WHEN my little monster appeared in May last year, I was delighted to hear that Gordon Brown's kindness would mean a voucher for £250 would soon pop through the letterbox.
I quickly placed the cheque, made out to the little one, into a child trust fund, organised a top-up direct debit with her child benefit money every month and forgot all about it.
By the time she reaches 18, there will, hopefully, be a lump sum to help her on her way. But many vouchers are still gathering dust in kitchen drawers or have been lost altogether. Nearly one million vouchers out of the two million issued remain uninvested.
It seems plain crazy that parents don't claim this cash. Further lump sums are due to be given at age seven and the beginning of secondary school, and parents and friends can make contributions. The money can be used to support education, put a deposit down on a flat or provide a buffer for a rainy day.
Some 76 per cent of youngsters understand the importance of saving and those who save all their pocket money are amassing more than £107 million a year in piggy banks and bank accounts, according to the NatWest Face 2 Face With Finance schools programme.
Youngsters seem to pick up a huge amount of pocket money today. At an average of £11.53 per week, there's plenty of cash burning a hole in the pockets of today's teenagers.
The only allowance I ever received was payment for washing the car or cleaning the house. At the end of my toil, a 50p piece or pound note would appear.
But, encouragingly, half of the children surveyed save some, if not all, of their money. And it seems our youngsters are taking matters into their own hands. Again, over half of 11-18-year-olds have their own bank accounts.
All this financial savviness appears to be short-lived, though. Savings go right out of the window when children become young adults. This "can't go without" generation believes in the line you only live once - a motivation that easily beats any notion of saving for a rainy day.
More than three-quarters of 18-to-29-years-olds view once-considered treats - regular meals out and take-away breakfasts - as necessities, data from Alliance and Leicester shows.
More than two million Britons buy takeaway hot drinks at least once a day and some 500,000 more splash out on a taxi at least once a week, when they could have used public transport.
By cutting back on treats like expensive coffee, bacon sandwiches and pub lunches, we could all put away a tidy sum each year. Saving just £20 a week adds up to over £1,000 per year plus interest.
It asked the public to confess to their silliest accidents. Hilarious reading. One amorous postie fell down an open manhole into a sewer up to his waist after spotting a beautiful woman on the other side of the road.
Without going into too much detail, I'll divulge my own. It involves waking up in hospital with six metal pins in my arm after attempting to balance on a parking meter. And, yes, I would be among the one in ten to admit that it happened while under the influence. Enough said.
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