In January my son was hospitalised, and he has only just been discharged. It is heartbreaking to be living in this season, and the nature of his illness means that it might not be a season, but where we live from now on.
Everything has, of course, been put on hold, including this blog. We were already in a challenging place trying to work out my next job, where we will move to and this means that we have to just pause and focus on keeping us all as well as we can be.
One thing I am so grateful for, other than love from family and friends and living in a country with an amazing healthcare system, is how much financial stability has given me breathing space. I’ve always talked about how financial planning prepares us for disaster, but I never believed it would apply to me. I have seen my money plans as positive pathways to great futures – a way of buying freedom, and buying options.
But at this time, it meant that I could take time off work. I could focus entirely on my family and not worry about paying the bills or keeping us all fed and housed. And whilst I hope that I will find another job when my contract ends in December, my savings mean that I won’t have to move my son at a time when that would be detrimental to him.
It’s not the kind of peace and freedom maybe I had in mind, but it has meant so much. It has given me space to focus on love, and at the moment, that is all we can do.
I don’t like to be rushed 😀 Which is why I’m sharing my financial goals now, three weeks into January. I’ve also been having fun over on my Insta – come join me there for daily tips on finance, saving money, food, mindfulness and more.
So let’s focus on getting this done now. I set my financial goals on a call with my accountability partner a couple of weeks ago, and have been fine-tuning them since then. Before I dig in I wanted to share some reflections on discussions with this community and things I have noticed about previous years – these three things are totally linked, and can become a vicious cycle so it’s worth digging into them if you feel stuck:
Don’t procrastinate. Yeah, yeah – getting to things in your own time is different from just not getting there. You know in yourself when you’re getting into the right mindset or moment, and when you’re lying to yourself. This is wher an accountability partner can be great – someone to call you out, lovingly, when you are still ‘waiting for the right time’. With financial issues, procrastination can cost you big time. Compound interest means that the earlier you make a move to save and invest, the more the money will grow to. Inflation means that the money in your hand will likely never be worth more than it is today. Not paying off debt increases the amount you spend on interest (and likely the stress in your mind). Are any of those costs worth it?
If there is anything holding you back, I strongly advise you to find out why you haven’t done it yet – think about your money mindset. People don’t procrastinate because they are lazy or stupid – we all have things which hold us back from making moves, even if they are so embedded in our subconscious that we don’t really understand them. You may be held back by fear or shame (what if I find out I spend all my money on nonesense and I’m embarrassed about what I have wasted up to now?) or by limiting beliefs (What’s the point in budgeting for my food shop – I’m never going to make enough for my big dreams anway). Or by the sense that you’ve tried this before and nothing has stuck. All of these are totally understandable, but they will all just hold you back. So dig into how you feel and spend some time getting your mind right.
Dreaming big is amazing, but make sure it feels meaningful, rather thanfeeling overwhelming. Setting huge goals is a big driver for many people, and I definitely don’t advocate playing small when setting out your ambitions. Part of the work is to come down a level or two from the big goal and set out smaller approaches on a timeline. I always try and set goals which are realistic with stretch – they aren’t so easy that they will happen even without me getting behind them, but they aren’t so insane that it’s less ‘doing the work’ and more ‘wishful thinking’.
For me, 2024 is a strange year financially as I have to move jobs. My company has mandatory rotation (i.e. you can’t stay in one place for more than five years – it’s more complex than this but this is what it means for me right now) and I haven’t been with them long enough for them to have to find me a job. So by 1st January 2025, I could very easily be out of work. There are many reasons why I don’t believe this will happen, but I do have to find another position, and it will 90% certain mean moving countries. This isn’t unusual for the kids and I, but it’s not very relaxing and also means making other choices with money which prepare for a time when I might not be earning. In addition, my son starts Year 11, or his GCSE exam year in the summer of 2024, meaning if I don’t have a job yet I might have to stay without work until the summer of 2025 when he is done, and move then.
So many moving parts! But my aim is to set financial goals and be ok with trying to get a strong foundation in case the worst happens, whilst preparing for the best.
