Building A Secure Future For Your Children
Children are one of life’s best blessings, and as they grow up, their needs increase exponentially. Children are, by nature, demanding and selfish. They can’t help it; they haven’t learned to think about other people and they aren’t patient about waiting for you to think about them, either. As their needs increase, so does the amount of money that you have to spend on them. It’s only natural; older children need more clothes, different entertainment, more food and better educational options than your average toddler. Parents all over the world aim for one thing and one thing only for their children: the best.
The best future often requires some forward-thinking on your part, with good financial and educational planning being done while they are as young as possible. When you plan to have children, you often spend a lot of time planning for the future that you wish for them to have rather than the one that you had. Of course, if you haven’t got the chance to plan as your children were rather a surprise, there’s a little more of a rush needed to get saving and start thinking about how you’re going to provide for their little lives. The best thing that you can give your child is security. They need a secure, supportive family unit. They need to have a home that is long-term going to be theirs to live in and they need to have you planning their education properly so that you can afford the private education that you’ve always wished you could have. Speaking to a professional in estate planning expertise and educational planning is not going to be a daft thing to do. In fact, getting the best advice that is possible is just smart thinking. As a parent, you should want to provide the most stable and secure future that you can muster, because one day your children are going to thank you for it. So, with all of this in mind, how can you ensure that you get your children to adulthood in one piece? We’ve got a variety of different ways that you can ensure that you give them that secure future:
Cash.
For many people, the idea of handing their eighteen-year-old child a large lump sum of cash is obscene. Saving up for them to have a good future doesn’t always mean that you do this, though. Gifting your child money once they reach college education age can be done in different ways. If you’re nervous about handing over a huge wad of money, then why not do it in drip-fed stages? You could take them to the local garage and buy them a car. You could go with them to find a property and put down the deposit for them with the cash that you’ve saved. This could be apart from the college money that you’ve been putting to one side their whole life, and it’s a good way to help them get a leg-up in the world. It can also mean the difference between your child getting into debt or not. You don’t have to hand them a gift of cash when they’re 18, either. You could use it as a graduation gift for after they finish school.
Savings.
From the moment you find out that there is going to be a new baby in your life, you need to open a savings account or two. One for their college fund – with programmes like this – and one for general savings for as they get older. Some people like to use this as a future wedding fund or a helping hand toward buying a property. You can also get your child involved in contributing their own part time job money into the account that you opened for them before they were born. This way, they get to learn about the value of money and know that there is a cushion for them to use after they come of age. A lot of families like to wait until children are 25 or more before they allow them access to such money, but it’s important that you do allow them to take control of it at some point. Have your children attend money management courses with you if necessary, as you’d want to teach them how to manage their cash early.
Life Insurance.
As a parent, you want to ensure that you are covered if you or your partner meet an unexpected and untimely death. Life insurance can keep your children secure even if you’re not around to be there for them. If something was to happen to you, your children would receive a lump sum to help them with their expenses. Life insurance should be something that you get anyway, but even if you haven’t bought a plan, yet you can right now. You can also get children’s insurance such as these plans, and you can read through the information to see whether or not this is right for your family.
Stocks.
Sounds like one that makes no sense as children cannot manage stocks, but you can. You can get the ball rolling by looking into stock market and currencies forecasting resources so you can invest in the best stocks for them while they’re young, and as they get older you can teach them to manage it for themselves. This process can help your children to become dependent on themselves and teach them about the risks and returns that are involved in the investment process. This whole process will take time, but you can create financially savvy adults who aren’t afraid to learn how to take a risk.
Your children may not see the value in the savings that you are putting together for them from a very young age, but you will. You will understand the true value in giving your children a secure future, perhaps one that you didn’t have for yourself, and you’ll know how to talk to them about money. Learning how to manage money yourself is the first step, and then the rest is up to you.