Once your kids are earning should you charge them Housekeeping?

elvis86

silvercar wrote: »

My parents never charged me a penny, and I still managed to budget and save.

I wouldn't charge my kids, unless I needed the money to pay the bills.

We would have the running costs of the house whether the kids were living at home or not, so I think to charge them any more than the extra costs that them living at home brings (eg phone bills) is unfair.

I would be happy for my children to live at home as long as they wanted to and certainly wouldn't charge them for the privilege!

I don't think you're doing them any favours. If you get used to having your entire salary to yourself, it's a massive shock when you move out and suddently 3/4 of it is accounted for by bills! I used to pay a nominal £150 a month, and it still took some adjusting to when I moved out and had an extra £400 a month of outgoings to allow for (I have a couple of grand on credit cards as evidence of this).

What with credit being so easily avaialble now, kids finding themselves in this situation are more likely than ever to keep their old lifestyle and fund it on credit cards.:(

As others have said, if you don't need the money, take it from them anyway and save it for them towards a house deposit. That way everyone's a winner and tbh, I can't see how any parent could object to that and I think that you'd be a fool not to do it.

Person_one

elvis86 wrote: »

I don't think you're doing them any favours. If you get used to having your entire salary to yourself, it's a massive shock when you move out and suddently 3/4 of it is accounted for by bills! I used to pay a nominal £150 a month, and it still took some adjusting to when I moved out and had an extra £400 a month of outgoings to allow for (I have a couple of grand on credit cards as evidence of this).

What with credit being so easily avaialble now, kids finding themselves in this situation are more likely than ever to keep their old lifestyle and fund it on credit cards.:(

As others have said, if you don't need the money, take it from them anyway and save it for them towards a house deposit. That way everyone's a winner and tbh, I can't see how any parent could object to that and I think that you'd be a fool not to do it.

Your parents should have prepared you so it wasn't a shock, why should it be a shock that it costs money to live away from home?

Also, again, wouldn't you have learned a much more valuable lesson if you'd saved that money yourself than if your parents had done it for you? Learning to save is a far more important skill than learning to hand money over!

elvis86

Person_one wrote: »

Your parents should have prepared you so it wasn't a shock, why should it be a shock that it costs money to live away from home?

Also, again, wouldn't you have learned a much more valuable lesson if you'd saved that money yourself than if your parents had done it for you? Learning to save is a far more important skill than learning to hand money over!

I don't know about you but my parents didn't present me with every mortgage/gas/electricity etc bill each month as I was growing up? So whilst I knew that there weren't many landlords prepared to allow you to live in their house rent-free and be kind enough to also pay all of your utlity bills, it was still a bit of a shock when it came to it..;)

I think it's fair to say that a lot of people find it surprising how much all the things you need amount to when living alone for the first time? Just as a lot of people who have a child report that there are a myriad of expenses associated with that which they might not have fully anticipated.

As for kids being encouraged to save, that's all well and good but realistically I'd be interested to see how many 18 year olds would willingly save the money they saved because their parents didn't expect any board from them. I expect some but probably not all that many. Although maybe your kids will be an exception.

Person_one

elvis86 wrote: »

I don't know about you but my parents didn't present me with every mortgage/gas/electricity etc bill each month as I was growing up? So whilst I knew that there weren't many landlords prepared to allow you to live in their house rent-free and be kind enough to also pay all of your utlity bills, it was still a bit of a shock when it came to it..;)

I think it's fair to say that a lot of people find it surprising how much all the things you need amount to when living alone for the first time? Just as a lot of people who have a child report that there are a myriad of expenses associated with that which they might not have fully anticipated.

As for kids being encouraged to save, that's all well and good but realistically I'd be interested to see how many 18 year olds would willingly save the money they saved because their parents didn't expect any board from them. I expect some but probably not all that many. Although maybe your kids will be an exception.

Too many parents don't talk to their kids about family finances, some seem to treat it as a giant secret for some reason.

Why are you talking about 18 year olds saving? It should start with the first pocket money surely? The concept that you can buy more with your money if you let it build up for a while is not all that complicated yet so many parents completely forget to teach it, or take it out of their children's hands.

The bolded is just unnecessarily sarcastic. Are you really saying that teaching kids to be financially responsible is a lost cause?

joe_purdy

I work 28 hours a week and earn approx £830 before tax and ni. I live at home with my mum and pay £80 a month although im very aware this is a mere amount i save several hundred pounds each month into a savings account towards a mortgage deposit, im 19 nearly 20 and having been paying this since around my 18th birthday. Ive got crohns disease and have not had a very good year so the amount ive manged to work hasnt been as much as i'd like as where possible i try and do overtime, im probably working 16-20 hours a week at the moment although hope to try and get it near to 28 as possible soon although i still pay my mum the £80 each month and still managing to save some money towards my mortgage deposit fund, ideally i would like to get around £20,000.