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I wouldn't until they were making a big purchase, like a house or college.

I never had a "savings fund", I don't think I really was given many monetary gifts and if I did I probably spent them as and when they arrived. My parents helped me to open a savings account when I was around 7 or 8 and I had complete access all the time. I used to put my pocket money in there and sometimes I would let it build up and sometimes I'd spend it. I guess my parents kept their savings for my college tuition etc. in their own accounts and paid for things when I needed it. I thought it was really useful to be able to manage my own savings from an early age as it's made me pretty good with money as an adult. I think I'll probably do the same with our LO's.

all his substantial gift money goes into his RESP (canadian version of the 529) and will continue to. When he is older and would be able to 'spend' and 'save' bits of his money (maybe around 8?) we'll let him open a savings account and put smaller gift amounts (5$, 10$, 20$) into the account, so he can save up for things etc.

we're putting the bulk of their money into a 529 (actually, her grandparents are) and this account will be handed over once they pursue higher education.

all other monetary gifts (ie christmas, birthday etc - & assuming the amount is less than $100 anything above that will go into their savings - which we will also hand over when they go to college) we'll let them keep and spend....

We have 2 basic account concepts for LO. One we are putting a set amount into every month and gifts where the check is made out to us, and we're gifting that to him when he's 18. It should have a substantial amount of money in there by then and we don't want him blowing it when he's a teenager. The second will be an early saver account that earns 6.99% on amounts up to $500. This will be his account we teach him to use once he's old enough so he can learn about interest, etc., and where we're depositing checks made out to him. He can spend that money if he wants but we have oversight so we can veto.

Basically we are putting all money in the early saver account right now, then when the balance hits $1000, putting $500 into a long-term CD. Then we will just keep doing that and rolling CDs into CDs to maximize the interest we can accumulate. Once he starts contributing to the account on his own we'll start putting aside our contributions elsewhere.

It seems weird to keep one account "secret," but I was a terrible saver until very recently and I would have spent that money really unwisely if it were me, so I'm hedging my bets lol.