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

[AnnMumsnet]

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

[FireOverBethlehem]

I pay into a company pension at source, as does DH, so I guess we are saving for retirement. DS is only 3 but we put £50 a month away for him, which may be for university, a deposit on a house, a van if he becomes a plumber etc. So long as he doesn't fritter it away, he'll have a lump sum come 18 to start him off in life.

[nextphase]

Yes, were lucky enough to be saving.
For what? No idea. Will see where its needed. Next house deposit? Kids uni fees? Kids house deposit? New car for me ( likely giving the noises the current one is making).

So, there is a pot there, but not earmarked for anything in particular.

[AnAirOfHopeInAManger]

I have no pension, my plan is to work till i drop dead as we are poor :(

My husband has a pension with a death in service payout and the insurance to pay the mortage off if he should die.

We dont think we will get to reteier (sp?)

We have a trust fund for one child and a bank account for the other. I want to save £4k to help them learn to drive when they are 18 so they can drive to work and study part time and live at home for free.

Its the best i can do at the moment if things improve i will save for retierment and uni fees but im not counting on things getting better.

[dappledawn]

We try to save but it isn't easy . Probably much of our (limited) savings will have to go on a replacement (not new) car for DH, soon. It's really a question of what the current biggest need tends to be when it arises. Ideally we'd like to be saving for both our retirement AND the kid's house deposit. We'll just see which one comes up first and is the most pressing at the time, when the issue actually comes up. We'd definitely make the personal sacrifices re: our own standard of living to help DS financially, if it came down to a hard choice like that.

[pofacedalways]

I really don't like banks, who are collectively responsible for the global economic crisis, peddling their wares under the guise of 'discussions' on MN. Why MNHQ, why have you done this?

[NigellaPleaseComeDineWithMe]

Have a company pension plan and DW has teachers plan, however, they may not give us what we want later in life! Our endowment matures very soon and we'll have money from that 'going spare', in that we have been over paying on a part repayment and part IO for a while.

So need to start some next phase of the life plans - how much to finish off this house (new kitchen re-fit), do we want a 2nd home (where?), should we emigrate (!!), give up main job for a more 'lifestyle' (less stress, less cash, more time??) think it's quite likley we'll have a reasonable sum of money to play with. Have 4 DS' all about 4 years apart, so DS 1 about to grad and looking for a job, would try to help with a deposit, but then that would need to be 'passed on' to DS 2 etc. I wish we were given better financial advice after graduating, although have not done too bad. My DM helped us with a bit of a loan for our 1st house which we re-paid (no interest I think) - although at that time rates were well over 10% (yikes)!!!

Or just blow it all on a new F Type and sod anyone else!!

[Asinine]

We used to save a good amount so that we had a fund for things like new boiler, essential repairs, car repairs, dental work and all the other fun stuff that life predictably throws at most people. Now we struggle to save as the banking crisis and resulting debt and austerity measures have resulted in a pretax drop in our annual income of about 7k , whilst food, energy and other costs continue to rise.

Thanks for asking, though, it's nice to know the big institutions are interested in our well being.

[janglebells2013]

I have no money for my deposit never mind my childs! I am putting some money in an account for her every month though I suspect itl be for driving lessons or a car or uni. Not a house! As for retirement savings....I wish!

[ChippingInAWinterWonderland]

Interesting to see the different opinions on savings for the children.

[preety18]

We are trying to pay the mortgage quicker at the moment then hopefully by the times the children go to Uni we will have some savings to help them and therefore afterwards once they get a proper job they will be able to buy their own house and for us to retire happily

[Vajazzler]

I dont have any spare cash to save. If i did then i would save it for my childrens future needs.

[weenwee]

No, we're not saving for kid's house. We're looking at feeding and clothing him now, then our retirement.

[icepop9000]

Saving? That implies people actually have money left over at the end of the month-does this actually happen??? Iwish!
Sometimes we have a bit left over but on the whole the answer is no. DH and myself don't even have a pension between us let alone savings for our children. I feel sorry for our children,they will have very little from us when we pass on. We are not homeowners and is extremely unlikely we will ever be and have little savings.
Perhaps if Barclays are so interested they could increase their interest rates on their savings accounts so what little people can afford will actually mean something.

