Savings Account for Baby's Future

Eglinton

Hello,

I have a new baby and I'd like to start a new savings account. My own bank seem to have very poor interest rates on regular saver accounts.

Are there any better options?

I'm planning on putting the child benefit in every month (135 at the moment) until he's 18 and top up when possible, increase contribition for inflation annually etc.


Thanks for any insight!

SBarrett

Congratulations on the new baby!


You can get 3.5% AER with KBC.

If you are investing for 18 years, do you not think it would be a good idea to invest in something other than cash? You have a long investment term.


Steven

hades

This is something that i'm considering reviewing myself.

I started a sort of investment thingy (thats the technical term) when we had our first child nearly 3 years ago, by putting in €150 a month. Its with Zurich, i'm not sure of the actual product, but as far as i know they buy the top ten shares and then you make your money on that. The last time i looked there was shares with Apple and a few other of those type of companies.

It was projected at the beginning that we'd have €60k at the end of the 18 years going on a medium risk package. But i recently got a review sent out and its now projected at €48k.

Looking at PTSB's savings account at 2.7% AER we'd come out with around the same amount of money.

I'm not sure on whether to stick with an investment plan "where your savings can go down, as well as up" or move to a more stable savings account.

RedXIV

hades wrote: »

This is something that i'm considering reviewing myself.

I started a sort of investment thingy (thats the technical term) when we had our first child nearly 3 years ago, by putting in €150 a month. Its with Zurich, i'm not sure of the actual product, but as far as i know they buy the top ten shares and then you make your money on that. The last time i looked there was shares with Apple and a few other of those type of companies.

It was projected at the beginning that we'd have €60k at the end of the 18 years going on a medium risk package. But i recently got a review sent out and its now projected at €48k.

Looking at PTSB's savings account at 2.7% AER we'd come out with around the same amount of money.

I'm not sure on whether to stick with an investment plan "where your savings can go down, as well as up" or move to a more stable savings account.

Also interested in this but will be starting later than you guys should really have stated in day 1

Eglinton

Thanks for your replies.

I have an investment 'thingy' with BOI life - Similar returns offered to what you've said Hades, over a 7 year period. While this money is not necessarily designated for Baby, I have no immediate use for it so I would say I will reinvest it once it matures and it will be there 'just in case'

I'd like this new account to be available for Baby when they turn 18 so it's a much longer term proposition. It can be then used to fund college in it's entirety and anything else they'd like to do like travel.

The rates from KBC and PTSB sound much more attractive than what I've seen with BOI (1.6%) so I'll certainly investigate those.

As I've got a pension and the investment based savings already I don't think I'd like to risk this new money in a scheme which can lose.

That said, it is very disappointing what rates are available from banks on regular saver accounts. Inflation wipes out most if not all interest. It's a hard choice when you want to be sensible and save for your future!