Let's talk saving and investments for your children with Columbia Threadneedle Investments - you could win £300 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

We have been asked by the team at Columbia Threadneedle Investments to find out your views and experience on saving and investing on behalf of your children.

They say "At Columbia Threadneedle Investments, our priority is the investment success of our customers. As a firm trusted with managing our customers' money, we understand that investors have different goals and aspirations and only by truly understanding these can we deliver a great service to you and your family.

With a busy family life we understand that saving and investing may not be top of your list of things to do. Whether you currently invest or not, we would like to find out your views and experiences of saving and investing on behalf of your children".

So please share on this thread your views and experience of investing for your children: is this something you do, if so what sort of savings and investments do you make? Is this something other members of your family do for your children? If you don't save or invest at present, do you think this is something you'd consider in the future?

Add your comment to this thread, and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

thanks and good luck
NB: a JISA (Junior Individual Savings Account) is a tax-efficient way of saving for children - you don’t pay tax on the interest you earn or any capital gains you make. The money is the child’s to spend as they will when they turn 18 (it can’t be accessed before then). JISAs were introduced in 2011 to replace Child Trust Funds (CTFs)

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

You're asking specifically whether I put money into an account that the beneficiary cannot access until they turn 18 ? No, I don't do that, and never have. My sister did that for her children- saving quite reasonable sums every month, that they can't access for another 16 years. Then quite unexpectedly the family split up and there was all that money doing no good to anyone- except of course the bank that managed it. She has to make some hard decisions on buying new clothes for the growing child- shoes and coats, that sort of thing. And that's the reason I don't do it.

I feel terrible but we have no savings for the children.. we have no savings for ourselves as money is tight. I'm hoping that when I go back to work things will be different but right now its not an option

we decided to keep the house i lived in before, we rent it out now and it will be for my son when hes older :)

I save any spare money I have as I want them to have things easier than I did

No experience of investing for my children as don't have enough money too but should if you can

I never really had much money to invest for my son. I started a post office account before he was born and then later invested some money from my grandparents into a savings account for him.

I use ISAs and a children's deposit account. Involving the children with putting money in the bank helps them have a healthy view of saving for the longer term.

I save for them every month, but I am afraid to put their money into the stock market so it is just bank accounts

We have an ISA for all the children where we try and put their child benefit into it. We managed to find one with 6% interest which is unheard of in this climate however it has since been reduced to 4% which is still good.

i took advice from a financial consultant to put away for uni fees.

I promote savings with my son since an early age to help encourage him when he gets older. We invest in an ISA for him

We save for the dc's - we always try to put £50 a month into their account and each birthday/Christmas when they get money from relatives we allow them to spend half and we save the other half of it for them. Obviously the youngest dc isn't old enough to understand so we save everything they get as presents in their bank. They each have a JISA which is a great way to save.

I would love to be able to keep it until they are 18 and then let them have it towards Uni fees/car/home....whatever they need at the time as I feel they will need and benefit from the money much more at that age than giving it to them now.

We just encouraged our children to save half of all their Christmas and birthday money.

We save £20 a month for DD and any birthday money also goes into that account. I would like to save more actually as I do worry about her future.

I save every month for DD but the account is in my name. I want to be in control of the money (giving an 18 year old instant access to your years of saving may not be a good plan!) and I want to be able to access it for her before she turns 18 if needed.

we invest in premium bonds for every birthday and christmas

We've saved for dd since she was born, and try to move bank accounts depending on where offers decent interest rates, although that has got harder over the last few years as savers rates have fallen.

We've bought some Premium Bonds for dd recently because it's exciting to get a cheque through the post, and we're not missing on much interest!

We can't afford to save every week for my 3. But when we can I try to put 5.00 in each of there accounts. Whatever b day/Xmas money goes in there 2.
It's horrible to face the fact that they/we won't have enough in the accounts for uni (unless that lottery win happens ) but hopefully they will have a nice amount for their 1st car.
We try for them & they will know that

My Dad has put significant money in trust for my DCs which they can't access until they are 25 so that should help with a house deposit.

I save monthly into a managed fund in the hope that across 18 years it will do ok. I don't put loads aside each month but a bit X 18 years should be enough to help with tuition fees.

I've avoided junior isas. I don't like the fact no matter what funds can't be accessed early or the fact they must transfer at 18.

We have a child trust fund for out son which has worked really well. Nothing yet for our little girl, but intend to start saving for her when Nursery Fees end. It is really difficult to know what is best - investment fund, ISA or simply saving!

We have one child trust fund and one junior ISA. We hope they will legislate to turn the trust fund one into an ISA. I am hoping this is for uni/travelling/car and not to be frittered away when they get their hands on it as I did with my building society account

We had planned on putting some money aside every month for each DC though circumstances meant this hasn't happened (we moved house, needed a new roof & boiler, my income decreased...).

Though my brother set up a junior isa for each DC for theirbirthdays and contributes to this annually. TThishas prompted us to add to it and save what we can when we can.

Hopefully by the time they are 18 they will have a nice lump sum to help get through university, buy a house / car etc.

We can't afford to save regularly but I do have a saver account for them. However when each has £100 in them I transfer them to premium bonds.
Interest is rubbish so rather they had chance to win!

We're self employed and so have been fortunate enough to be able to buy some buy to let property that we intend to pass onto our children so they are investments held for capital growth for our children when they reach adulthood.

unfortunately I don't earn enough as a single parent to save for my child