My amazing grandmother was an early adopter and started saving for all of us grandchildren as early as the late 70s and into the 80s. Her diligent savings in each fund account gave us five grandchildren approximately 50,000 kronor each on our respective 18th birthdays.

My equally amazing parents have also had a fund savings for their grandchildren. There is a 17-year difference between their first and last grandchild — I was very late while my younger sister was early in having children.

When our son was born in 2007, we chose to invest in shares for him, something he is still unaware of.

Around 2011, we discovered how much our investments had developed compared to the deposit my parents had made in our son’s fund account. We asked if we should sell the funds and instead actively manage the capital in shares. This has led to us now also helping my parents with their current shareholdings instead of the fund holdings they had before.

However, we have “forced” him since an early age to invest 50% of all Christmas gift money, birthday money, etc., so that saving and investing will become something natural in his life. He got control of this account almost 1 year ago and still hasn’t withdrawn any money.

Read more about how we “forced” our son to save and invest from an early age here.