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NOW CLOSED: Are you saving for your retirement or your child’s first home deposit? Discuss this topic with Barclays - £150 up for grabs

183 replies

AnnMumsnet · 26/11/2012 16:55

Hello you may have seen that this week Barclays have a big campaign to get people talking about home buying and money topics.

On Monday they asked "When are you too old to ask your parents for help?" and on Tuesday discussion focussed on whether (or not) "A home is still a home if you don't own it".

Finally Barclays are asking: "Are you saving for your retirement or your child's first home deposit"?

They say "We want to know what Mumsnetters think about home buying and money dilemmas - this time we want you to think about the future with your children. Our third question relates to savings and you and your family's future and the question is - if you're lucky enough to be making any savings these days (or plan to make savings) - "Are you saving for your retirement or your child's first home deposit?""

Please share your thoughts on this thread - there are no right or wrong answers and (as we've seen) - the question will mean different things to different MNers.

Add your thoughts and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £150 John Lewis voucher.

Thanks for all your comments on the topics this week do continue to add your thoughts and we'll do the draw for all three threads on Tuesday.

Thanks MNHQ

PS Please note your comments along with your MN name may be used on the Barclays pages on Mumsnet and elsewhere

OP posts:
glitch · 06/12/2012 08:11

Saving???? Saving??? What is that then?

BahSaidPaschaHumbug · 06/12/2012 08:40

Damn. Glitch got there first.

Though actually we are managing to put a very tiny amount into DS's CTF and will manage the same for the next one due very soon. There's nothing spare for a pension though. Kids first house? Not a chance. I prefer to eat and clothe my kids and heat the house.

Succubi · 06/12/2012 08:57

All savings go to paying their school fees.

Tistheseasontobedramatic · 06/12/2012 09:18

All savings( tiny savings) go to what DD will require first. University fees or home deposit. Scary how little I'm managing to save though, some months nothing at allConfused

dontaskforthe99 · 06/12/2012 09:18

We have no ability to save at the moment as all of our children take part in a very expensive sport. Any spare and some not spare cash goes in to supporting their hobby. We hope to be able to help them if we inherit some money in future years or if my husband takes part of his pension as a lump sum.

expatinscotland · 06/12/2012 09:21

Yes. Anyone have any idea how much 2p/month with the rates of interest offered by banks like Barclay's will be worth in 16 years?

In the meantime, I'm educating them in the arts of pole dancing and reality television so they might be able to feed themselves one day.

Belmo · 06/12/2012 09:25

Erm no. No extra money, and if we had any we'd be saving for our first house deposit! We're both 26, am hoping we'll have pensions by the time we're 30 but who knows!

noisytoys · 06/12/2012 09:29

We are fortunate enough to own (have a mortgage on) our own flat. When we are in the position to, we plan to buy the adjacent flat so we will own the whole house. It will be a home for the DCs if they need it and want to live in it, an income source when we let it and a retirement fund of we come to sell it somewhere down the line

sunmoonstarstoo · 06/12/2012 09:36

We are not in a position to save at the moment but hopefully we do own a house with mortgage. If we are able to save at a later time we would have to save for our retirement first as we have no pensions.

germyrabbit · 06/12/2012 09:38

barclays are abusing mn alot lately for their research aren't they?

gazzalw · 06/12/2012 09:39

Well we are saving a bit towards retirement but only if it doesn't get used on household maintenance first....

There are a couple of savings plans in place for the DCs too but I'm pretty sure they won't really amount to more than about £3,000 - £4,000 by the time they reach 18, so not even enough to cover first year of tuition fees Xmas Hmm.

It's strange though, this notion of helping your children out financially. Sure for our parents generation it was not a given, as it seems to be now. Whatever happened to children finding their own way in the world rather than having this sense of entitlement which so many of them seem to have these days? My parents didn't have enough money to put any aside for themselves let alone me and my siblings. DW's family are a lot, lot better off, but aside from paying grant deficits for their children when they were at Uni, they've had the princely sum of £500 each in all their adult lives from their parents!

WiseKneeHair · 06/12/2012 09:41

I have reasonable pension provisions in place, but DH's are not as robust as I would like. I think, on the advise of our IFA, we will set up a multifunctional investment plan that can be used for pension, university fees, or whatever we think it is most needed for.
In the meantime we put money into a cash ISA each month, but do not have as much of a buffer as I would like.
I do realise, however, that we are in a fortunate position to do any of this.

ChristmasInTheSnowsBest · 06/12/2012 09:53

At the moment the only saving going on is for the weekly food shop! Before things went pear-shaped, savings were going towards a bigger home and a small amount into children's accounts for uni so they can get good jobs and look after us when we are old and penniless or first car, home etc. So far we have no plans or savings for our retirement but as things are going we'llprobably not be allowed to retire untill 90 so shouldn't need much.

tinselahohoho · 06/12/2012 10:03

Why would I be saving for someone else's first home deposit?

