Those of us with older children

[Jo]

Need to pick your brains girls as i am feeling quite guilty
Tam, Amanda and Layla( sorry if forgotten anyone) when you got your child trust fund voucher did you open accounts for your older child/children?

I keep meaning to do it for Emily but haven't got round to it yet

We can't really afford to put a huge lump sum away for her, but am feeling guilty that Jack is gonna have a nice nest egg and Emily is gonna have change!!
If you did open an account can you recomend a good one please

I think i would put double the amount DD into Emilys than i do for Jacks, but she will never catch up will she, mind you she is a very understanding girl so think will just have to explain that Jack got a voucher but they didn't have them when Emily was born

I suppose it is a good thing the goverment have introduced but they didn't take us with much older children into account did they?

 

[weestar21]

we have a post office account for adele, we just pay money into it whenever we can afford to or whenever she gets money for special occasions like christmas birthdays easter that sort of thing we take her along and she pays it in.

 

[Layla]

i hate the fact that Charle and Ethan havent for the trust fund thing, and what makes it worse, is they gave Coby £500 instead of £250 coz we were on high tax credit for low earnings, so now i have to find a grand from somewhere to make things even!!

When we get the money from teh house sale i want to put £500 (£250 each) in to an account for them, whether that happens or not i have no idea, there is always something that pops up and needs paying for.

Coby's is with natwest, so i will go with them again for Chalrie and Ethan.

There grandad said he was going to start a fund for them, i think i will have to remind him about that!

xx

 

[Jo]

Thats what we were gonna do when we remortgaged but it just got eaten up by other stuff
Plus they get another when they are 5 or 7 don't they?

I can't open one where Jacks is for Emily as it is a trust fund account only to be opened with the voucher or something

 

[Amanda]

I have an ING account in my name, and I put a tenner a month in there for Kayleigh as we also save a tenner a month for Charlie. It's a good interest rate and once you've opened one account with them, you can open another one instantly and call it what you want. So mines called Kayleigh, even thought it's in my name. Thing it, I know that if I opened one in Kayleigh's name, she'd blow it the first chance she got! I know it's not much at all, but I do try and bung a bit extra in there when I get a chance.

She's got about £200 in there now, which isn't bad.

I know it's a horrible thing to say, but I can't help thinking that kids these days get stuff chucked at them though. I never had any financial help from my parents - ever. I left home, and they didn't help me out in any way - not even with a bit of second-hand furniture. That's not in any way a criticism as I learnt to stand on my own two feet though, and think I am a better person for it. I lived off plain spaghetti for 2 weeks once as I couldn't afford to eat! Some days I wonder whether it will be a bad thing for Charlie when he knows that he'll get a lump sum when he's 18. Do you understand what I am saying??? I mean that if someone had given me a couple of grand when I was 18, I would have blown it in the pub in less than a month. I was a bit of a party animal back then!

 

[Jo]

I so know where you are coming from Amanda
I was lucky that i had a bit of money in trust from when my grandma died so that was deposit on the house, but other than that we did it all ourselves

Gosh i remember a few times going to the bank on payday and being overdrawn!!!!

Emily gets so much more than i ever did, she doesn't get the freedom i had but in material things she gets loads, she has everything she could want, that sounds wrong she is not a spoilt brat or anything, and doesn't paddy if she doesn't get something

I know if someone gave me a couple of grand or even a couple of hundred now that was all for me I would blow it now!!!

I might lok into an ING account thank you, i might not tell Emily that she can draw on it but tell her she can put in it from birthdays etc... rather than going to toys r us LOL

 

[Amanda]

Emily gets so much more than i ever did, she doesn't get the freedom i had but in material things she gets loads

I agree with you here Jo. I can remember getting my very first pair of jeans - at the age of 14!!! Before that it was skirts all the time, and they were what my Mum chose for me! Charlie's got 3 pairs of jeans, and Kayleigh's got 3 normal, one cropped and one pair of dungarees! But, like you said, we have more in other ways. It's school holidays now, and in this weather I'd be out on my bike with my mates from dawn till dusk, with a water bottle on the handle bars that I would fill up from someones outside tap when it was empty!! As long as I was back for dark, it was okay with my parents. Poor Kayleigh has had to sit in the flat by herself this morning until Stu went home at lunch to give her a lift to his sisters. That's because there was a bit of trouble in the village on Saturday night, and I didn't want to let her out.

Waffling now!!!!!

