Share with Teachers Assurance your thoughts on children and finance: you could win a £100 voucher! NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

Teachers Assurance, a friendly society and provider of savings and investments for children, has asked us to find out from Mumsnetters the attitudes or plans that you have for continuing to financially support your children, even when they’re all grown up.

They say “we know that, at the moment, you’ve probably got your hands full with a young child and understand that it may feel like you’ve got plenty of time until they’re old enough to need financial help for the things they want to buy or do. But children grow up fast and soon enough, they’ll be experiencing the later costs of life such as university fees, a first car, or finding a deposit for their first home”.

So, have you made provisions for your child’s future? Maybe you encourage your child to start saving from a young age instead? Or perhaps you’re planning to gift them some money on a milestone birthday? Please share your thoughts on this topic on this thread and you will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £100 Love2Shop voucher (additional Teachers Assurance T&Cs* apply).

Please note that any comments posted on this thread may be used by Teachers Assurance in further marketing material.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

*NB Standard MN terms and conditions apply – see here.

**Prize draw closing date: 20 November

We have a savings account for our daughter, hopefully it will help her on her way to her first car or some digs at college

We put £30 a month into a shares ISA for our daughter. Our main worry with it though is that she can access it when she turns 18. We're hoping she would use it sensibly.

I have been trying to teach my daughter to save rather than spend - it's pretty hard work as they seem to be used to having everything, now. It's going to be a hard lesson to learn but I will persevere.

We put money in their accounts every birthday and Christmas :)

When my son was young it was very difficult to instil in him the point in saving, he used to think that the money you deposited into your bank account you never saw again! Persevere, it took several years to convince him otherwise. Despite the hard work, he is now very good with money, and I am trying to instil the same values in my grandchildren. Wish me luck.

Children should be shown the importance of saving from an early age, and the fact that mum and dad have to work hard to earn their money. I want to teach my children that you have to save to buy the things you want, rather than sticking things on finance.

I think children should be taught from a young age about value of money and be shown that it's important to save money rather than spending all that is available.

Saving money and putting it into their account for when they are older is important.

Rather than the oodles of ridiculous presents that my daughter was receiving every birthday and Christmas, she now receives deposits to her bank account. It allows her to have 'big things' that we couldn't otherwise afford.

My DD gets £5 pocket money a week and we encourage her to save half and spend half

We have Trust Funds and pay in regularly, try and encourage them to save half of any money they get for birthdays but this does not always work.

I always looked for wise investments & this included bank accounts with freebies such as the Nat West piggies, These little collectibles were very valuable within just a few years.

MY 2 BOYS BOTH HAVE JUNIOR ISAS FROM THE GRANDPARENTS. AT THE MOMENT, WE DON'T PUT INTO MONEY INTO THEM AS WE HAVEN'T GOT THE SPARE CASH BUT MAYBE ONE DAY. I ALSO WANT TO TEACH THEM THE IMPORTANCE OF SAVING THEIR OWN MONEY WHEN THEY WANT SOMETHING.

Both our children were given Government Bonds when they were young, and we always discussed money with them. It seems to have worked, as they've both managed to get through University well enough (well, one is in his fourth year, after a year in France and Germany - and the other one is coping well enough even in expensive Norway ...).

DD1 was eligible for the child trust fund so we added to that for a couple of years so she has some money there. DD2 wasn't eligible so we stopped adding to DD1s then. We've decided to leave it in there for DD1 and whatever she gets at 18 we will give the same amount to DD1 from our own savings. They both have bank accounts which birthday money goes in.

We've decided that we are worried about them having too much money when they are 18 so we will save in our own names but then help them later with uni costs and house deposits. I'd rather give them money for specific things rather than just a lump sum to blow!!

When i have my first child 8 years ago i saved £10 a month, however i now have 3 children a mortgage and we dont earn that much money so we are not putting anything by at the moment as have some debts we need to clear first

My children have their own bank accounts and understand the importance of saving up for any goodies they want to buy!

Both of my children have savings accounts but we are not saving nearly as much as we would like to at the moment. If they want high value/luxury items outwith normal xmas/birthdays we work out a payment scheme. For instance my daughter wanted some Lelli Kellys. They were £50 so I told her she would need to raise £25 herself. When I explained this meant 10 weeks worth of pocket money at £2.50 a week and she wouldn;t get them til she had saved it. She opted for a cheaper (just as nice) brand.

We save half of what each child gets given as money for birthdays and Christmas.

We can't afford to save much for them, but empty piggy bank of change given to them from grandparents twice a year and deposit into a junior ISA.

We save £50 a month for each child. I want them to go to university and have the opportunities that I didn't have. My husband has shares also. We have a smallish house so we don't get saddled with a huge mortgage to enable us to provide for our girls having a lovely childhood by having holidays and family days out- quality of life is more important to us than material things.

We am hoping to have enough put by to help the kids through university but not enough to pay all the fees. but as they say every little helps.

I also learn the kids to save regularly for a rainy day, so I hope this will help them through the more lean times

I think it's a great idea to teach children the value of money. It should mean that future generations get themselves in less debt than this one did!

We have tried to save for the dc's but life gets in the way sometimes. They will each have enough for driving lessons & test when they turn 17 but little else unless our finances change dramatically. Only DS was eligible for the Child Trust Fund so he is a ahead of DD2, we plan to make up the difference.

I would love to be able to help them out with things like house deposits etc but with only one wage coming in and this unlikely to change (i'm disabled) then it probably won't happen.

I am quite open with the about finances, if we cannot afford something we explain this to them and they understand why we live to a strict budget and aside from a mortgage we have no debt. DD1 in particular is becoming quite the savvy shopper and won't be parted easily from her hard-earned cash, she'd rather save up and buy something worthwhile that she really wants than fritter it away.

We try to put aside £50 a month into a mixture of savings and investments for her for when she is 18 but it is difficult especially in the current climate. When she is older we will be trying to encourage her to save

We save £40/ month into my daughters savings account. It might not be much but it will add up to a rather nice lump sum when she's 18