When my eldest was born I didn’t really think about kids savings at all.  I was quite young myself, and having just had a baby things like preparing for going to university seemed like a long way off.  I didn’t open a child savings account for him and I didn’t think to save regularly using any other method either.

My approach was, I’ll get round to finding the best savings account for kids one day and it will all be OK.  Well that one day never happened and you would be surprised just how quickly things like applying for university or putting a deposit down on a place to live come round.  Years literally fly by when you are a parent and I really wish I’d have prioritised looking into kids savings a whole lot earlier than I did.

When my son was getting ready for university there were a number of costs we needed to help him cover.  He was eligible for some student loan, but we only received the minimum amount.  This was partly down to income but also party down to the fact that applying for a student loan is quite a minefield.  I’m really not sure why they make it so difficult but that’s another blog post for another time.

pink piggy bank

The first major cost we encountered was paying for his student accommodation.  We had to pay rent in advance and a deposit for his accommodation not long after the A level results came out.  Seeing as we hadn’t any kids savings to fall back on, we had to find this money from our regular income.  This was a challenge as we also had 2 young children and nursery fees to pay. These are all good reasons to open a bank account for a child.

At one point I had children at possibly the most expensive ends of the parenting journey.  With one heading off to university and 2 young children in nursery it really bought it home to me that you really don’t know what is in your future and having a child savings plan can only be a good idea.

There was a time when I was a single parent that I thought I would only ever have one child and I would always work 9-5 and pretty much that was how my life was going to look.  Well, things really changed didn’t they and now I have 3 children and I am self employed.  If I had of thought about kids savings when my eldest was a baby some things, like when he went to university or learnt to drive, wouldn’t have been quite so much of a financial strain.

I’m a little more savvy these days and as soon as both the girls arrived, I went to the bank and looked into opening a bank account for a baby before they were a few months old.  I have a direct debit set up for each account and pay a small amount in each month.  It quickly mounts up and they will have enough to help them with driving lessons or paying a deposit for a flat when they move out.  It’s a huge peace of mind knowing they will have some kids savings to get them started when they are older, and I really wish this had of been something I had of realised 20 years ago!

Have you thought about opening a child savings account?  Here’s a few of the things it could be used for when your children grow up.

are you saving enough?

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