Is it too soon?

Its a bit too far fetch for me, but things that happens lately sort of ticks me to think about this. If you have a child, when would you start to save for his/her furture? My sister just got pregnant and she is the cautious type. She has already started to plan on opening an account for the baby.

But then again, how many of us think of that. Those who are well educated probably have thought about it from day 1. But what happen to those young parents who lack of awareness in this kind of things, or worse those who 'claimed' that they don't have enough to save yet?

Cost of raising a kid nowadays is on increasing trend, let alone the education cost. When people got married and start having kids, are they prepared to bite the bullet when it comes to future planning? Have seen too many bad examples in my family (own and extended) when it comes to the children education and rights for a good life.

For a start, open a saving account. Many choices nowadays, you can opt for private finance body (numerous choices for investment planning). There will be limitations for low income parents to set aside certain amount for the premium. And that is why government set up bodies such as SSPN and ASNB to help low income Malaysian (especially Bumiputera) to start saving/investing for future needs. Many people know this but not many act to what they knew (I am talking about Malay in general). I have friends and family who already have 2-3 kids and none of the kids have any kind of saving or whatsoever. Its sad though...how much they prioritise on what they need today (fancy gadget, clothes..etc..) over their child's need for future and proper education. Its not like they don't know, just some of them have no discipline to start and dedicated to save their money.

I did a rough calculation, if you save RM50 for a child in a month from he/she is born, without fail and never once withdraw the money, by the end of 18th year, estimated total amount of saving would be ~RM16,000. That is as much as what PTPTN loan for Diploma level student. (Am not even considering an oversea degree here). So the bare minimum a parent should do is at least be prepared to provide some kind of fund for the kids education.

This is all assuming a well balanced family, with both parents present. What happened when one is absent (divorced,died,sick...etc). Is another parent prepared for these kind of situation? Worth pondering....you think?