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Financing your child once they’ve left for university

admin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:54:36 +0000

It can be a trying time for parents when their child leaves for university. Your child is growing up fast and will have control over their personal finances for perhaps the first time. When this day finally arrives, the question on every parent’s mind is just how much independence they should allow their child and what useful guidance they can give to them.

Your child will want as much independence as they can get. However, they will still be open to advice, particularly about financial matters, and you should take the opportunity to instil some sound financial good practice to help them make it through their university years with as little outside interventions as possible.

Another excellent way to work with your child to control their finances is to take out a pre-paid credit card. Unlike a debit card, which takes money direct from your child’s bank account, or a credit card, which allows money to be borrowed up to a set limit, a pre-paid card enables a set amount of money to be loaded on to it each month.

The core benefit of a pre-paid card is that it only allows your child to spend the amount loaded on to it. Whether you load a set amount on to it each month, or you let your child load their own money on to their card, it nurtures responsible spending habits and sensible monthly budgeting.

Remind your child of the vital importance of effective budgeting. Creating a basic spreadsheet tracking their monthly income and outgoings will help them keep a firm grip on their spending and steer clear of the need for overdrafts.

Reliance on overdrafts, which can incur a fee, is a bad financial habit to fall into, particularly in the current economic climate. Helping your child to realise the importance of only spending what they have and keeping a small sum aside for unexpected expenditure is the best way to help them help themselves.

University can be very expensive, so encouraging your child to secure holiday work or indeed a few hours work over weekends is a wise move. Your child will want to let off steam and socialise, but balancing that against earning enough money to keep them afloat is the common reality for students these days.

Offering advice, checking up on your child’s financial situation and striking a fair balance between support and independence will encourage your child to adopt the financial skills necessary to steer clear of debts.

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The Benefits of Conservatories for Families

admin — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:24:23 +0000

Installing a conservatory on your home is an excellent thing to do. It adds a light and airy space to your home. Many people think of it just as a way to add a sun lounge, but in fact, it can be so much more than just a sun room.

Helping You Keep warm in Winter

Conservatories can act as a barrier between the main wall of your house and the outside world. As well as trapping the sun in the summer time and giving you an excellent sun lounge, they help you to keep the house warm in the wintertime by adding an extra barrier between the back of your house and the garden.

Adding Extra Space

A large advantage to installing a conservatory is that it will add extra space to your home. It gives you an extra room which can be used for many things from a dining space to a play room for your children. Somewhere you can sit and relax in the sunshine, or somewhere to use as an office space. There is a lot you can use a conservatory for.

This can be especially beneficial to families who feel that their home is becoming a little small for them – especially at the moment with the housing market being pretty poor. Creating additional space like this and moving say the dining area out into this space, can free up another internal room to allow an extra bedroom for a child, or for anything else you might need.

A Room for All Seasons

Conservatories can be used all year round quite easily with the addition of a heater or radiator for use in the winter months. It means you have a room which is just as useful as any other room in your home rather than one you feel you can only use a few months of the year.

Cheaper than Building an Extension

Conservatories can be a brilliant alternative to having an extension built. Unlike with an extension as long as the conservatory falls within certain guidelines (being less than 30 square metres with a minimum of 50% glazing for example), they generally don’t require planning permission. They’re also generally much cheaper to build, and go up much faster as well.

Adding Value

Of course we all know that you don’t get anything for nothing these days, and we think in terms of spending money to add a conservatory to our home. However, adding a conservatory can actually increase the value of your home, sometimes quite substantially, as well as making your house more saleable when you do want to sell it on.

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The Curse of Uninsured Drivers

admin — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 11:57:59 +0000

The Department of Transport’s biggest ever clampdown on uninsured vehicles started on June 20th. In a well-advertised campaign, new legislation has been brought in to stop drivers keeping their vehicles parked up after their insurance has lapsed. They must know fill in the correct documentation to say the car is off the road, if this isn’t done the owner can face a hefty fine of up to £1,000 even if the insurance only expired a day or so beforehand.

Uninsured drivers have been a headache for the Government, the DVLA and the police for many years. Prior to this new ruling, only uninsured drivers who were caught actually driving a vehicle could be prosecuted, but that has now changed for good. Drivers who are found to be uninsured but haven’t registered their vehicles as off the road will receive a letter of warning and a fixed penalty of £100. Ignore this at your peril as further steps include seizure, clamping, disposal and £1,000 fine.

34 million cars in the UK are legally insured, but it is the 1.4 million that aren’t that are the problem. The DFT reports that over 23,000 innocent people are injured and 160 killed each year in traffic accidents involving uninsured drivers. This has the added insult of pushing up the cost of insurance for law abiding drivers, so the time is right to adopt a zero tolerance policy and get these cars off the road and their owners prosecuted.