These might all seem somewhat woolly, but for me this is the first step. Looking at how to save more, be accountable, and stay focused, comes next in terms of building out detailed approaches. But for now I am happy that I have enough focus, and optimism, to make 2024 work for me.
I wanted to start off (because I know you love a relaxing subject) by reflecting on shame around money. There is a lot about this in terms of getting over feeling shame or guilt about having a low income, or having money troubles and that’s a really important conversation. My own family story with money is a mishmash of being low income with middle class aspirations, meaning that between my family and the people I grew up with had very different incomes, aspirations and feelings about money. I also work in a ‘helping’ industry where there are expectations that we shouldn’t earn as much as e.g. bankers because we are working for a higher purpose and should do it for the feels and not for the remuneration.
So there is a lot mixed up in how I feel about money. On one hand, I am working in a job which helps people, and which I got after working almost 20 years in jobs which paid around the median wage whilst studying on the side as a single mum to achieve, and pay for, a Masters and PhD. On the other, I recognise that I significantly outearn pretty much everyone I know. I guess this would be different if I was in the USA, where every single caller on the financial independence podcasts I listen to seems earn a similar amount to me.
This is a topic I will likely come back to, but I have been uncertain about posting both my spends and savings for 2023, because I am not sure how I feel about being public on an area which has so much judgement. But to make this blog useable and useful, it strikes me that real numebrs are better than theory. So with your kindness, here we go.
Total savings 2023
SIPP personal pension (invested)
£ 3,600
ISA savings (invested)
£ 15,000
Work Pension (pre-tax – invested by company)
£ 15,552
One year living expenses (cash)
£ 48,029
Total Saved 2023
£ 82,181
Children’s savings
Childrens’ ISA (invested)
£ 2,800
Childrens’ Junior Pensions (invested)
£ 1,200
Total Saved 2023
£ 4,000
Average monthly savings
£ 6,848
I have to say that I am pretty happy with that. Compared to my spending of£88,344, savings of£82,181 means I saved almost 50% of my income. This is significantly better than other years, and definintely something to aim for moving forward. This has also been the first year I had zero debt other than my primary mortgage – in 2021-2022 I was paying off a bridging loan I had needed to buy this house, and in previous years was significantly overpaying on the mortgage for my rental. So there was definitely more available to save this year, though all those actions contributed to my net worth.
There need to be some tweaks to how I manage things, based on changes and additional risks in 2024, so I will use this information to guide my planning and goals for 2024.
But I am both proud and slightly guilty at the same time. So something else to work on too!
How was your savings rate in 2023, and how do you feel about it?
Welcome to 2024! Whilst lots of bloggers and personal finance folk are kicking off with goals and plans for 2024, I am coming into it a bit more gently. I worked crazy hours November and December right up to Christmas, so I’m just working on reviewing last year and getting into the right mindset for moving forward.
That said, I already have GREAT plans for this blog and the related accounts in 2024 so watch this space! And until the launch of the transformation in February, do come and join me on my Insta.
I like to start the new year with a stocktake of how my finances are doing and whether my savings and investments went according to plan, then using this as a baseline to setting some plans and goals for the coming year and understanding how well it worked. This isn’t the only focus for the year, so check out future posts to find out more about setting intentions, vision boards and the like. But it is a good way of gathering some baseline data and starting off from a position of honesty about my behaviours.
2023 wasn’t as challenging as 2022 when it comes to finances and socio-economic issues, but it also wasn’t amazing. Inflation went up by an additional 4% over the year, which was a slow down on the previous year but continued challenges with rising basic costs on food, transport, and mortgages or rents, mean that most people felt the pinch. Food inflation rose to 19% by mid-2023. This is a measure of inflation just on food and non-alcoholic drinks, which can be impacted by things such as transport costs or conflict which limits shipping (watch this 2024 space for more on the Red Sea issues on shipping and their impact on household costs…) which people really felt at the shop.
Unlike 2022, I undertook a complete review of my spending and was pretty horrified by how much I have been shelling out. I will say two things – one is that I live in Denmark, and my salary includes a ‘cost of living’ allowance which recognises the increased costs here compared to the UK. Denmark is the 10th most expensive city in the world, and whilst this isn’t an excuse there are areas where I feel like we have been really careful in making choices and the overall costs have still been huge.
