Investing for grandchildren

I would advise caution about when to give the GC their bonus. Some 18 yr olds are too immature to handle it wisely or heed advice.

My friends husband was killed by maniac driver in a car accident, leaving no Will and two toddlers. The other drivers insurance made a huge compensation payout, and intestacy law required the childrens share of his estate be held in trust until they reached legal adulthood at 18.
At 18, the eldest was a wild child but there was no way to hinder her access to her money; she took it and ran away with an older man/ gangster . Within two years he and the money were gone leaving three lives irreparably blighted.

We set up junior ISAs for the Gdcs some time ago. By the time they’re 18 they should have turned into a useful sum - we just have to hope that they will be sensible enough not to blow it all.

I have drafted letters to be given to them on their 18th birthdays (in case we’re no longer here) to (gently) say as much.

I do still buy birthday/Christmas presents (as long as I know of something they would really like) or give them cash, but the presents won’t be anything very expensive.

Our grandchildren do not need any material goods or extra toys. So…. Since they were babies we buy each of them a small token present to open, and also remind them we’re adding to their bank accounts. Do the same at Xmas. They all like it- knowing when they are older they’ll have enough for driving lessons, car or similar.

Thread is 11 years old but probably still relevant to others.

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LyndaW, if the kids have enough toys, how about books? I think saving money for the kids is great, but not something they can enjoy right now on their actual birthday.

I think that £5,000 is reasonable for a wedding, if everything is included in that.
I think both our DGC's weddings cost about that, and they were not ostentatious, but lovely.

It 's when people start spending £30 or £40 thousand (then complain they can't afford a house!).

Not at all coming over as a spoiled brat, mummyagain! Family celebrations are always lovely and I can understand anyone wanting to make the most of them. It's entirely up to the individual to decide how they do this, and how they spend their money, whether earned or gifted.

Not that my DGSs will be able to do much with what we can give them over the years . A weekend in Blackpool, perhaps? Unless those premium bonds pay off, of course!

jingls - minecraft lego ??

Forget the money, minecraft lego for DGS for Christmas!
I didn't know they made it

Excited now

Also My daughters savings are in a junior savers account ATM, I think I'll have a look at bonds for her too as she has a nice pot growing now. I have no clue where to start though and want to ensure its safe so any advice would be welcome x

That's what my parents wanted me to spend it on. Their wedding cost something like £75 years ago. I guess my mum was sort of living vicariously iykwim. We had a church wedding and it was lovely. I have a huge family and we had a sit down meal meal for everyone (mum and dad wanted it - me and husband wouldn't have bothered with that but are so glad we did as it was lovely)

I realise that makes me sound ungrateful - believe me I am not in any way. I'm very lucky in that I have a wonderful relationship with my family - all of them.

I don't think it cost a ridiculous amount at £5k. I have a friend that's spending £30k which is bloody ludicrous.

I'm really thankful that my parents did what they did for us. We had a wonderful family celebration, and as with all these things sadly it was the last time we saw a couple of members. My brother died shortly after so these are memories that will be treasured forever.

I don't expect everyone to understand that.

Also hoping I don't come across like a spoiled brat as I'm totally not lol

Saving for a "dream wedding!" IMO there are far more important things to save for. It might be news to some young people today that you can have a perfectly happy simple wedding without spending £1000s.
To save to get an education or career qualification or to buy a house is more useful.

My children had a reasonable legacy from their grandparents shortly after the time DD finished uni.
She spent a lot of that on a years travelling. My mother would have been totally horrified at such a "waste of money" never mind the risk.
(To some extent I can understand mum's point of view, they "just managed" when we were small and neither parent had any inherited money. They remained very frugal.)

DD went off on her own and came back as a much more confident and out going person all her shyness gone. For her that experience was life changing. She settled to do an adult nursing degree which was something I never imagined she would do.
It is hard to get any decent returns on small kids savings, I need to learn somthing more about these child trusts.

You sound just like my DD with the degrees, cars, etc sorted. And the living in sin for years bit. I think it was the latter that made her decide to have a lovely little wedding, which certainly didn't cost "£thousands"!

