If you’re a parent, you want to do the best for your kids. We often save for life events but our children’s future is an event within itself. Whilst we have to live in the here and now, so many of us want to put something aside for the little ones. Especially now, with money tighter than ever, this can be really difficult. However, if you still want to put something away for your offspring, there are ways. Let’s look at some ideas and the child saving plan I’ve put in place.
Save It Weekly
We have three children. Since our first born we wanted to put something away for them. So, every week we put some money away into an account for them. It increases with their age and I don’t really notice it moving out of the account. When they are 1 they get 10p a week, when they are 2 they get 20p a week. I’ll probably notice it more when all three of them are in their teens however I figured it out that by the time they are 18 we’ll be able to hand over almost £1000 to them. This could go towards a car or they could use it as part of a deposit for something. They could take it and continue to add to it themselves. This child saving plan was a great way to put away some cash for them every week for them to have something when they ‘come of age’.
Make Their Money Work
I make the children’s money work for them. They all have some cash from grandparents in an account where extra money from birthdays that they don’t spend also goes. They have three accounts in total. The first one pays 3% on balances up to £2000. This is maxed out. They also have another account which pays 2% on the on up to £3000. Every month I transfer the interest from the first account into the second so all their money is making more money. The third account is with a local building society which we opened so they can get to grips with paying money in and getting money out. They have a pass book and this is mainly to help teach them about finances.
How to bring up boys differently.
Get Them Involved
That is so important though. Getting the kids involved in their money, in their child saving plan. It’s not use doing it all for them until their 18 and then handing it over. They won’t have the first clue what to do as they won’t have learned. I sit with our eldest as he understands. He sees the numbers and realises what we’re doing transferring the £5 interest a month from one account to another as it won’t make any money where it is due to being over the threshold for interest. It’s amazing how quickly and how much they can understand! When the other two get a little bit older I’ll sit with them too so they can get a little understanding on what we’re doing. It’s little lessons that they’ll learn from and these will stick with them for life.
I’d love to know more about what you do with your children’s finances and how you’re saving for their future. Let me know your child saving plans over on Twitter. Happy parenting!