So what did I spend?
So in total, I spent almost £90,000 in 2023. Even with Denmark prices, and with my ‘pay yourself first‘ savings approach, getting my budget under control is deiniftely my focus for 2024.
How was your spending in 2023, and what do you want to change? Whilst actual numbers will differ depending on location, priorities, household size, available income etc, the percentages should at least mimic your priorities. What does your spending tell you about areas you might want to work on in 2024?
Ah, here we are again! The most wonderful time of the year, or a bit of a damp squib where we are all too knackered to really enjoy the festivities and starting to panic for the new year. In our house it’s somewhere in the middle, so some brilliant quality family time, nice walks in the woods and suppers by the fire, as well as lots of early nights and the occasional argument. So far, so normal (whatever the advertisements try and make you believe), but I have definitely enjoyed the lack of pressure and a chance to just unwind with the kids.
Firstly, I learnt that I want to make some changes to this blog and how I show up in the personal finance space and beyond, so watch this space for some exciting announcements!
Overall though, this year has been an interesting one financially. Here are some key things I learnt:
I spent big on things which I felt were worth it, without giving it another thought. Whilst I remain relatively frugal (well – ‘fake frugal‘ is more like it, still have issues with the version of how I spend money as it exists in my mind, and how it exists in my bank account), mindful spending doesn’t really concern me. In 2023 this was mostly holidays and travel, including a trip to see the Northern Lights with the kids in January; a major birthday party joint with my best friend in August; and a family holiday with them and my mum by train across four countries in October. I paid for all of these, with the elements not for my children being gifts for birthdays/ Christmas etc, but they were all fabulous.
There are different kinds of privilege and cultural expectations, and that these impact our financial lives. This absolutely isn’t news – even my reflections above noted how much of that holiday money was spent to ensure that the people I love could come with me. I am white, and do not claim experiences like the Black Tax in which the responsibility of taking people with you on an upwardly mobile journey can make that journey much slower. But my own background means that, as a friend told me, I am ‘the success story, the one that got out‘. And that comes with responsibilities to extend a hand, repeatedly, to family and friends who are struggling. 2023 saw a lot more people struggling than before, and it feels like there is more pressure to support people around me, and less opportunity for others to extend that same support to me. I am happy to be here for people, but it’s also getting kind of exhausting.
The emergency fund is real. I had what felt like endless emergencies this year – broken pipes, a flooded basement, a broken school laptop for my son, a missed car MOT and on and on. All of these things mattered, but the head space was taken up by trying to find workmen in Denmark who are available and will actually come through, rather than freaking out about being able to pay for things. Since both my dishwasher and Quooker (boiling water tap thing) both stopped working during Christmas, I don’t expect that there will be fewer outgoings in 2024, but the money is there. And having that peace of mind is what I saved it for!
Being savvy with your money matters – as does understanding just enough about economic policy and trends. A lot of 2023 was watching interest rates and inflation rise. Whilst this sort of felt like more economic blah and uncertainty, the average impact on UK mortgage holders was a rise of about £300 a month, or £3,400 per year, on the same mortgage. If you are struggling financially that is a massive, unexpected increase in your outgoings, and isn’t based on anything you have control over. So whilst this post isn’t about what 2023 looked like globally on finance (TLDR, not great) being aware of what the risks are and keeping a weather eye on what might be coming your way, really does matter.
So the FIRE community is real, and for me this is especially online. Keeping going with budgets, big dreams, downturns, frugality and more can be exhausting, and getting energy from the community helps keep me going. So here’s a quick round up of where I found inspiration and great content in 2023. Of course, you can always go to my IG if you need the same!
#1 for 2023
One person who I loved this year is the Budgetnista, Tiffany Aliche who has books out, a blog, and appears on podcast. I love her no-nonsense practical approach to financial wellbeing, and the way she targets the middle section of people (i.e. most of us) who are neither flat broke nor financial genuises. She has a great community on Facebook and elsewhere, and serves up inspiration to be brave and keep going in search of your best life.