Not my business I know, but you posted it, and it sounds a bit odd on a thread about sensible investing for grandchildren.

Ps - I didn't type loads of ??? Don't know what happened there haha

I can see why you'd think that jinglebellsfrocks, that's what my parents saved it for though. I should also add that my husband and I had our degrees, cars and mortgage before that anyway. All grafted for. (We lived in sin for years ????)

I don't think getting married is a waste. It's creating a cemented family unit for our children ????

GC get a toy and some clothes for their birthday and I put a lump sum into an account or Premium bonds, I have done this since they were born. We will also be setting up accounts to pay their school fees.

Isn't splurging thousands of pounds on a big wedding, wasting it anyway? Just like you are worrying your children will waste their money at 18?

I think it's better to put into savings accounts that the parents have set up.my inlaws opened an account for my lo 'in case they need anything'
It was weird as my husband and I have a junior savings account set up already so they could have transferred into that (like my parents do) the money in that account will not be touched.
And if our lo 'needs anything' we will not be asking them ??

I don't know what their plans are for the money but I worry they'll just hand it over at 18 and it'll get wasted. Our savings are to help lo with a house deposit/university/car/wedding - something big (my parents saved thousands for my wedding and we were so grateful as we had an amazing day thanks to them. I really wanted to do the same) x

Mine are all abroad so I have savings accounts for them here in their name but operated by me. It is not the best way to do it as we can't reclaim any tax and for that reason ISA's are not possible but it does still mount up and will be nice for them later on. GC's and their parents have no idea how much is there.
When I do get to see them they get small presents as weight in suitcases has to be taken into account !

My Gs are aged 5 years and 18mths.They have plenty of toys and live too far away to give presents. Halifax had an account which gave 6% the first year.I arranged for DD to open accounts and give them just a token small present to open for Christmas and birthdays and transfer money to their accounts.Because I don't see them to give pocket money I make a direct debit to their accounts each month.I am leaving it to DD to arrange new accounts when the 6% deal runs out.

We had a similar situation with our niece and nephew. Their parents are well off and they live in an affluent area, so all in all they had so many gifts, especially for birthdays because they had a party every year. In fact, their Mum used to put away some gifts to be opened on a rainy day and the children were stuck indoors. We just couldn't compete with this and were pretty sure any gift from us would be quickly forgotten.

So we started buying NS Children's Bonds for Christmas and Birthdays. It meant that when they got to 18, they could cash them in for a nice little lump sum. At one point they did not give the best return on the market and their Mum suggested we just put the money in another savings account the kids had, but we said no because the point of doing it was to make sure the children knew the bonds were from us. Luckily we were in a position to see them a fair bit and even went to the USA with them twice, so we had plenty of opportunities to buy them other stuff and treat them where happy memories were created.

I think you can still get the bonds and no doubt the rules will have changed now because investments for children is big business these days, but it might be worthwhile investigating.

Hi hulahoop. You can't guarantee any return at all with premium bonds. I just meant that the prizes we had over 12 months added up to the equivalent of 4% pa. That was back in August. As luck would have it (or not), we didn't win a thing in September or October. I just hope I'm saving myself for the big prize!

I consult with the mums and dads and sometimes they prefer gifts to be practical things like clothes etc. But I always have a few bits and pieces to raise a happy , like others I do love to see their faces light up! Jingl have you heard of the Go Henry card? It's a debit card (without a bank account) for younsters, that can be topped up/monitored by a parent. My 12 & 13 year old grandaughters both have them and love the independence it gives when they go shopping

Maggiemaybe didn't know premier m bonds made any interest or ami being thick we are wanting to invest some money for each of our grandkids but unsure what's best fed up of looking I am not very savvy re financial investments ??

We have put money in premium bonds as well for both children's birthdays since they were born, with their parents blessings I may add. My parents did the same for our children and they were delighted to receive a surprise on their 18th birthdays. But they do also have a small present for the birthday as well.