Saving for the childrens' future

With the car sold off, hubby and I are looking into saving for our childrens' education. I've read that one is supposed to start saving when the baby is still in the womb. Really? Sounds a bit far fetched to me. When I was pregnant, all I could think about apart from the welfare of baby was ....ummm....ah...."7-up/sprite". Yup. I craved for 7-up. Whenever I got to drink it, I felt like a drug addict. Of all things to have a craving for. Now why couldn't I have craved for something more nutritious instead of all that sugary empty calories thats so bad for baby. I felt guilty drinking but couldn't help myself. Oops, I'm digressing.

Anyway, we are having a headache. There are so many things to consider. Should we just buy a children's education policy? Now, that surely that would be easier. Just pay a fixed amount every month...but then the returns are low.....but then there's protection, in case anything happened to us.

Hmmm...what about putting aside some money in the bank every month. (Calculate. Calculate.) That would give us more at the end of the period than the education policy. But...would we have the discipline to put aside some money (the same amount) every month? If we put the money in the bank, in whose name should it be? Hubby or mine or joint or as trustees for the children themselves?

What about investing the money. Now that would surely give much better returns. But then it would require a lot more monitoring. Again, would we be disciplined enough?

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Better do some homework before deciding. Yup, I'm going to put links from my 'homework' right here in my little cyber filing cabinet for easy reference as usual. I've got 'free google search this site' facility but don't know how to put the code in. NVM, it still works so I can use it for searching my own articles for reference when I need it. Hee hee. Very kiasu. Sign up for all the freebies for my blog.

Here are my links:

Articles

Education Planning
Education Planning For Children
Investing in Education: A Closer Look
Teaching Children About Money(this one not relevant at this point but for some future point)

Insurance

Bank 1's Education Plan I
Bank 1's Education Plan II
Bank 2
Bank 3

Will add more links when I come across them

Children's Savings Accounts

Bank 1
Bank 2
Bank 3
Bank 4
Bank 5

Education Savings Calculator

Calculator 1

Calculator 2