Family 1:Single parent Joanne has two small children, aged six months and two years. The children have been enrolled in the local national and public secondary schools, so her biggest concern is saving for college.

As the family live in rural Ireland, Joanne can count on spending about €8,500 a year at current prices for each child to send them away to college, while she also wants to factor in possible fees. As such, she hopes to build up a nest-egg of about €120,000.

As she has a very long time horizon, she decides to invest the older child’s benefit payment in a deposit account, committing herself to shopping around so she always gets a rate of about 4 per cent, and the younger child’s payment in the stock market. At a proposed annual rate of return of 4 and 8 per cent, Joanne hopes to build up funds before tax of €44,410 and €77,795 respectively by the time the children are 18, which should meet her children’s needs.

Family 2

Siobhán and Leonard have one child who will start at the local national school in September. However, the child will attend private secondary school and, as Siobhán is a dentist, she is keen to have this option available to her child. Fees for dentistry at Trinity College Dublin are currently €8,379 a year for EU students, so they will need a nest-egg of about €24,000 by the time the child starts secondary school and almost an additional €70,000 when she heads off for college.

Saving just child benefit every month won’t be enough to get them there, so the parents will also allocate half of the child’s creche fees (currently €1,000 a month) once the child starts school. By saving in a deposit account with a return of 4 per cent, they will have about €73,000 saved by the time she starts in secondary school, and an additional €52,000 saved by the time she leaves secondary school.

Family 3

Rita and John can’t afford to save the child benefit payments they receive every month for their three children, as they need this for everyday living costs. However, Rita recently inherited €50,000 from a relative. If the couple save this over the next 10 years, they will have a fund of €75,000 built up, which will pay for college fees if need be.

As the family live in Dublin, they expect their children to remain in the capital if they pursue a third-level education. To keep pace with inflation, though, Rita and John should also regularly top up their nest egg with whatever they can afford.