Tiffany was also in Get Smart With Money which was a Netflix film about FIRE and financial guidance, along with Paula Pant, Mr Money Mustache and Ro$$ Mac. I rarely watch TV but I loved this – and my kids thought it was hilarious that something I talk so much about *finally* became interesting enough to make it onto Netflix. The different approaches of the financial experts, and the needs and solutions for the different participants, really showed that there are many ways to get this right, but help is out there.
Podcasts
I remained very much a creature of habit this year and will include those here for anyone new to this journey, but there was a definite shift in podcasts for me in 2023. I started to have a sense from a few – Choose FI, Bigger Pockets – that I have missed the boat. I am always cheering on people who have reached FIRE and for sure they don’t want to talk about budgeting forever after they don’t need to think about it any more, but 2023 had a lot of content about ‘how to spend’ and get out of frugal habits (and a whole lot about pickleball) which felt alien to me. So I’ve been skating around more and listening to particular episodes instead of just pressing play. Old faithfuls have been:
Afford Anything:the inimitable Paula Pant continued to bring weekly wisdom this year, talking through the choices that we have to make with our money, focus and energy in order to make a life which suits us and where we really move.
Journey to Launch: I listened to this more in 2023 as she is many steps ahead of me but is still in the ‘courageous decision making’ rather than the ‘done and dusted’ phase. Getting into thinking about side hustles, passive income streams and the ‘what next’ of a financial independence journey is where I’m at, and her passion, personal story and diverse range of speakers is really inspiring.
Choose FI: this was another staple during 2023, though a lot of it starts to feel like conversations we’ve had before and as noted, has definitely moved into the ‘how to do life when you are FIRE’ territory which is to be expected from such a long term project. It remains a really good basic resource and a great community for when you need dusting off and putting back on the path.
Books
I read a lot this year, making the most of the local library which has an excellent selection of books in English. We went pretty much every two weeks, and got a cookbook out each time so there are lots of new recipes in the household menu bank.
I’m not going to list all the books here – and I put them up on my IG – but I read a lot of non-fiction about finance to get more into the nuts and bolts of how the financial systems work. And I read a lot of 1920s detective fiction, because honestly how else do you get to sleep?
#1 2023: Raynor Winn: The Salt Path, The Wild Silence, Landlines
I read all of Ray Winn’s books this year after a friend recommended the Salt Path. These are all written as memoirs, charting the moment Ray and her husband become homeless when their house and land are reposessed as the result of being scammed by a friend. They take to walking, going hundreds of miles across the UK and learning a lot about what matters, money, nature and society as they go.
So I hope there is something in there for you, whether you are getting started, having a think about your finances at the end of the year, or need to get back into our community ready for 2024. Enjoy!
I’ve been writing about my mini-real estate journey throughout this blog: the decision to sell what had been our family home after renting it out: the thought process of buying my new rental: and the associated costs and process of getting to rented. Come and join me on Insta for more of the same, plus money saving tips, recipes, and frugal inspiration!
This week I wanted to look at the 1% rule, and whether it’s really relevant to those of us in the UK (and presumably a lot of the rest of Europe). As the majority of FIRE media creators seem to be from the USA, there is a lot of talk about how fabulous real estate is as a wealth building tool, and lots of great advice about how to calculate options and, essentially, when things are a good idea.
But does the 1% rule work outside of the States?
The 1% rule is a way of thinking about whether the rental property will make is going to pay off the value of the home in a reasonable timeline. As a property investor, this is an indication of a plan which is likely to make you money in the long term rather than being something that just breaks even.
So – if you buy a house for $200,000, it should rent out for $2,000 – or a $300,000 house for $3,000 etc. The purchase price should include everything it takes for you to get the house tenanted. So any renovations, upgrades, essential additions such as smoke or carbon monoxide alarms; along with legal costs of purchase, and of setting up as a rental.
Once you have tenants in place, you will also need to pay a bunch of costs from the income, including maintenance and repairs, taxes, landlord insurance etc. You can think about this as the 50% rule whereby you assume you’ll spend 50% of your income as oprating costs over the long term. You might not – and you might spend very little for a few years then have to repair a roof – but preparing for that spend is part of being a landlord.
