I asked my family to stop buying toys - and gift my son cash instead
18 March 2025, 11:24
Instead of wasting money on tacky plastic toys that are bad for the environment, I'm giving my son the gift of financial freedom instead.
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Ever since my son was old enough to push a toy train around our living room, my patience for the pile of toys that is slowly growing in the corner of the room has been wearing thin.
We’re reasonably scrupulous about the toys he gets. With no shortage of charity shops in our town in North Devon, we’ll often pick up cheap used stuff in order to save money.
He’s still only 18 months old – interest in particular toys doesn’t endure. But a lot of stuff ends up going back to charity shops once it’s no longer played with – or worse it goes to our local recycling centre.
I’m not alone in worrying about all these wasted plastic toys. Three in five (57%) – a clear majority - of parents are worried about the environmental impact of children’s waste such as toys, according to research I saw from Scottish Friendly.
Last Christmas, I decided to take a stand. I set up a Junior ISA (JISA) and urged all our family members to pay into that instead of giving our son expensive toys that get very little love.
Three months in and he’s sitting on a £65 future fund. Fortunately, he’s got 16.5 years to get that fund high enough to pay for university (or a gap year if he really wants!). The best thing about the JISA is that investing over the long term means he’ll benefit from the growing stock market.
On his 18th birthday he’ll have access to a hugely powerful present – the gift of financial freedom and the access to choices that money offers.
To put how powerful starting early is – Scottish Friendly’s own figures show that starting a JISA at age one can yield a £29,584.24 fund by age 18. But starting five years later at age six and the value of that pot is nearly halved to just £15,653.58! The value of starting early cannot be overstated.
Plastic toys are the most transient of gifts. Sure, he might appreciate them in the moment, but they won’t last him a lifetime. Unlocking his potential as a young adult with the choices a JISA fund can give him is worth every penny and could make a massive difference for the rest of his life.
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Edmund Greaves is a father to Cosmo and editor of Mouthy Money.
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