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

I give them a set small amount of pocket money, then encourage them to earn more by doing various jobs to help the household, such as empty the dishwasher. By doing so I hope to teach them the value of money but also let them have some control over how they earn it.

i currently only save £10 a month. I am not working due to an illness at the moment so i am hoping i can increase this amount in time! I think it's important to stress the benefits of saving and waiting until you have money to buy things to children. That way they appreciate the things more! xx

We put a regular amount into DD's CTF. She doesn't get pocket money. She puts any birthday/Christmas money into her money box which she then dips into for spending money on holiday.
She's 6, so I think we should start to teach her the importance of saving. I feel we should have started this sooner, and have been reading this thread for ideas on the best way to do this.

I do give them money to save every birthday, and I expect them to save their pocket money if they want to buy a new toy.

Due to our situation we are unable to save, but have done in the past. Both our younger children have Trust Funds and when our older children wish to go college we have money aside which can help

Since my daughter was born we've been saving £40 a month and we try and use her Child Benefit for her clothes/ toys - once that's gone we wait until the month after before we buy anything else. If it's nappies etc we buy this from our weekly shopping allowance and have tried to cut down accordingly so that we don't go over budget. The monthly savings we make for her are to be used when she turns 18 and they will be either for her university fees or for a car. We know how expensive it is to go to uni and then to get onto the property ladder so we're hoping this will help a little along the way.

My boys are 2 and 4 so we haven't really reached any kind of spending stage yet so everything they get I put into their savings account as well as occasionally we add to that a bit to help them later on in life. I also encourage relatives to think about giving them money instead of toys. They have loads of toys already and we don't need more, as long as they get one or two things they really don't notice. This has also helped them to have more and I will keep encouraging that. I intend on helping them to learn more about money in the future by giving them pocket money and we also have play money that helps too.

We have accounts for each of our 3 boys but fairly recently 2 young family friends died (seperatly) and it really upset us all, we decided to make some memories instead and have used all our savings and booked a once in a life time holiday to Disneyland, I do think saving are important how ever teenage boys (from experience) waste money, I knew someone who wasted 18k in a year from the money his mother left him, We've talked with our boys and we've decided that mum and dad (me and hubby) will always help out the children as much as we can as they grow up. I didn't have a lump sum when I turned 18 and survived, I worked hard from a young age and now I truely understand the value of money.

We were pretty skint when ours were smaller as I didn't work, so no spare money for saving. Once I began working we managed to save so that a modest (If extravagant is wanted, they can fund the extra!) wedding and tuition fees are covered.

I find it really difficult to save for my 3 kids futures, i tried to once but things got desperate and I had to cash it in, which devastated me, I felt like a terrible parent. I know try and think that by making them plan their own future it teaches them more responsibility. My brother had money for his future and blew it on rubbish...it doesnt always work out

I've never really had enough money spare to make any grand gestures for my son beyond the small savings account when he was younger. These days I don't give him money because he buys scratch cards and puts money in fruit machines and as far as I'm concerned if he does that then he has more spare money than me, I'd never do that and it makes me cringe! We are not alike!

All three of my children have a bank account and we have put money into each of them for the children but they have been told they are not allowed the money until they leave school as it would be useful to them for a car or to use towards uni

When i was at primary school i remember a worker from the bank coming once a fortnight to bank our savings. It was so exciting, raiding my money box, counting up my pocket money and all the spare change. Children need to learn the value of money at a young age and saving is such an important part of that.

We encourage our children to save and we also save for them in a separate account. We put £20 a month each away and it really adds up

I have struggled to save much for my child but I have signed up to a site where you get cashback if you shop online. It soon adds up. I have set up a savings account which I have put a little in and hope to add to x

We have very little money spare after all bills have been paid & 3 children to save for so I try to put 5 a fortnight or 10 a month into there accounts. I would like to be able to think it will go towards there uni fees when the older. But I doubt it will be a quarter of what they will need so maybe it would go towards there first car.
They all earn there pocket money too which they can either save or spend. My dd1 will always choose to save my other 2 are straight to the poundshop to waste it!!!

i kept the house we moved out of & rent it out now, but my plan is to keep it for my sons to live in if they want to or can't afford to move in any where else

I set up accounts for my children with my mother - but we have not spoken in 6 yrs due to a family fall out. As she had all their bank books and details it took me ages to find out which bank the kids were with. Eventually we found out the bank have no record of me ever having anything to do with them (even though I had to sign paperwork and provide proof of the kids) and we discovered that all their christening and birthday money has disappeared. The bank state there is nothing they can do as she is allowed to take money out ofthe accounts, even though she put nothing into it. As you can imagine, my kids are extremely upset but it would seem that all the money from my in laws side has now been spent by nasty nanny.

On another note - I do persuade my children to earn money through chores and to save it once received. My daughter is much better at this than my son.

i think it's good to let children know the value of money and teach them that they need to be careful with it

My DS is not yet two so we save on his behalf. He gets normal pocket money £2 per week into savings plus we ask for presents to be money and go into his account. Whenever we can we out a little extra away and then the plan is to put money in when he does little jobs around the house etc.
we would like to be able to help with a house deposit when the time comes and we are doing our own saving for that.

We've set up a junior cash isa for our DS, whilst he's young and not really interested in toys we've asked family and friends to gift money instead of toys/clothes.
I like the fact that his money is protected and cannot be Touched by anyone, he'll receive it all once he's 18.

We will do the same for any future children too.

It's difficult but we save a little whenever we can and often put Christmas and Birthday money from relatives into our son's savings account. When he's old enough we'll definitely encourage him to look after his money properly.

We have an account for each child and their grandparents pay into it, we're on a low income so it is difficult. We have a pot we're using to save for our next holiday and the boys voluntarily choose to put their pocket money in that pot, because they know that money will be money used towards them having fun while we're away. They also have money boxes where they save any money they get, whether from granparents or as presents and so on and they save up for a particular toy they want or to contribute towards a meal out or cinema trip. I think it's important to teach them about the value of money. They won't have a large of money saved for them by the time they're 18 but hopefully enough to pay towards travelling or perhaps their first car.

All six of my dc have child savings accounts we can only afford to save £10 in each a month but it all adds up.

We can't afford to save regularly. I put their birthday and Christmas money into a bsnk account and convert it into premium bonds when there is £100.

My eldest child has his child trust fund in shares. I've no idea of that's the best option.