposit. Another 18 year old might spend it on eating out and clothes. Fine if they are earning the money but I would be upset if money I had saved by cutting back on stuff for myself was wasted by an 18 year old.

We saved in our names so we could help with driving lessons/university fees etc.

How long is a piece of string?
How much can you afford/how responsible are they likely to be?

As much as you are reasonably able to afford. I’m afraid like the vast majority of children, mine won’t have any savings from me as I’m spending every penny keeping them alive and well in the present!

It depends. I'd rather over pay my mortgage while they're young and hopefully be able to help them when they're older.

Ok it won't be enough for a deposit in total, but could be a big help!

Save what you can afford without missing out on a decent lifestyle for yourselves

Save it in your name though, not theirs. You have no idea what they will be like at 18 so having automatic access to everything at that age because the ISA is in their name is not a great idea

We are saving £50 a month per child at the moment. We also ask family members to pay into the same account for Xmas and birthdays if they don't want to buy a gift. I do hope that we will be able to save more for them in the future but it will depend hugely on circumstances. Right now we are trying to move house, need a new car and are generally a bit stretched like everyone else. We don't have savings of our own so we can't save more for the kids.

We’re focusing on trying to get our mortgage paid off by the time the oldest is 18 so we have help out with uni.

I have no idea. Both have around 10k and they are 9/10. Assuming nothing goes badly wrong financially they’d have around double that at 18. It’s certainly not going to be a house deposit is it?! I had it in my head it would pay for driving lessons and a car.

You do not give children money at 18, it’s why I was totally against that Blair children’s savings initiative. Is it in their names or yours? You may end up with a sensible child or one that’s awful with money. When I was 18 my Mother gave me some money . I invested it and used it eventually towards a deposit on a flat. She did the same for my sister, she is quite frankly an idiot and just blew the lot, mainly on impressing friends. My Mother gave us exactly the same sound financial advice.

My DS has 12k left to him by my Father. It’s in my name but he has asked me to keep it until he wants to buy a house as it’s getting a good deal. We will decide on the actual amount we give depending on how our investments have done, we have various projections. Our contribution combined with the money left by my Dad, will probably be about 20% of the house purchase price then DS will have his own savings. DS has been taught by us how to invest safely. DH is completely against giving more than this because he doesn’t want DS to be complacent.

That’s what you need to do, teach them money skills and hope you have a sensible child and not one like my sister.

Yep. My cousin spent all his on drinking/nights out at uni, I kid you not. Nothing left at all by the end of his degree.

I think the biggest thing is to make sure you can cover the expected parental contributions for university.
Looking at recent threads some people seem quite oblivious to this until their dc are about to go.

Concentrate on your own savings and financial health and this will increase your opportunity to help them later. I am not saving in their names — I’m not betting on how sensible they will be in a decade’s time.

@EvangelicalAboutButteredToast
£20k for driving lessons and a car??
a bit excessive.

My nephew too.

We are saving in our own names so that it can be best utilised depending on circumstances. I wouldn’t trust an 18 year old with a large sum anyway.

We are maxing out our own isa allowance (40k total higher if you invest in uk companies) so put in almost nothing other than birthday money from others which goes in JISAs.
We do plan to have about 50k for each of them at 18 through our own ISAs. We aim to apportion / save £50 pm per child currently.

This is because we Aagree with others:
kids are like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get!

And frankly if anyone is going to piss my hard earned cash up the wall... it's me 😁

We are American, so we are aiming for 300,000. University is potentially very expensive and if some doesn’t get used it can go towards housing or retirement.
it is not just in an account in child’s name. Some is in a trust that has restricted use, some is saved in our name. I wouldn’t hand a significant amount of unrestricted money to an 18yo.

We’ve been putting child benefit away (when we can afford to) . At the moment there’s about 8k between 2 children in premium bonds. Not sure that’s the best plan but I like the excitement of the little wind. They’re 9 and 11 so I hope it’ll be about 8k each by the time they get to 18 x

Nothing at 18, they've both got money invested until they are 25 (approx £25K each). 18 is too young and I think they'd blow it.

I set up a stocks and shares junior ISA for DD when she was born. I'm investing £100 per month and I'm hoping that'll mean - if the current returns are anything to go on - that she should have at least £40k by the time she turns 18, and ideally something closer to £60k. Any financial gifts from the family are also added to the S&S ISA.

I appreciate the risk is that she'll blow it all, but I plan to drum it into her that she has to keep investing into it at the same rate so that she should be able to get on the property ladder as soon as she can.

If it all stays on track both mine should have about 15k each. But if we need it for family emergencies we are comfortable using it. The accounts are in my name so they won't just be given access to it at 18. I know exactly what I would have done with that sort of money if it had been handed to me as a teenager and although I'm sure I would have had a great time, we aren't saving for 18 years so our kids can go on the piss until the cash runs out.

Our kids will have £5k each.