So I had a look at some average house and rental prices in the UK to see how it might work. I’ve gone with the median house price rather than the mean since every area of the UK has super expensive enclaves and properties which are not reflected further down the chain. This is true everywhere, but in Cheshire where my rental property is, average prices are around £260,078 also includes the Golden Triangle where homes are more like £2,600,000. So the median is a more useful figure for back-of-the-envelope thinking.
Rent 23
Median house price
Rental return
North West
£ 958
£ 185,000
0.52%
Greater London
£ 1,804
£ 533,687
0.34%
North East
£ 594
£ 140,000
0.42%
South East
£ 1,164
£ 388,900
0.30%
UK minus London
£ 1,113
£ 272,000
0.41%
My previous rental
£ 1,225
£ 450,000
0.27%
Current rental
£ 895
£ 235,000
0.38%
Looking at a few different areas (which are roughly the more expensive and less expensive parts of England and Wales) it looks like the average likely return in the UK is about 0.38%– significantly less than the 1% used in US calculations.
This makes sense to me in terms of the house prices here, and what renters could actually afford. The chances of the average person being able to pay rents otherwise are basically zero. In the South East for example, the average income is £40,300 and take home monthly pay £3,358. The 1% rule would expect that an average rent here would be £3,889 – or significantly more than the average take home pay.
So there are multiple factors at play, which make sense. But it’s also helpful to know what’s likely. It doesn’t make investing in property in the UK a bad idea (more of the pros and cons another time) but hopefully this information is useful in your own planning and calculations.
This should really be entitled “so I finally rented out my new rental” but hurray! It is done. I have been talking about moving on my rental journey since I started this blog, and my last post which was almost three months ago (sorry dear readers, long story which I might come back to) set out the decision making and purchase of that property.
I wanted to talk a little bit about the financial side of it here. I paid £230,000 for the property. In my home town, that amount would barely even buy you a garage, but further north in the UK it really does buy you more. I’ve written extensively about choosing to sell my rental in my home town but maintain a rental in the UK so I won’t go back over it here, but it was a decision that took a long time – and realistically I still have doubts about. But it’s done, so on we go!
I also bought the property free and clear, so it has no mortgage on it. I saved this money essentially in equity from my previous house, which I had laser-focused paying off over the last five years. Whilst I hadn’t fully paid it off, issues with rising mortgage rates and my challenges of spending so much time overseas meant that the mortgage cost of it was starting to really increase. There were costs associated with the purchase and legal elements but because it was such a relatively cheap property, these were significantly (and disproportionately) lower than my last house. A big element is that the stamp duty threshold in the UK – basically a tax on a house purchase – doesn’t kick in until a property is worth more than £250,000, meaning I didn’t have to fork out the £7,000 additional amount that I did last time. The house is a new build and is on a company managed estate. This means there is a monthly fee (of about £60, payable by the tenant) but there was additional set of costs for the purchase based on legal assessment and sign up to the management company. In total this all came to £2,636.
Legal and purchase costs
Standard legal and purchase fees
£ 1,968
Legal and purchase fees relating to estate management
£ 668
 £ 2,636
In addition to the standard costs, it took three months to rent out, following about six months of the purchase process since I struggled to find what I wanted, and it took some time for the process to go through. This period has a financial implication as well. In addition there are a few costs needed to get the house tenant-ready, and between these I paid out an additional £1,233.
So at this point in time, I have £230,000 of my capital tied up in real estate. In addition, buying and preparing the property for rental required an outlay of £3,869 or about an additional 1.7% on top of the purchase price. As noted, this is unique to a low cost house, as these costs disproportionately increase with homes in higher price brackets.
And now it’s rented out! The rent is set at £850 per month, which is quite a bit less than the UK average of £1000 (excluding Greater London) but that’s based on the location. Minus the letting agent fee which I need as a) I don’t live near the property and b) I am utterly useless at household maintenance, of 10%, I will make an initial net of £765, from which I will need to pay any additional maintenance or upkeep, as well as continued landlord insurance for which I will keep back 10% of the net, or about £1,000 per year. So with a projected profit of about £8,000 per year, I will not be retiring fully on my rental empire. But it works – to stay invested in the real estate market; have some money which isn’t at the whim of the stock market; to have a second option for my family in case the s**t hits the fan; and to have a regular stream of income. And I am glad it’s set up so I can leave it to tick along whilst I focus on other things!
