BANKING ON THEIR FUTURE   You regularly set aside money for your kids, but do you know what you’re saving for and how much is enough? MADELINE LIN helps you work through these financial goals with some help from the experts.     HOW MUCH WILL IT COST YOU? An OCBC survey showed that, in 2004, it cost $296,000 to raise a child and send him to a local university (factoring in food, clothes, childcare, medical and education costs). Now, given a 3 per cent inflation rate, it costs $353,439 to bring up a child. So, if you and your husband together earn $10,000 a month and save 20 per cent of that, you will both have to work nearly 15 years each to be able to afford a child in Singapore. THE SIMPLY HER POLL We surveyed 40 women who save monthly for their kids, and found that 17 per cent weren’t sure what they were saving towards. For these mums, Jeffrey Woon, fi nancial advisory director of Financial Alliance, shares his top three recommendations: If you have extra cash, Jeffrey recommends getting your kids a life insurance policy that covers major illnesses. “Premiums will be lower if you get it for them when they’re young,” he says. For another fi nancial expert, assistant professor Qian Wenlan from the National University of Singapore (NUS), education comes first, followed by health care. Set aside any extra cash for a rainy day. For the 83 per cent who were clear about what they were saving for – their kids’ tertiary education, health care and rainy days – Jeffrey found that most had no idea how much they should set aside for their various goals. “After that, I just started doing the things I used to do when we fi rst met. I started dressing up, and straightening our room and bed to make it more inviting. I invested in new sheets and bath products. It didn’t take long to bring us back.”

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