When it comes to children’s top career ambitions, a leading financial institution has calculated that it will cost their parents in the order of £100,000 to get their kid’s wishes fulfilled.

The research was carried out by The Children’s Mutual, the leading Child Trust Fund provider and it showed that when aiming for children’s top career ambitions, then the £100,000 bill would be around the cost of seeing little Jonny do well in life.

The Children’s Mutual annual poll, entitled “What I Want to Be”, showed that when asked about their children’s top career ambitions, most kids – aged from five to seven – want to be a doctor, or vet. And the cost of donning the white coat as a fully trained professional: around £115,000? This amount is spread over about 18 years of course, but that still means a hefty yearly investment for parents progeny to reach the big time. Mind you, thankfully an awful lot of kids still wanted to be teachers, so the bulk of the parents can breathe a sigh of relief.

Marketing Director of The Children’s Mutual, Tony Anderson, said: “Parents tell us their young children are highly ambitious and that they, as parents, fully intend to help them fund their futures. But the sums of money the top careers command could cause financial nightmares for families who don’t plan ahead.

“While the Coalition Government has announced its plan to significantly reduce payments into Child Trust Funds from 1 August 2010 and to abolish the scheme altogether for new babies born from 1 January 2011, the reality is that the cost of children’s futures hasn’t changed. We believe that the only way for parents to financially manage these costs is by saving regularly over the long term and are urging them to continue doing so.”

The Children’s Mutual annual “What I Want to Be” poll has been going for around three years now and involves questioning some 1,200 parents as to what their children want to be when they grow up and start a career.

Another sobering conclusion from the report is that 93% of parents of young adults are still funding them in some form, or other.

Guest Article by Neil Camp