 

[Jo]

LMAO waffle all you want hun
I used to go miles away with no contact until tea time, now i make sure Emily has my old phone with her!!!
Bloody phone, didn't get one til i was 21!!!
AS for clothes well.......... my mum used to dress me and my sis (5yrs between) the same except different colours
Emily comes with me and we go to new look and next

OK we have veered totally of course haven't we

 

[Imi]

What about opening an ISA? put what you can in for a year and see what happens?

xxx

 

[Caroline]

With Alisha Iopened a savings thing with Liverpool Victoria which you can add to. You can open a similar account for other siblings but there is a minimum amount you have to pay in eah month. As of yet they haven't floated on the stock market. They are likely to do so in the next few years and when the do account holders will get shares. The are probably other companies around like this, i'm sure an independant financial advisor would be able to advise. It probably won't even things up fully but something like this might be an option if you can't afford to add money yourself. I hven't done anything yet for Gabriel but my mum and gran pay money into an account for both Gabriel and Alisha and with Gabriel being older he has a head start on his sister and he also has some natioal saving cert. that OH g'dad got him.

I think it is really difficult making them even financially. Hopefully when they get older we will be in a position that we can help them out.

 

[Tam]

Babe, we are in the same boat as you.....when Jade was born there was no voucher so we never opened an account, but now we obviously have to sort Alfie's out it has made us think about Jade too. We always wanted to open an account for Jade but just never got round to it, but with Alfie getting the voucher, we really have no excuse not to do it.

But the next step is, to get £250 into Jade's account, then put money away for them both monthly....but god knows when that will happen as money seems to be going out left right and centre at the mo on one thing or another!

I am hoping that we will be in the position one day to put the Child benefit straight into their accounts and save that up for them!

Please don't take this personally anyone or in the wrong way as it is MY opinion and my up-bringin, but going back to what Amanda said earlier, I had a different up-bringing, my Mum would do anything she could to help out and would worry and lose sleep if we was in any sort of trouble that she was not able to help with. To me this is what parents are for, I would be there 100% for my kids and would like to be able to help them out whenever they need it and I will do my very best to do so as my Mum did for me. I don't want to spoil them, but I will not sit back and see them struggle, or want for anything important. Paul on the other hand has had no help form his Mum and has had a completely different kind of up-bringing, and there is no way she would help him out, she is too selfish, which really cuts me up and hurts me as my Mum would have done anything for us.....and it just annoys the hell out of me that she has the cheek to warrant the title of a parent, I don't care how old someone is, in my opinion when you are a parent, you are a parent and should do your best to help out til the day you die....but that is my opinion and up-bringing!

But having said all this, I do worry that giving the kiddies a lump sum would be a bad move as I can see it being blown on nothing......so we have decided, that they will not know about their trust finds (when they get one ) and we will give it to them for when they are ready to buy a house or get married or something, or to fund their future, something like that anyway, obviously it will all depend when the time comes! x

 

[Jo]

I'll let you know as and when i do one for Emily so we can compare lol

I've just re read my previous post back following what you said about your upbringing and realised it reads like my Mums horrid
I didn't mean it like that, my mum would give us her last quid if we needed it, what i meant was we did it on out own because we wanted to
I was 18 and decided i could do anything without my parents help( that soon bit me on the arse lol)

 

[Tam]

as long as your arse is healing!!

No babe, I didn't think your Parents were horrid as it was a passing comment type thing...I just put my two penneth in

I was always so close to my Mum so we always did things together, so I think it was natural that when I moved out my Mum helped me set up home and always knew if I was short of cash and would then help out (we were always together so she knew everything ).....you know what I mean, I wasn't spoilt in any way, the same as if Mum needed anything I would move heaven and earth to get it for her or help her out, it was a mutual thing! I did manage to get myself into some trouble I can assure you and there was no way anyone could bail me outta that! Although I must say when I did it again *sigh*, Paul bailed me out before we got together But it was a hard life lesson and my arse has healed!

 

[Tam]

Why are you not on MSN woman?!

 

[ablaze]

oi missus if ur on msn uve blocked me!!!!

 

[Tam]

I am appearing offline!

 

[ablaze]

she blocked me!!!

 

[Arcanegirl]

Me too

Lets conspire against her yvanne

 

[ablaze]

lol!!!!

 

[Jo]

I aint blocked no bugger honest
I forget to sign in!!!
Am gonna put a post it on my comp reminding me to go on MSN when i come on here if i have time
Yvanne i don't think i even have you on it!!!!!

And if you were talking to Tam then all i have just written is bollox