Are you saving enough for your children?

Are you saving enough for your children?  This is a question that both myself and my husband have been considering recently, as we have been reorganising all of our bank and savings accounts.

We started savings accounts, for both of our girls when they were born.  Thinking of them as places to put extra cash like birthday gifts that were money.  I’ll be honest though, we haven’t, up until now considered putting a regular amount each month into them.  They’ve both accrued a really great nest egg each, but that would have been even greater if  we had added a set amount to them.  So its something we are looking into now, as a way to give them both a boost for the future.

Below is a really interesting infographic, that looks at this, along with the kinds of things that those savings plans can be used on in the future.  I think for me, I wouldn’t look at it being used for University, I see that as something we as parents will help with, but definitely a car, travel or a deposit for a house seem like great ideas.  However it would be up to the girls what they decide in the end.

So what things do you need to consider when looking at setting up a savings account?     Well access to the monies (you may not need access and so get a higher interest rate) and interest rates would be the most important two things I would look at. Also whether the capital that you put in there is at risk.  I would definitely consider something like a Junior ISA so I could regularly top up the savings.  When you look at the average costs of things like car insurance for a new driver, and house prices too, it really does make sense to start those saving now, and not delay it any longer.