Happy end of July! It is almost the end of the summer holidays here in Denmark so I am working on de-cluttering the house, planning for the second half of the year, and sneaking in an more relax time I can get before it’s full steam ahead. Do keep up with the small things over on this blog’s Insta – other people’s Barbie obsessions are louder than mine these days but we still hang out!
One of the things which has been finalised over the summer is the purchase of my new rental.
I wrote in January about having sold my rental – both the decision making and process, and my own history of house ownership. I’m not working on a real estate empire. I am not even sure that it’s possible to do this in the UK for small investors, or if it is the challenges around accessible credit, robust tax measures and the general insanity of housing prices mean it certainly isn’t the walk in the park it seems to be in the US.
There are other difficulties for those like me who don’t live in the UK but plan to return. Once my fixed mortgage term ended, I couldn’t remortgage my UK home which was rented out, and I couldn’t get a mortgage for a rental home without owning a primary residence. And all this in a time of rising if hyper uncertain house prices and massive rises in interest rates and hence mortgage payments.
If landlording was my aim perhaps I would have really worked through these issues – with tenacity everything is possible. But since I also have ethical cautions around owning property for profit in a time when renters’ struggles are being ignored (and noting that this is a nuanced conversation and one I will come back to), I have continued with my previous plan.
From a FIRE perspective, and based on my own risk profile, my plan is:
To own one rental in the UK, partly to maintain connection to the country.
To have it near family/friends who could support me if I couldn’t work and was forced to go back to the UK. Since I am a single parent, not being able to earn money or adequately look after the kids would be an utter disaster, so having a plan B matters. This recognises the need to give tenants six months notice, but it still needs to be an option.
To own it outright: see point 2 about risk mitigation.
To own it for approx. ten years which would give tenants a good stretch of stability, and would bring in additional income for me whilst my kids are finishing up their education.
With all that in mind, I looked for a property near my brother up around Manchester. This part of the decision making took really a long time, tipping back into the decision to sell my last rental. Who, realistically, could support me in the way I would need if the sh*t hits the fan? Where should I buy a property then? Since I can’t get a mortgage, how much of my nest egg do I want to invest in a property? Was I mad to sell from a high cost of living area where the property might have just carried on making money?
And I am still not settled on some of the answers, but the housing market waits for no vascillating woman! I started looking for a property in December as I was heading to complete on my own house sale, though I needed to wait on capital gains tax and other fun deductions to work out exactly what I had to play with. My brother and his wife were amazing. I would look at properties online (which is both easy and fun, let’s be honest) and they would then talk me through the location, and go to view if it seemed like a serious option. Paula Pant, a FIRE fairy Godmother, talks a lot about out of state rentals and how to organise such a portfolio. Maybe I don’t put enough time into my rentals, or I’m too limited in my thinking, but without family around I would have found it impossible to sort this out unless I had travelled a couple of times to be hands on.
So I completed on a house last weekend, and it goes onto the market for rent next week once all the paperwork is sorted out. It’s not my dream house but it will make a lovely easy-to-maintain rental for a family, hopefully long term, and would work for us if it had to.
Last week I was writing about how to pay for kids’ college, and the realisation that a) I am off track compared to my previous budget and investment planning and that b) there are a lot of ways to financially plan for your children’s future. As ever, this is complicated if you are a single parent and trying to balance the prorities around just keeping it together versus building foundations for the future you want for your family. And it’s complicated if you aren’t living/working/planning for college in one country.
But I wanted to come back and talk a bit more about saving for kids and some of the options and thought processes.
Before all of these processes, ensure that your kids are financially literate. Having them engage with the household spend and planning, understand that paying for one things rather than another is a choice, and managing their own pocket money, really builds them into adults who can make good decisions. Ideally we also raise them to be kind, smart, caring individuals who don’t get sucked into corporate BS and are mindfully contributing to the world, but I’ll have to let you know how I get on with that one.
