20 Year old sons rent

consumers_revenge

Hi,

Just interested to see if you think the following is fair?

Sons wages is £1121 monthly.

Charging him £250 'housekeeping' which includes contribution to all the bills, own room, wifi, laundry done and we buy and cook all the food (he buys any junk food he may fancy)

Sound reasonable?

TIA

Peter999_2

Could I come and live with you?

Serenityyou

I charge my 19-year-old son £40 a week. He shares a bedroom with his 14-year-old brother. he earns around £700-£1200 a month

Brie

It's a fraction of what he would pay if he moved out anywhere.  I think also it's a good step towards him realising that life isn't just handed to someone on a silver platter.  

JGB1955

We used to 'charge' our son 33% of his apprenticeship earnings.  That included food and his contribution to 'house' bills.  I think your plan is more than reasonable.  Personally, I'd be going for £300 a month.

saajan_12

Personally I'd exclude laundry out of that - its a life skill he can learn, not just to physically do it but also take responsibility for when it needs doing, without changing the family dynamic too much. Also avoids it feeling like he's paying for a service which you now have to perform, sick or not.  

Whatever the agreement is, think about the future a little eg
(a) how long he and you are happy to carry on
(b) what happens when is income increases (ideally to still incentivise him to earn more)

theoretica

I suspect much of that 250 is going on food - it might be enlightening for you all to calculate exactly how much is food, and how little contribution to other things.

lr1277

About 30 years ago, I was told housekeeping should be about a 1/3 of net salary. So i would charge about £400, given the other benefits he receives by living at home.

When I first lived on my own, I think my rent alone was about 1/2 my net wage plus bills on top.

So it depends on how much of a discount you want to give for your son not to have his own place but there being other benefits.

If you don't need/want all the money, you can save some of it, and hand it back to him when he moves out.

strawb_shortcake

In the event one of my children move back home following uni we've discussed that they will be paying a third of their take home pay as keep, and suggested they save a third and spend a third. 

What we haven't told them is that we'll be saving the majority if not all and handing it back when they move out it.

I work with someone who is 26/27? They still live at home, they've never had to pay rent, their only financial responsibility is their car.
They shared they currently save £1k a month for a house deposit, but I'd be concerned that they will find it hard living independently as they clearly have no idea on the cost of living going by previous conversations. 

I'm really proud of my child who's lived away at uni, 3 times he's asked for money totalling less than £50 in almost 3 years. He's not used his overdraft once and has got his budgeting down to a fine art.

Northern_Wanderer

It sounds quite low to me. How much are you spending on food? I know some young people eat a LOT of food. Does he pay for his own subscriptions like phone, xbox, entertainment pakages, spotify etc? How much are your bills and who else is contribuiting/ living in the property? At 20 he should be cooking sometimes and doing his own laundry.....and also some cleaning.

consumers_revenge

Thanks all. Seems like I'm being fairly reasonable then.