My children aged 12 and 16 have just been left £5000 each. They are unaware of this.

Whats the best place to invest/bank it which will give them a nice surprise when they reach 18/21ish?

Thanks

P

You can stick £4080 of it into a Junior ISA
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/junior-isa

(but read point 3 carefully)

I’ll look after it for you.

And 18? 30 more like, if you don’t want it to be spent on beer and video games.

And 18? 30 more like, if you don’t want it to be spent on beer and video games.

+1

And 18? 30 more like, if you don’t want it to be spent on beer and video games.

+1

I’ve just turned 30 and really wish I had the £2k I was given when I was 18.

And 18? 30 more like, if you don’t want it to be spent on beer and video games.

For this reason mine don’t have theirs in a Junior ISA. I’d like to think I don’t have to wait as long as 30, but I don’t want it to be made available to them out with my control in case the timing is not right.

Stick it in a pension for them? No use at 18/21, but probably far more useful in the long run.

I’m toying with doing the same for my two (7 & 2). They currently get £50 a month each into the highest interest kids savings account I can find, but I’m wondering if a pension might be better. They’ll hate me for it in their twenties, but probably love me for it in their forties.

I’ve just turned 30 and really wish I had the £2k I was given when I was 18.

Exactly where I was coming from really. And I’m Sensible.

Stick both lots in a stcks and shares ISA under your name. Then you can control when they get the benefit, hopefully when they’ve kicked the coke and hookers habit.

Oh, and update your will to say they get it on your death, just in case…

Some people might be more clued up than I am. But if it was left to your children specifically then you will have to release it to them when they become 18.

Gap year in a Thai titty bar or a second hand Honda accord…….mmmmmm

No use at 18/21

University fees? Start of a flat deposit? Car?

Use £2400 to start a Help To Buy ISA for each of them, then add £200pcm to each until the Lifetime ISAs are open for business sometime in 2017. ~4% interest at both Santander and Halifax, last time I checked.

Then transfer accounts to Lifetime ISAs, which can have £4200 per year added to them IIRC, rather than the current limit of £2400 (after the initial £1k opening deposit) on HTB ISAs.

Stick it in a pension for them? No use at 18/21, but probably far more useful in the long run.

As they’re not tax payers there is no point sticking it in a pension. Stick it in a savings account and once they start paying tax then it can go in a pension.

Why would you not want to tell them they have £5k in the bank ?

And 18? 30 more like, if you don’t want it to be spent on beer and video games.

I got a similar inheritance, can’t remember if it was out of bounds until 18 or 21. But I only just spent it last year on a house deposit at 28/29.

So it is possible to be sensible.

It maybe helped that the money had been in my account the whole time with instructions not to spend it rather than any legal trust fund type arrangement. So it wasn’t new or exciting to have that money.

More to the point, if it’s been given to them, don’t they have the right to know?

My grand parents gave me about £1000 when I reached 18 (many years ago). I was not sensible enough to use it properly, and pretty much spent it all in the first term of Uni, topping up my beer fund.

Stash it away in an ISA or similar, as soon as they start talking about doing mature things like moving out/buying a car/travelling, surprise them with a very nice leg up.

Stick it in a pension for them? No use at 18/21, but probably far more useful in the long run.

As they’re not tax payers there is no point sticking it in a pension. Stick it in a savings account and once they start paying tax then it can go in a pension.

They’ll still get the 20% top up, tax payer or not, on £2880 per year.
They’ll thank you in 40 years time!

More to the point, if it’s been given to them, don’t they have the right to know?

Won’t somebody think of the children!!!

Stash it away in an ISA or similar, as soon as they start talking about doing mature things like moving out/buying a car/travelling, surprise them with a very nice leg up.

More like it.

I stick £100 each into each of my kids accounts each month (High interest savings that then gets transferred into an ISA every 12 months). I figure they’re going to have a hard time of it when they grow up and £20k each around their 20th birthdays could come in handy!

Really I should be putting it in a pension 🙁

My four year old already has more in her current account than me!!

You could do premium bonds, and take a chance on a big win. Or at a look at silver and gold bullion, that’s slowly creeping up again.

I knew an 18 year old who was given £5k, developed a penchant for online gambling and within 6 months it had all gone. IIRC, his last throw of the dice was backing MU £500 to beat Stoke at home a couple of years back. Couldn’t possibly go wrong!

0-1 😳

… each around their 20th 30th birthdays