Work backwards from the bill. The model inflates the cost to the start year and sizes the monthly contribution.
Your child's age, the headline cost, and how much you intend to cover.
From age 3 to 18 - 15 years to save
Save £437/month to fund 100% of 3 years at £25,000/year today's money. The cost inflates to £116,848 by the start year. Existing £0 compounds to £0, leaving £116,848 for monthly contributions to fill.
Illustrative figures only, real returns and education inflation are assumed constant. Not advice. For your situation, consult a qualified adviser.
Worth tracks the target, the contributions and the account it sits in, and updates the plan as life moves. Join the waitlist.
Most parents target 50-70% coverage. The student takes subsidised loans for the rest, picks up a part-time job, or both. Lowering your coverage percentage keeps the monthly burden manageable and gives the student some skin in the game.
Real return is the return after inflation. For an equity-heavy long-horizon portfolio, 4-6% real is the conventional band. Lower it as the child gets closer to age 18, sequence risk matters more in the last five years before the bill arrives.
Education costs have run materially above general CPI for decades, typically 3-5% nominal. Modelling it separately keeps the result honest. If you're confident the spread will close, set this equal to the general inflation rate built into your real return assumption.