working children paying keep - how much?

Mojisola

Marker wrote: »

I work hard for them, it doesnt just stop when they get a job. I work hard for them, when they have kids, they will work hard for them, etc etc.

I hope you're right regarding your children. The people I know whose parents did this with them grew up to be very selfish and always expected someone else to pick up the bills and have had their own children paying into the household budget as soon as they had any money coming in.

mdeebee

This is fine, if you are in a position to be able to do it.

Marker wrote: »

I find the whole charging your children and spending on yourself crazy. The only thing I think people can argue on charging their kids for is an increase in council tax, but then you should of thought of that before you had kids!!!!

I will charge my child rent, but I would put that straight into savings for her to buy a house or car in the future. I would never expect her to actually contribute to my mortgage or my bills. I find it quite similar to expecting handouts from the government to raise your own children. Rant over!

I would, depending on salary, charge around £200, if they earn more than £800 a month I would increase!

HC_2

I wonder if Marker may have a change of heart once she's been through the expensive teenage and university years. She might then find that a small contribution from her working daughter will be rather welcome.

CB1979_2

all depends if the kids living there are actually costing you more than you can afford??

if the kid costs you £100 and you charge them £200, i'd expect to put at least the remaining £100 in a savings account without them knowing.

as i've said before I'll be charging my kids "tax" on their "earnings" from birthday/xmas money, etc 22% taken off from about the age of 6 and put in a savings account without them knowing.

that'll help teach them that a job that says £20k is NOT £20k take home

Marker_2

Trust me my mind wont change. We are certainly not loaded but we scrimp and save and we manage, we manage now and we will manage after she leaves school, there won't be alot of change to the houshold bills, in fact, like me if she has her own job after she leaves school Id expect her to buy all her own clothes, thats a small fortune im saving every year anyway, so any small increase in household bills can come from the clothes money il be saving ....

I would prefer her to save hard for her money and be able to get on the property ladder at a young age, not when shes 30 odd.

HC_2

Marker wrote: »

Trust me my mind wont change. We are certainly not loaded but we scrimp and save and we manage, we manage now and we will manage after she leaves school, there won't be alot of change to the houshold bills, in fact, like me if she has her own job after she leaves school Id expect her to buy all her own clothes, thats a small fortune im saving every year anyway, so any small increase in household bills can come from the clothes money il be saving ....

I would prefer her to save hard for her money and be able to get on the property ladder at a young age, not when shes 30 odd.

I do trust you, but my point is that when you have little ones it's hard to imagine the expense that'll be part and parcel of life when they're teenagers.

I'm not talking about clothes, music lessons, holidays and other everyday expenses, but for example A-level textbooks; dinner, bed and breakfast when your child needs to spend a week or two away doing work experience and/or other preparatory courses (depending on planned career, of course); residential biology field trips; school trips abroad. You might want to contribute to driving lessons, etc. etc. Those are just things I can think of off the top of my head. There are many more.

We hope to help ours through university (we have twins: one will be taking a four-year course, the other five years) to ease their path a little and minimise the loans they end up with when they graduate.

When they eventually start work it would be wonderful to ask them for nothing at all, enabling them to save even harder for their first house deposit. I really do hope that's the case.

However reality intrudes as it so often does, and I have no idea how financially comfortable we will be that far down the road. A monthly contribution towards utilities might be very welcome.

Fuchsia_a

Regarding the housekeeping / saving / spending 1/3 split, wouldn't it be better (assuming you have children who aren't financially hopeless and can be taught to handle money) to get them to save the money themselves rather than handing it over to you?

Even if you supervised this and demanded to see statements, it would probably be better than just taking the money straight off them. It would teach them more about self-restraint and banking, savings and investments than just handing the money over to you on payday, they'd have the satisfaction of watching their savings increase and they'd have more of an idea about how to spend wisely.

I think I'd find saving a chore if I regarded it as an expense that my parents took out of my earnings, and I doubt I'd be saving as much as I am now if they were doing it. As it is, I'm putting about 75% of my earnings into savings, and that's after paying for my own food, transport, clothes, luxuries and giving my parents some money towards bills. If they were taking 1/3 of my money for savings, I'd be far more tempted to just spend everything else I got in, as I'd feel I was already doing the savings bit.

In my opinion, children need to learn how to be able to put money aside for their own benefit, not be told to just hand over the cash without any explanation - how will they cope when you're not around and they don't know how to save for a rainy day? :rolleyes:

Idiophreak

Fuchsia_a wrote: »

In my opinion, children need to learn how to be able to put money aside for their own benefit, not be told to just hand over the cash without any explanation - how will they cope when you're not around and they don't know how to save for a rainy day? :rolleyes:

Have to say, I share this concern a bit...I don't know how much the parents taking the money off the "kids", or even telling them to save it, actually helps them...

At the end of the day, young adults need to be able to learn to save on their own accord...Sooner or later they'll realise that them frittering their cash away each month is holding them back from where they want to be - and when they do, they'll start saving on their own...So I guess you should advise them what to do with their money, but *making* them do it...I'm not so sure.

floss2

Idiophreak wrote: »

Have to say, I share this concern a bit...I don't know how much the parents taking the money off the "kids", or even telling them to save it, actually helps them...

At the end of the day, young adults need to be able to learn to save on their own accord...Sooner or later they'll realise that them frittering their cash away each month is holding them back from where they want to be - and when they do, they'll start saving on their own...So I guess you should advise them what to do with their money, but *making* them do it...I'm not so sure.

I think it depends on the type of person your child is with cash..... I have two, DS1 will spend on a promise of money while DS2 is a saver & waits until he has the cash.

I know that we will certainly be asking for board money from them if they come home after uni, on the 1/3 principle, despite our current household income being over double the national average. The fact that we have the income to support them doesn't come into it - they both have to pay rent & bills & food where they live now, they both know that life is not free.

welshspendthrift

My daughter is at Uni and does some part time work tofund her horse and all that owning a horse entails and running a car and limited social life.
She did house share for her first year Paid £300 a month) but has struggled financially so is returning home to live - as I work very long hours we agreed that she would do all the housework ( she is much tidier than me !:o for her board .she will also pay for her calls on the phone and half of sky( her request to have sky again)

Do people think this is fair? or should i ask her for a little amount of say £15 for her food and electric etc . Dont want to make it too hard for her and want to support her so she doesnt have to work loads of hours to enable her to study to get better grades this week but need to be realisitic too.

She will get some of the loans/grants but my salary has increased so she wont get as much as last year. i am trying to pay off my credit cards too so dont want additional expense from daughter to impact on this