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

We put £40 per month into our daughter's junior ISA. One set of grandparents puts in £10 a month and the other set put in a lump sum when we first opened the ISA. We managed to get an ISA with 6% interest. When our daughter is a bit older we will start giving her pocket money and encourage her to budget and save - I think it is important to do that from an early age.

I want to start something for my children but I just don't knows what's best/safest or how to start!
I know I don't want them to be left with nothing when I'm no longer here and I know I don't want them to receive a lump sum on their 16th birthday to spend frivolously.

My older children have the government child trust funds sitting around doing nothing but my younger 2 don't.
My eldest is 11 and I'd really like to start saving something sooner rather than later but it all seems a bit complicate to someone who apart from a current account that I've had forever I've nopever dealt with financial stuff.

We have saved a small amount for Dd in premium bonds, I had some from my grandparents that did well so that encouraged me to buy bonds. I would.like to save more but this isn't possible for us at the moment, I'm hoping as time goes by and pur mortgage payments decrease more.can be put into future savings. I would consider stock market investment but not at present when the world's markets are so unstable. My friends with shares have all sold them recently. I'm quite risk averse so.I'd rather have a modest sum which is guarantee d than play a lottery with my child's savings, but I think.that's also probably a bit of old fashioned working class mistrust of investments.

We have a child trust fund for ours which we put money into monthly. Also an easy access savings account for them.

Nothing yet but am considering

I've set up building society accounts for each of my children and £20 per month goes into those. I think these are great ways to help them with the future and it only takes £1 to open one. I encourage them to save some of their pocket money every week. I also have Junior Isa's for each of them and they can't withdraw any of this until they are 18. Making lots of plans already though lol

i try to put a little away every now and again and it all adds up

We save a small amount monthly for the kids into accounts in their name - trust fund for one and a JISA for the other. But also save what we can in our own names so we can help them out in the future as we see fit - rather than the kids blowing it all on a flashy car :)

We're pretty stretched financially at the moment.. damn nursery fees! :) I'm hoping to save a regular amount when my son gets his 15 hours free nursery - in the mean time, I have a money builder with Scottish Friendly which I pay in to each month & will do for the next 13 years. After this time, it pays out - could be more, could be less than I paid in - but a guaranteed minimum sum which will help with uni fees, etc. Regular saving would be ideal - but it means having spare cash which we currently do not have!

I know some people transfer their child benefit into their child's account. This sounds like a good idea as that way you may not "miss" the money as much

I have a CTF for DD1 (born 2008) and a JISA for DD2 (born 2014). I add to both funds by direct debit each month, adding a little more for DD2 as she didn't have either the £250 CTF boost, or a lump sum from my grandmother who died in 2012. I also encourage DD1 to spend half of her pocket money and save the other half towards something she really wants, to try to instill financial responsibility from a young age. I was never encouraged to save, and I really struggled with money when I became independent, so it's important to me to set both my daughters up with good habits and a little nest egg behind them.

I'm a single mother with a large mortgage and a ex-husband who has persuaded the CSA that he doesn't earn enough to pay child maintenance (he does, he boasted to our son that he earnt £90k just a couple of years ago...)
So, I don't have much scope to save.
I have managed to put away a few thousand for him in my ISA's and my TSB 5% account - he doesn't want to go to uni, so it will probably go towards a car when he starts his apprenticeship next year.
And then I'll start saving up for a deposit for a flat for him.
When I started my apprenticeship at 18, my parents charged me a reasonable rent. At 22, I found out that they'd saved it for me, and they gave it to me as a deposit on my first flat so I hope to be able to do the same for my son

He's pretty sensible with money, he's been managing his own bank account for the last 18 months (since his 16th birthday) and has a good view of what things cost and what is worth spending money on, so I'll encourage him to start saving regularly when he starts earning :-)

DS is lucky enough to have money in a trust left to him by his great-great aunt, and has investment bonds too. I do worry about him getting all this money at 21, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

CTFs opened when they were born with £100 pm each. The CTFs have been transferred to JISAs now and we have continued saving £100 pm each into them. As a D/D alongside pension contributions and mortgage payments, we don't 'miss' it and I see these as a priority investment.

A close friend of mine said that she couldn't afford to do the same for her DC to which I replied that, actually she could - she merely had to change her priorities and maybe spend slightly less on her holidays, children's activities, cars, mobile phones, SKY, gym membership or even food shopping! Or maybe, I'm just tight more frugal regarding all the aforementioned.

I have no issues with my DC having access at 18 - surely, that's a matter of trusting in your own parenting skills! I had a savings pot which I had access at 18 which I didn't spend until later and then, it was for my postgraduate studies. DC1 (12) also has a current account with a debit card into which I deposit £20 pcm as his allowance. He is really careful with his money....

I have savings accounts for each of my children and I pay in £10 a month to each of them. My parents and my uncle pay also pay a sum of money into them on their birthdays and at Christmas.

When DS was born, we were able to get the £250 towards opening a bank account from the government. By the time DD came around, the government had scrapped this. So Granddad gave her £250 instead and we opened up an ISA for both of them It's looking nice and strong now and will hopefully be a little something to help them when they get older.

We save £10 a month for youngest, and other two we have saved a lot more, but we had more money then! Invested in reasonable interest (long term) savings accounts.

I have a child trust fund (CTF) for DD1 as she was born when they still applied. For DD2 I set up a Junior ISA as I want to ensure that I save up an equal amount for both children so that my younger DD doesn't miss out (or end up resenting me! ) It is important to save for our children because whatever they are doing at 18 (univsersity,car,house etc) they will need a decent starter fund! I only put by what I can afford (only a minimum at the minute) but will try to increase that when my income improves.

I was told by my bank that they have no child related products so I've just left it for now!

We have a junior ISA for DD (can be transferred to a stocks and shares ISA if we want to in the future). Grandparents give a contribution for Christmas/birthdays. When she starts school and our childcare costs reduce, we will probably redistribute some of that money into monthly payments into the ISA. It has hard to prioritise it at the moment, but I would like to have a good sum set aside to help with uni fees or a house deposit later.

We don't have any money left at the end of the month. All our money goes on rent and bills. The kids get pocket money which we try and save. I worry about the future and university.

I was saving a bit, into ISAs for eacb of 3 dds. But when university tuition feeds got raised to 9k PA it did seem a bit futile. Now it will cost about 60K per dd for university, and that makes the small sums saved seem a bit of a waste.
We do have junior ISAs for the dc, we add to them when we feel inclined. But it's not my main financial priority.

My daughter was born in 2004 and so she received a Baby Bonus that I put straight into a Child Trust Fund. This kickstarted savings that I might not have made until a much later date. The good thing about it is that friends and family can also add to it rather than giving yet more toys and books as Christmas and birthday presents.

I also have mortgage protection, life insurance and critical illness cover which I probably wouldn't spend so much on if I didn't have a child.

Every month I put my son's Child Benefit money into an ISA in my name. I have done this since he was born and plan on doing it until he leaves school. I have no idea if the sum will be beneficial at all when he is older but it is all I am able to do and I hope that it will help him in some way.