Another post on this coming soon.
1. Just start saving something, as soon as you can
Even a piggy bank works. Getting into the habit of saving small means that the reflex grows as your child gets older. There are better ways to invest the money, but an early focus on the saving part will help as you work out additional options.
2. Think about whether there are others who might save for your children
For me, my parents paid £10 per month into a savings account for each of my children between birth and five years old. It’s not a lot, but it’s what they can afford and it still represents £600 per child. They are also of the generation / mindset that doesn’t believe in generational wealth in the way that meant they would look at their grandchildren and focus on this kind of thing, but lots of people feel differently. So it might be worth exploring, especially if you have family who are in the habit of giving generous birthday or holiday gifts which might be better split into savings.
My kids have never been gifted money, so whilst there is lots of advice about putting this into savings, it really depends if it’s coming your way in the first place.
3. Think about risk, and decide whose name you are going to save in
This step comes before investing. There are great children’s accounts which can act as investment vehicles but your child will be able to access these usually at 18. So you need to work out what the risk is of them getting that money at a time in life when – let’s face it – lots of people will make poor decisions. Taking the example of saving for college: if I put the savings element into an account which reverts to them at 18 and they choose to spend that money on a sound system / gap year / bitcoin or whatever, and take huge student loans, I can’t stop them. I can refuse to put in place additional support (and can sit around with my head in my hands wondering what I did wrong as a parent) but I can’t solve for it.
In the USA, saving into a 529 account fixes this problem by offering savings specifically in a child’s name, but which can only be spent on college. American FIRE folk have a lot more to say on these, but as far as I know they only exist in the States.
The flip side of risk is if you save in your own name, but either you make poor decisions (listen, at 43 I am totally aware of my own fallabilities) or you have the kind of emergency situation that means you use the money. Ideally you can mitigate against such risks with other elements of your portfolio, but the point of risk-based thinking is to look at all the possibilities before they happen.
3. Harness the power of compound interest by investing
So the great thing about investing for children is the long time frame means that compound interest is real. If you put £25 a month into a savings account paying 2.45% from a child’s birth until they turned 18, they would have £6,775 by the time they could access the account. However, investing that same amount in an index fund and it grew at 4% per year they would have £8,000 when they reached adulthood after charges. And it’s possible to be more hopeful – with the 20-year average of the S&P500 coming in at 9%, the possibility could be a lot more. And comparing to the atrocious 1% savings rates we’ve seen in the past few years (recognising this is changing) investment seems to be the best option.
4. Be tax efficient, and don’t get caught up with high fees
Almost all countries have a way of saving for children which has tax breaks. In the UK, Junior ISAs (Indivdial Savings Accounts) are the best option, since you can choose savings or stocks and shares accounts both of which have a tax wrapper which protects any gains. You can also split the annual maximum contribution to a JISA of £20,000 across the two types if you want to split your risk, and any adult can contribute.
There are different fees and options for investments which change, so it’s worth shopping aorund for the best. In the UK, moneysavingexpert has an up to date list with easy to understand comparisons.
5. Think about long term futures
I’ve written about my own pension issues many, many times, and with this in mind I also opened pensions for my children. In the UK there is a Junior version of the Self Invested Pension Plan (SIPP) in order to give them some minimal comfort so they don’t end up making career choices out of paranoia that they’ll be broke old people.
There are incredible benefits of compound interest for a J-SIPP, given that the money basically has 65 years to compound, and remains tax free regardless of growth depending on how you withdraw it. You can only pay in £3,600 per year, which attracts 20% tax relief. For me, I only started doing this when I have the other bases covered adequately and it remains a tiny portion of savings and spend in our household.
But paying in £25 per month from birth through til 18 means you contribute £5,400 in total but with 5% growth, this will be worth about £30,000. So it’s not All The Money In The World, but it makes me feel more confident in how I can support their whole lives. At 18, the SIPP rolls over to them as an adult, and they can continue to contribute, but not withdraw money until retirement.
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