The stupid thing about all this is how easily avoidable it is. Long gone are the days of spending hours on the phone ringing around for car insurance quotes, all you need is an internet connection and a credit or debit card. It really has never been easier to compare car insurance. Simply log onto a site, input the required information such as type of vehicle, registration number and your details to get quotes in an instant.

When you sit down to compare car insurance, log onto http://www.tescocompare.com/. This site will give you a great choice of policies to choose from and if you buy your cover through the compare option you will also get free Tesco clubcard points. Once you find the best cover for you, you can purchase it instantly and be insured from that moment on. When insuring your car is so easy, it’s hard to understand why so many run the risk of losing their car and being fined.

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Looking to the Future

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:43:02 +0000

Every responsible parent knows that raising a child is expensive. But in the beginning the expenditure is basic. You provide food, shelter, clothing and entertainment. You make sure that your child wants for nothing and has the opportunities for development, education and recreation that may be enhanced by the amount you are willing to spend. For these costs, you can be prepared. The issue that is getting ever murkier, however, is the cost of higher education. With tuition fees and living costs on the rise it is difficult to know how much to set aside should your child wish to go to college or university. Every parent wants to be able to offer their offspring the brightest possible future and the strongest start in life, but in recent times it feels as though our control over this is weakening and our input can only be minimal.

Yet there are still a range of ways in which we can help our children and prepare for their higher education. It is still worth setting up a savings account dedicated to meeting the costs involved in going to university. Keeping this account separate from your other savings is prudent in order to be sure of what you have saved and for what purpose. Shopping around for your savings account is also important. There are a range of accounts available, from the likes of Santander to online-only financial service providers. Seek out the most competitive interest rates and be sure to take advantage of your tax free savings allowance with an ISA in order to make your money work harder and go further.

The other important step to take is to make sure that your son or daughter understands the importance of managing their own finances. Many students come unstuck midway through the term when their maintenance loan runs out and they still have six weeks left. Encouraging them to set up their own savings accounts where they can put aside money from part time jobs or summertime employment will help to give them a clearer understanding of the value of money and the time it takes to accumulate. Incentives such as agreeing to match what they save may prove effective when promoting responsible money management.

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Big savings account for the little ones in your life from the Newcastle

Alan — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:21:51 +0000

A new saver account for children was launched called the Newcastle Big Little Saver, by the Newcastle Building Society. It places the variable rate of 2.98% Gross or 3.00% AER that includes for regular savers a 1% bonus or those that make a minimum of one deposit each month and no withdrawals therefore the rate without bonus is 1.98% Gross/AER.

The account is great from parents, guardians and grandparents who want a nest egg for the future for their child. It is also a great way for kids to learn about saving and managing their money. As little as £1 will open the account and the maximum opening deposit or monthly deposit is £250.

There are easy access withdrawals permitted at any time since the Society wants to make it as accessible as possible for families.

It has also created a savings family called the ‘Castles’ and hopes the young cartoon characters, Bob and Penny Castle, will engage with children and inspire them to save. The specially designed website www.biglittlesaver.co.uk provides young savers with the chance to get to know the characters too.

Steve Urwin, Sales and Marketing Executive, at NBS, said: “It’s important to get kids interested in saving their own pocket money. A children’s saving account is an ideal way to do this as it can educate them about the process, while encouraging them to save regularly for that ‘something special’. We also developed the Castle family as it is a creative way of helping to get our children to become interested in saving, but in a fun way.
“We feel the end of the Child Trust fund has left a black hole in the saving market for parents. But the introduction of savings products such as ours, as well as the hotly anticipated Government Junior ISAs, are all good moves towards educating members about the importance of saving for your children’s’ futures.”
The product can be opened in one of Newcastle ’s 31 UK branches or by calling Newcastle ’s contact centre – Newcastle Direct – on 0845 600 4368 (8am – 6pm Monday to Friday)
Once an account is opened savers receive a height and savings chart to encourage children to watch their savings grow as they do, fun stickers, bookmarks, special passbook covers and a special edition book about the saving family, The Castles. Products must be collected from any one of the Society’s 30 UK-based branches.

Product Terms:

Summary Box – Key Product Information for our Savings Account
Account Name	Newcastle Big Little Saver.
Interest Rates	Monthly (Variable, Including Bonus)		Monthly (Variable, Excluding Bonus)
	2.98% Gross*		1.98% Gross*
	3.00% AER**		2.00% AER**
Tax Status	Interest will be paid after the deduction of income tax at the appropriate rate unless you request otherwise.
Conditions for bonus payment	You must make at least one deposit prior to each monthly account anniversary date and make no withdrawals.
Withdrawal arrangements	No notice.
Access	In branch or by post.

