Very quickly after you’ve found yourself immersed in nappies and sloppy smiles your in-built parenting alarm starts sounding off once you have kids which alerts you to all of the things that you never actually thought you would need to think and worry about. The list is vast and ranges from health to school to development to just about everything that will touch your child’s life between their birth and your death!
Today I’m talking about the parenting worry that is their financial future.
It will come as no surprise to anyone that the UK has had a fairly shocking time of it in recent years. While we seem to be clawing our way back up from a fairly bleak time economically it’s safe to say that few of us are as complacent about our finances as we once might have been.
Our boys both have a CTF (Child Trust Fund) which we have continued to invest in and savings books of their own which we have given them to use to build their own savings for things that they want. Taylor is three and at the moment his is used mainly for birthday money and such-like which we can use to buy treats from those who send him pennies yet Kieran uses his more proactively, being seven now (or nearly eight as he keeps reminding me).
Kieran has a money jar and he puts all of his pennies and pocket money and basically anything he can get his hands on into it. When it starts to build up he trots off down to the bank to pay his money in. He loves doing this himself and I love that he values saving up for things. When he has the “right” amount saved up for whatever Lego or Minecraft treat he must have next he withdraws and buys it. I love that at seven (nearly eight) years old he understands the importance of saving up for what you want and that he enjoys doing it. This sort of attitude will help protect him financially as he moves into adulthood, regardless of what the economy looks like then and we hope to teach Taylor the same lessons about savings.
Before long we will be talking to Kieran about having some extra savings with Santander, an account where he can save up for when he is an adult. Perhaps he’ll put a percentage of his money jar cash in there and keep the rest for his “normal” savings. He’ll have CTF savings coming his way when he hits eighteen which I hope goes towards a car, driving lessons, a flat deposit or similar however we also want him to have long term savings that he contributes to so that saving for now as well as later becomes second nature.
Sadly we can’t control what the future holds for the boys completely however we are determined that financially they will be well versed in the importance of both long and short term savings and that they have the knowledge needed to manage their finances properly.
*Written in co-operation with the mentioned business yet my thoughts, feelings and experiences relating to this post are entirely my own.