I'm sort of hoping that by the time my kids are adults, they'll act like adults and take on their own financial responsibilities Xmas Shock.

TeeElfOnTeeShelf · 06/12/2012 10:05

I have a very small personal pension from last full time employment that I don't currently pay anything into.

I have very little money in an ISA.

That's me then.

My child's house deposit? No. I need to pay for my own first.

DorisIsWaiting · 06/12/2012 10:14

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.....Whatever small savings we can scrape together are in the bank as an "oh shit" fund to fall back on. DH has a titchy pension through work. I used to pay in when I was earning but that was sometime ago now.

Saving for DC's first home.... don't make me laugh, this doesn't happen in the real world!

FestiveWench · 06/12/2012 10:19

I have no intention of paying for my children's house.
My job is to send them out into the world with the education, skills and confidence to behave as fully functioning adults.
The rest is up to them.

Likewise I've made it perfectly clear to my parents that they should aim to have spent every last penny of their hard earned cash by the time they die. I have no right to money from them. They have sacrificed a lot over the years to allow me the education and opportinuties to build the life that I have. Their duty is done IMO.

noidles · 06/12/2012 10:25

DP and I were (very prematurely) talking about this the other night. We're always a bit scared because everyone seems to say things like 'by the time you retire your pension will be worth nothing.' We both have a pension, but we realise we can't rely on it. So once we have a house I think our savings will go toward our retirement. We'll have a mix of investments, and we're also planning to have some sort of holiday rental that we make a bit of cash on the side from. We might buy a student house, and if our (future) children go to university then they can live in that house and we'd rent it out after. We don't have children yet, but we know we will save for their future - be that their education, or a deposit on a home. I'd like to be able to contribute towards my child's home because hopefully that means that when I retire, they'll want to look after me :)

I'm going to be working for at least the next 40 years! So I've got a long time to save for for both though, TBH.

Offred · 06/12/2012 10:28

We can barely afford essential maintenance, savings of any kind are a luxury to us right now.

prettybird · 06/12/2012 10:37

Nope. That's up to him. We'll support him through Uni (should he go there although according to dh he doesn't have a choice Wink) and try to minimise any loans he needs then but buying a house is his choice.

Ds should ultimately get a fairly generous windfall when his Opa (my dad) dies - but as Dad is off to celebrate his mum's older sister's birthday Grin with her in a few weeks, when she turns 100 Smile, I fully hope expect ds to be into his 30s before he gets that inheritance.

prettybird · 06/12/2012 10:39

FWIW - I agree with every word that FestiveWench says. The "inheritence" that ds (and my brother, his kids and I) will benefit from is bound up in the value of the house.

Which, of course, if dad needs to go into a home, would be (rightly) eaten away.

lottytheladybird · 06/12/2012 10:40

We're not really saving much at the minute, as I'm a SAHM, but what savings have from when we were both earning are intended for the children really. So that means first house, school fees, university fees etc.

FreelanceMama · 06/12/2012 10:47

FestiveWench absolutely agree with you! I hate the idea of expecting to inherit and using that as a basis for future plans - I plan to use any money or assets I have when I'm older to enjoy my life and hope I wouldn't feel bad about having nothing to leave when I go (other than covering funeral expenses).

The same for savings for our baby. How is he supposed to learn the value of money or delayed gratification if it's handed over to him. I'd rather do something like match his salary when he gets a part-time job so he can equate money (and spending it) with giving something else up (Saturday morning lie-ins).

To answer the question about savings - I invest every month in ethical index-linked ISAs for the long-term (when I'm unable to work any longer) and put away some money monthly in a cash ISA for short-term savings.

We're not putting savings together for our son, although his other relatives are rather than spend a lot on him at Christmas and Birthday. It's up to them if they want to do that and I'd rather it than him have lots of material things (that we have to store!).

MissChristmastRee · 06/12/2012 10:51

We try to save a little bit of money every month but we are also trying to renovate our flat so that we can afford to buy a bigger home. This makes it very difficult. I'm very lucky in that my pension is still contributed to by my employers even if I don't contribute. I do plan on adding to that at some point in the future but it will have to wait until we have moved and are settled!

ouryve · 06/12/2012 11:08

Erm, no.

Any money we're saving will be going towards our NEXT home deposit. There's a high chance that both of the boys will live with us well into adulthood, anyhow, since they both have SN. We need a bigger house in an area better served by public transport and we'll be stretched a lot by that.

We do put about half of their DLA into their CTFs but that would nowhere near cover a house deposit.

Even if they were capable of living independently, I'd expect them to live within their means with no handouts from us. DH and I have had to do the same and I don't see why it should be any different for them. Barring disasters, I'd expect them to learn to budget, prioritise and live within their means.