{"id":314420,"date":"2026-02-24T08:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/314420\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T08:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T08:47:07","slug":"how-to-set-your-children-up-for-financial-success-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/314420\/","title":{"rendered":"How to set your children up for financial success \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Why save for your children\u2019s future? <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Isn\u2019t feeding and clothing them \u2013 and sending them out into the world with some semblance of cop on \u2013 not enough?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Well, of course the answer is a resounding \u201cyes\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">But given how expensive third level education has become, how costly it is to have even a modest wedding in Ireland, and how difficult it is for young people in 2026 to rent or buy a home, a long-term saving strategy might be on your mind. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">This episode is the first in a new series of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/podcasts\/better-with-money\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/podcasts\/better-with-money\/\">Better with Money<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">We speak to Robert Whelan, a qualified financial adviser and managing director of Rockwell Financial.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Whelan talks us through the process of saving for your children\u2019s coming of age, and explains why the optimal scenario involves investing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">\u201c\u200aIf your savings aren\u2019t keeping pace with [rising costs] in terms of the inflation, which is the return you\u2019re getting on them, you\u2019re going to end up with a dramatic shortfall.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">He recommends forgetting the social media bluster and viral videos enticingly titled \u201chow I saved 500k for my child\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">They are unhelpful and unrealistic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">\u201cThe biggest problem most people have is just starting. So just do it,\u201d adding that no matter what you save, it\u2019s better than if you had done nothing at all. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Crucially, he says, you should increase the monthly amount if your circumstances change for the better, like if you change jobs or get a promotion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">\u201c\u200aIf your income and your capacity to be able to spend is increasing every year, you should be inflation protecting your contributions, your premiums. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">\u201cSo that \u20ac100  a month in 2026 maybe is \u20ac170 in 2044, if that makes sense. And that is the secret sauce to saving and investing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">Whelan explains the annual gift exemption, also known as the Small Gift Exemption. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">\u201cIf I have a pot of money and I say, well, I want to pass that to my child. Well, the most tax efficient way to do it would be \u2013 if there\u2019s two parents for instance \u2013 would be to pass \u20ac6,000 a year to the child, because that\u2019s \u20ac6,000 a year goes to the child tax free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">We also discuss the ways in which we can teach our children the value of money and why they shouldn\u2019t be tempted by buy-now-pay-later schemes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">He also shares the financial advice he wishes he gave his 18-year-old self, and how \u201clate\u201d he left it to take out a pension \u2013 despite working for a pensions company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph free \">You can listen to this episode on the player above, or search for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/podcasts\/better-with-money\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/podcasts\/better-with-money\/\">Better with Money<\/a> wherever you get your podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why save for your children\u2019s future? Isn\u2019t feeding and clothing them \u2013 and sending them out into the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,9687,176,61,975,60,174,175],"class_list":{"0":"post-314420","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-childcare","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-investment","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}