What financial investments would you make for a child?

We are talking a £150 gift / investment for a baby, not £1000’s of pounds. My kids have had some since they were christened and average a 6.5%pa between them. Not exciting but not bad either in this climate, plus zero risk and no knowledge required.
 
Yes but the wins seem very low and infrequent from many I know who have had them. I had a full lot for me and wife for 5 years and the winnings equated to about 0.25%
 
Scaf said:
I watch the occasional episode of this and the various similar programmes.
Two weeks on the goldfield with a metal detector, a bunch of mates and loads of beer, sounds like fun.
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To be fair, one night in Honfleur nearly resulted in hospitalisation, so it would make good TV :D
 
Felonious Crud said:
Can you gift a work ethic..?
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You can try to create a savings ethic - when we were giving our children £1 a week pocket money, we said to them, "You can spend it right away, or you can save it and we will pay 10% interest per week." The Heir always spent his, the Spare always saved his, and tried to get the same rate on his birthday money. (...and now works as a bond trader) The lesson here is really that we did not change either boy with our scheme, just rewarded someone who was already money-oriented.
 
Navcorr said:
"Giving". We all had to work for our pocket money. Instilling a work ethic is one thing, whereas, learning the value of money is something else.
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Yes, I can see how requiring work for pocket money might be a good way to go.

But, actually we took the view that 'chores' were just part of household life, not paid labour. Nobody paid mummy and daddy to do the laundry and so nobody paid the kids to do it either.

We did have a system of random financial rewards, however. "You boys have been so helpful today, here is some extra pocket money." This works using the 'random reinforcement' principles discovered by Pavlov, Skinner et al. And the notion that 'prizes' are more motivational than 'wages'. An awareness of the 'over-justification effect' is also useful in these situations.

Also, as I said, my experiments mostly showed me that our boys did not 'learn the value of money' at all; I think their views on money were demonstrably innate and unchanging.
 
Not so much chores - in fact not at all. As you say that was a given. Rather, cleaning the cars, taking care of the garden etc. There was a monetary reward of course but bl**dy **** Dad expected good value :smile:

Mostly though the lasting benefit was taking pride in what the work had achieved. Learning to do something and doing it properly carried a reward.
 
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