MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Should Terry and June charge their son rent?

mickymac_2

Yes. Charge him at least the amount needed to cover bills,council tax,etc. He'll be working and needs to learn how to manage in the real world. If he doesn't like the arrangement he can always try to find something cheaper.
As parents, we want to give our kids a helping hand. My parents charged me rent. Unbeknownst to me, they saved the rent I'd paid them, and when I struck out on my own, they gave it back to me as a gift - thanks mom. Even if they hadn't given me the money back, I wouldn't have regretted paying it to them, I never expected to live for free while I was working. As for the other brothers living rent free, they were students and presumably not earning.

bridaldream

He is going there to work, he is not a student. Kids also need to learn the value of money, so rent needs to be charged obviously not to make huge profits but to cover the cost of the flat etc.

He will then gain respect for his parents and their property and will then know what it is like to manage his money for when he really goes out in the world, if his parents then want to save the rent on his behalf and give him this as a lump sum at the end of the rental period, this would be up to them !!

mallett

;)think of it this way, did his brothers pay their own way through college/uni? did they work part time like the rest of us to help get them through? if they didnt is it really fair to do the opposite just because he isnt going onto higher education? If he would have went to college/uni would we be discussing this? i had to pay my own way as soon as i left school but i didnt manage my finances at all.

sit down and work out what you can afford to charge and whats a fair amount to let him pay, there must be a balance some where. maybe you put a percentage of it away so he has savings in the long run. hope it works out! good luck

rama0927

I think he should help out. A portion of his earnings will be put aside for future savings, the rest will be spent on travel and his other luxuries, he has no other outgoings. He should pay a contribution towards food bills, utility bills and his share of whatever other costs there are. About the actual rent I am not sure, maybe they could let him off on that one for a little while, as long as he has a standing order in place for everything else. In the future if he is living there (e.g. 1 year on) I believe he should begin contributing to rent

It is a difficult one though, since his brothers got special treatment as they were still in education.

gb57

I am frankly amazed that anyone who considers themselves a "moneysaver" should suggest that the boy should NOT pay rent.

At what stage, exactly, do these people think that a parent should start to teach a child the real value of money, and how to live within their means? We seem to have a whole generation (or 2) that has grown up living on credit and believing that money grows on trees. Somehow they have not grasped that money borrowed has to be paid back, and that your outgoings should never exceed your income. And YES, I blame the parents.

Children should be taught about money and how to handle it in the same way and at the same time as they are taught good manners and how to behave. By osmosis, almost, with parents setting an example. None of that prevents them enjoying their childhood. Earning pocket money, having to save for things they really want, all of those things are lessons for life.

Parents should ALWAYS charge their adult, working, children, rent or keep. If the parent can then afford to secretly squirrel that money away and present it to the child later for a house deposit or whatever, great. If the parent needs the income, then they should use it.

Learning to budget and live within your means, so that you don't get into debt, is a gift for life, not a punishment.

ses6jwg

gb57 wrote: »

I am frankly amazed that anyone who considers themselves a "moneysaver" should suggest that the boy should NOT pay rent.

At what stage, exactly, do these people think that a parent should start to teach a child the real value of money, and how to live within their means? We seem to have a whole generation (or 2) that has grown up living on credit and believing that money grows on trees. Somehow they have not grasped that money borrowed has to be paid back, and that your outgoings should never exceed your income. And YES, I blame the parents.

Children should be taught about money and how to handle it in the same way and at the same time as they are taught good manners and how to behave. By osmosis, almost, with parents setting an example. None of that prevents them enjoying their childhood. Earning pocket money, having to save for things they really want, all of those things are lessons for life.

Parents should ALWAYS charge their adult, working, children, rent or keep. If the parent can then afford to secretly squirrel that money away and present it to the child later for a house deposit or whatever, great. If the parent needs the income, then they should use it.

Learning to budget and live within your means, so that you don't get into debt, is a gift for life, not a punishment.

Depends whether the parents have a mortagage on the house.

If its was bought outright personally I think charging your son other than what it costs to maintain it is basically profiteering and some people may be happy to profiteer from their own flesh and blood but not me

If mortgaged, IMHO, make him pay all bils and maintainance cost + cover cost of mortgage payment.

If not mortgaged, IMHO, just make him cover bills and essential maintainance, and then suggest the extra disposable income he has is saved towards a deposit to buy a house?

BFG_2

Charge him rent - FMV.

Then when he wants to buy somewhere MAYBE give him the rent back...if he's been a good boy.

It's like forcing the little darling to be sensible and save!!!!!!!

awehla

When I was 18 I worked as a trainee administrator under the modern apprenticeship scheme and was only getting £65 a week plus £10 a week travel and I still paid my parents "rent". I think it teaches young people responsibility and my parents probably needed the money too. My Mum didn't charge me a lot, a tenner a week or something. I moved out when I was 19 and went to uni - you discover then how much things really cost!

awehla

Whoops I didn't read this properly, I thought he was living with his parents. I think they should charge him rent as if they were renting the flat to anyone else they would charge them and they'll be losing money otherwise. The other brothers were students so it would have been unfair to charge them as they weren't earning. If the son objects to paying rent to his parents he can always live somewhere else.

Moral_High_Horse

All this stuff about the "ludicrousness" or "obscenity" of "making a profit from your own child" is a lot of well-intentioned but utterly impractical claptrap, isn't it, really. If you wanted to be strict about that you'd have to measure what proportion of electricity consumption and heating and food and so on was used just by the son compared with other members of the family. In practice, somebody is going to subsidise somebody somewhere unless it's all run by a neurotic accountant. You don't do "your own child" any favours by teaching him it's OK to exploit suckers while you spend all your money on CDs and nightclubs. If the kid is at work, then in the real world, people have to learn that there is no free lunch. It is simply unfair of him to expect his parents to pay for his consumption of power and food if he is capable of earning a living. They could always say to him, well, when I started earning, I had to start paying my way, because that is the way the world works - and we are not independently wealthy and don't think it's really right for us to be exploited even if we were. So if he wants to buy in all his own food, and come to an arrangement with the utility providers to provide him with free gas and electricity, then of course it's perfectly reasonable for him not to have to pay any rent. Otherwise, welcome to Planet Earth - but we're only being fair, we're not exploiting you either.