Additional Important Information
Interest Payment		Monthly, on Anniversary of account opening
Minimum Initial Investment		£1
Maximum Initial Investment		£250
Minimum Monthly Investment		£1
Maximum Monthly Investment		£250

*‘Gross’ interest is the contractual rate of interest payable before the deduction of income tax.

**‘AER’ stands for the Annual Equivalent Rate, a notional rate which illustrates what the interest rate would be if paid and compounded on an annual basis.

This Account is only available to individuals who are 16 years or under.

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Covering the cost of the kids

admin — Mon, 23 May 2011 21:03:34 +0000

A Sponsored Post

For a lot of parents, the day a child moves away from home, regardless of their age, can be a day filled with both sadness and a secret sense of relief. For as much as they’ll be missed, the peace and quiet and chance to put yourself first for once could be an attractive thought.

However, this day might be further into the future than you anticipated, if a recent survey by the ONS (Office for National Statistics) is anything to go by. According to figures highlighted in an article in The Guardian newspaper, “many young adults in their mid-20s and early 30s, and especially men, are increasingly postponing the transition into adulthood”. The reality is that the number of grown-up children still living with their parents or returning to the family home has increased significantly over the past decade.

The ONS reports that 25% of men aged 25 to 29 now live with their parents – almost double the proportion of women in their late 20s (13%) who still live at home. And surprisingly high numbers of thirtysomethings are still tied to the apron strings – latest stats reveal that more than 10% of men in their early 30s live with their parents compared with 5% of women of the same age group.

So why is the nation’s youth struggling to launch into independence? Rising property prices is a key factor. A third of the so-called “adult-kids” who have not left their parents’ home say they haven’t done so due to prohibitive costs pricing them out of getting on the property ladder. Property ownership for some is just an elusive dream – the large deposits now required mean that making it to the first rung on the ladder can prove impossible for many young adults in their 20s and early 30s. With rental prices also deemed too expensive by some, staying in the family home can seem like the only viable option.

And while more young people are going on to further education than ever before, the cost of getting a degree has also never been so high. Hefty tuition fees – only set to get higher over time – and the generally high cost of living mean that many graduates emerge with a substantial debt before they’ve even drawn their first pay packet.

Meanwhile, unemployment – which has increased during the recession – has also forced growing numbers of both graduates and non-graduates back to the family home.

There is however also a growing group of young people who may be simply struggling to grow up regardless of financial constraints. This band of reluctant adults, dubbed “kippers” – kids in parents’ pockets eroding retirement income – are staying on at home through choice. For some, rent-free luxury with hot meals and a laundry service on tap is simply too cosy to give up.

With many parents now providing a roof over their children’s heads for several more years than they may have initially expected, securing and protecting the family home seems more important than ever. You might want to consult an independent financial advisor to find the best saving and investment vehicles for your needs and also consider taking out life insurance cover, which is designed to make sure your family is protected in the event of your death, during the policy term.

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Prepaid Credit Cards for Teenagers

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:19:37 +0000

The concept of giving a credit card to a teenager might seem a little strange to some people. After all no-one wants to teach their youngsters bad habits. However, prepaid credit cards actually offer an excellent way of teaching your teen to manage money while allowing parents to retain control and monitor what’s being bought and how money is being spent.

Prepaid cards have a number of benefits which a traditional credit card does not. The primary one being that there is absolutely no way that you can go into debt with this type of card.

A prepaid card is exactly that – it is pre-paid. You load the card with money first, and then spend it which means that you have the ability to spend money on things that require a credit card (such as booking gigs online for example), as well as the choice offered by being able to shop around further afield by using the internet, but you don’t have the risk of over spending that is traditionally associated with using a credit card.

Understanding how a prepaid credit card works is reasonably straight forward. You take money from your own bank account or wages, and load it onto the card. You get to choose exactly how much you put on there, and how you spend it. After this, it’s used very much like a credit card to make purchases, and as most of these prepaid cards are backed by either MasterCard or Visa, they can be used in many thousands of stores world wide. As you shop, your card balance goes down and when the card no longer has enough on it to purchase what you want, you then load it up again before you can spend more.

For any teen or young adult the ability to get used to budgeting and be able to use a credit style of card without the risks of getting into debt is brilliant. It means that you as a parent can help them to avoid the pit falls that exist with credit cards, but still show them how to shop around for the best value deals.