[Corygal]

Life insurance for my DNs - my parents are skipping a generation and leaving me out to benefit my brothers' kids.

Lovely. I'm also giving money to my godchildren. I feel fairly strongly about it - I don't owe them anything, but no one did anything for me & I don't want to see that happen to someone else.

[aimingtobeaperfectionist]

I know I need to save as I'm pretty sure there won't be any pension for me fronted government when the time comes. However, I struggle to get by as it is nevermind save any for the future. It scares me as I have no idea what to do about it an not being able to save for my children's future is a big worry too. Another thing to feel guilty about!

[TigerChristmasiscostingmeaBomb]

No pension
No Savings

It's hard enough to survive each month with what we have and we are both working

[girlpilot]

I suppose we're among the lucky ones. Two jobs, two pensions, 2 girls in university, and university/school fees savings for the little one. But we'll need to buy a family house in the next 2-3 years so priorities may change.
On the other hand, our pensions are worth less than we've put into them, and the savings rates are so bad it's cheaper to be paying university fees.

[Boggler]

I was saving my child benefit every month for my children's higher education, however as I'm losing that in January thanks to Mr Osborne et al that's all about to stop. And thanks to Mr Osborne increasing the higher rate of tax I'm probably not going to be saving for anything other than annual holidays and Christmas each year . Before I get loads of aggro we are not rich dh earns just over £60k and I'm stahm.

[snowtunesgirl]

Boggler, my DH and I are both working and together we earn LESS than what your DH earns! I never think it's a good idea to say: oh we're not rich because we earn X because to someone else, it IS rich. Just as I expect that many other people would say that DH and I are very well off.

We would love to be able to save some money but that is impossible right now. We can't even afford a deposit ourselves, let alone save for our DC's!

[Firawla]

saving?? no... we have to pay off our massive amount of debts first there is nothing to spend even on the stuff we need for now, let alone for the future. expect most people are in a similar position. we are not even on a very low income but still no way we can save for any of that. luckily retirement is quite a way off and i dont see it as our responsibility to save for kids housing deposits, they will be adult they can work and save for it themselves. we will help if we are able at the time but not saving for it from now, dont see why thats necessary

[sandfish]

I would ideally like to be able to help my children financially so that they are not in a worse position than I was as a young adult. By this I mean that since I didn't have to pay Uni fees I would love to be in a position to pay their fees for them so they don't have to either, and don't end up saddled with massive debts when just starting out in life which I think is wrong. We also had a little help (very little) from a relative towards the deposit for our first home so would be nice to be able to give our children a small contribution if we can. I wouldn't pay it all though - they'd have to find the majority of the deposit themselves. I wouldn't pay for their weddings either, I had to save up and pay for mine on a strict budget. No cars either - didn't own my own until I was 29.

There's a fine line to walk I think here... on the one hand its really crucial that our children learn to save and plan and budget. You want them also to have that sense of personal satisfaction that comes from having paid for something themselves, of standing on their own two feet as independent adults, and of being able to say 'my own home' or 'my car' and mean it. I wouldn't want to take that away. At the same time, if I can give them a small lump sum when that crucial first homebuying moment comes, without expectation from them or obligation from me, then that would be a joy.

How to achieve this - well my children are small but we have earmarked savings for the above goals already. These are not set in stone, because no-one knows what the future holds and if a rainy day or worse is round the corner. But I will keep on adding to these accounts over the years and I wont touch them unless I'm desperate. I'm not planning to tell my children I have these savings for them until the time comes to use them.

[SuperChristmasScrimper]

Hahah we need to save for our own house first.

[SandWitch]

I have a public sector pension that I have been paying into for the last 6 years - I have no idea if it will be worth anything by the time I retire. I made a conscious decision to stay working for my LA for the job security and good pension, but tbh even if I keep my job in the current round of cuts, my pension will probably be worth next to nothing in 20 years time.

Dh is self employed and has no pension - If I am really honest, I think he is relying on an inheritance, or there being enough equity in our house to buy something tiny when the dc move out.

We have CTF's for the children and pay in £20 per month - not really going to be more than a drop in the ocean if they go on to higher education, or want to use it for deposits etc.
Things are really tight for us at the moment, debts all over the place, and I have considered stopping the CTF payments, but I can't quite bring myself to do it.