Child trust fund, the free government money
Good morning/evening
Many moons ago (well 18 years to be exact) the UK government trialed a child trust fund. It is a long-term tax-free savings account for children born between 1 September 2002 and 2 January 2011 so they could have some savings when they turn 18. The government put in £250 for each child and there would have been a further payment when each child turned 7 years old but by then it was scrapped.There may also have been some top ups for low income families.
We could have added to it, up to £9000 but did not, we just ticked the relevant boxes as for risk level (set at low risk as it was not our money) and forgot about it. To be fair back then we had no idea about investing as we were to busy stuck in the rat race, I would say 9-5 but my husband had his own business so it was more like 7-7 and I was troubleshooting for restaurants, where I was away from home a lot and working 12 hour days too but then when I was working close enough to drive home I would help with paperwork for the business doing quotes and such like. We were well and truly in the 'grind'.
After learning about Bitcoin, inflation and just generally investing, I think what would our standard of living be now if we had stayed in the UK? Would we still be working stupidly long hours? Would we be financially free enough to enjoy the rewards of our hard work? I doubt it!
Instead as you may well be aware, we left the UK when our child was just over a year old, we had brought a cheap (compared to UK prices) holiday home and after many short breaks to Eastern Europe, we found we liked it more than the UK, we actually spoke to our neighbours.......Even with a language barrier, so we decided to bite the bullet, rent out the house in the UK and spend a year in our holiday home and never left. That brings us to now, that child, whose first steps I missed because I was working is now technically an adult which brings me back to this trust fund of his.
I had sort of forgotten about it, probably should have changed it from low risk but hey, it is what it is. I expect you are waiting with anticipation to see what it has earned over all of these years, but first things first...........I asked our son what he wanted to use this free money for ..........It will be no surprise to some of you that he wants Bitcoin, he wants Bitcoin for Birthdays and Christmas presents too, so fair play to him, although I would personally prefer to wait for a bear market to buy more, he has time on his side so if he buys now so be it.
I know, if only we had bought Bitcoin when I first heard about it, but hey, better late than never and for a young adult just starting out with this knowledge and a portfolio already, I guess he will be in a better position than his parents in time.
Before I give you the magic number lol, just take a look at some of these posts
Reddit user
‘My £250 Child Trust Fund is now worth only £12'
Reddit user
I turned 18 a few weeks ago and I only now just checked my CTF and I only have £250.74 in it 💀 it feels so unfair how everyone I know has thousands in it. Over 18 years my account grew by 74 pence
Reddit user
Child Trust Funds 'I got £955'
Reddit user
Only have £98 from my child trust fund
Reddit user
My son got just over £300 for his this year
OK so I guess I have left you waiting long enough he has a grand total of
So as you can see, it has made a grand total of £114.06, but it was free anyway and at todays prices that will give him 0.0040 in Bitcoin, and as we know sats are sats and give it 18 years in Bitcoin and it could be worth anywhere between $0 and $1000000. No I do not believe it will go to zero by the way, just saying I have no clue what can happen in 18 months yet alone 18 years!
So what would you have done with the free money from the government that you could not withdraw, would you have gone high risk? Bitcoin was not a thing then and I could not have withdrawn the money even if I had wanted to so there were not a lot of options really.
As always, thank you for reading and please feel free to comment.