Of course every company wants to make money from their card, so there are fees involved with pre-paid cards. The difference is that it’s much easier to see up front what these are. Some cards charge a monthly fee to allow you to keep the card active, while others charge you a small fee every time you use the card. The fees are generally taken from the balance of the card however, so you don’t have to find these separately, you just have to remember to budget them into your spending, and make sure you know before you begin how your chosen card works.

Prepaid cards can be excellent ways of helping people to establish good money management and budgeting skills, but you’ll still need to pay attention to what you are spending and how much is left available on the card.

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Rising Tuition Fees and the Case for a Gap Year

admin — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:34:36 +0000

When the time comes for your child to choose a university and course of higher education, many universities will probably be tempting you with their ivory towers. Promises of how their excellent educational tracks can enable your child to embark on a wonderful future with excellent career options are probably bombarding you and your family. Although you want the best education possible for your child, the hard part is figuring out how to pay for it.

There is no getting around the fact that higher education is expensive. In addition to outrageous university fees, studying demands a lot of time, and it is quite difficult to find time to work as a full-time student. If your child attends a university that is not close to you, you must also factor in living costs and any fees for halls of residence. As if paying for all the living costs weren’t hard enough, politicians are now considering raising the cap on university tuition fees. That would make the costs of university education a lot higher.

The high price of education is one reason to consider taking a gap year before university. Because of the high cost of education, many students graduate with a burden of debt that limits their freedom and makes travelling or other experiences extremely difficult. Taking time before starting university means students can take advantage of opportunities and experiences debt-free.

Travelling is a wonderful way to learn more about yourself and get a new perspective of the world. Of course, travelling extensively requires money, but it is generally fairly easy to find work abroad teaching English. There is always a need for native English-speaking teachers. Before travelling, it may be a good idea to get a little experience at home. To gain some experience teaching in an English language school London is full of opportunities. Also, before travelling abroad, it is definitely a good idea to have at least a base in the language of the country you plan to visit. To find good Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese or French courses London has excellent schools too.

An internship or apprenticeship not only looks great on a CV, it can also help one get a real idea of working life. Many people spend three to four years and a lot of money studying for a career and then realise they don’t really like the field once they start work. Internships can give students a better idea of what they really want to do.

Volunteering is a great way to build your CV before entering the university. Working with a charitable cause shows you have a perspective of the world beyond the comforts of home, the classroom and life on campus.

Increasingly, young students are taking gap years to work. Working not only gives real life experience, but is also a way to make and save money. Even if your children can’t get their dream job before starting university, any job offers opportunities to learn and save up money to help fund the course. And as we all know, money matters when it comes to education these days.

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How to have a baby on a budget

admin — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 08:06:54 +0000

Having a baby is one of the most magical experiences you will ever go through — but it doesn’t come cheap. Be sure you still have something left in your savings account by the time of your baby’s first birthday by following some of the following money saving tips along the way:

Take what’s rightfully yours

Be sure to take advantage of the child tax credit, working tax credit and child benefit available to you. It’s there to help new parents out during a financially stressful time so be sure to put it to good use. Tax credits will vary depending on your situation, but child benefit currently comes to £20 per week for your first child (and an extra £13.20 per week for subsequent children) so it all adds up.

Don’t be snobby

We all want the best for our child but it just makes financial sense to buy certain items second hand. Clothes are a prime example — you can pick up serious bargains at car boot sales or at online auction sites, paying a tiny fraction of what good quality baby clothes would cost you if you were to buy them all new. When you consider just how quickly babies grow out of clothes, it’s something of a no-brainer. National Childbirth Trust (NCT) sales are a great source of cheap items for your baby so see if there are any happening near you — but be prepared for big crowds and serious competition for the real bargains!

Do stay safe

Certain items you won’t want to go second hand with, of course — for example, you want to be sure that you’re getting the safest possible solution when buying a car seat. You can never be sure whether a second hand car seat has been involved in a previous accident which might have compromised its safety, so it’s wise to stick to new products when your baby’s safety is at stake.

Shop around both in store and online

For big purchases like prams, car seats or travel systems then there are great deals to be had if you shop around online, while independent stores may also be willing to cut you a good deal if you’re buying a combination of items. Don’t be afraid to play stores off against one another if needs be to get down to the price you want to pay.

Rely on family for support

If both mother and father are going back to work following maternity/paternity leave then having a family member nearby to help with childcare can make a huge difference to outgoings as nurseries can be very expensive. There’s a case to be argued that the social benefits that nurseries provide can be beneficial to your baby, however, so consider striking a happy balance between family and paid-for childcare.

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How to calculate child tax credits

admin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:56:42 +0000

Here is a handy video guide for calculating your entitlement for child tax credits.

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