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MoneyWeek- How to ensure your child doesn't waste their Junior ISA savings when they turn 18

Journalist: Marc Shoffman, Freelance

ended 26. February 2026

Hi,

I am writing a piece for MoneyWeek looking at what happens once a child can access their Junior ISA.

I am keen for comments on how parents/financial advisers can influence younger people to keep saving/investing?

What are people's experiences of what happens when a Junior ISA matures?

Kind regards

Marc

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Nouran Moustafa
Practice Principal & IFA at Roxton Wealth
A Junior ISA should always be ‘saving with a purpose’. If the intention is to fund university, a first home or long term investing, that narrative needs to be built from a young age. Children should understand what the money is for, why it was set aside and the sacrifice involved in building it.
Financial education cannot begin at 18. It should start early giving children responsibility with small amounts of money, helping them understand spending, saving and delayed gratification.
In my experience, when a Junior ISA matures without that education, the outcome can be impulsive. When financial literacy has been part of the journey, it can become a powerful launchpad.
I am very pro Junior ISA, but the wrapper alone is not the strategy. A Junior ISA without financial education is simply delayed access to capital. The real value lies in preparing the child long before they can access it.
Wealth without wisdom rarely survives first contact with adulthood.
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Jess Best
Independent Financial Planner at McLaren Capital
There is always the concern that once a child turns 18 they have full access to the JISA money that their parents have worked so hard to put aside for them. However, I have found this is the most exciting time for the young adult to get involved with their own money; we work alongside the young adult to help develop their relationship with money from the start, so that they can have their own goals.

This way the parents have the comfort that their child's money is being managed, where they can ask me questions as their journey with money develops, and the young adult then has the excitement of riding the stock market for the first time but also knowing that if they spend it all immediately, then there's nothing left for a house deposit or university, for example.