working children paying keep - how much?

morley_2 · 22 August 2006 at 3:38PM

Our son (18yo) has just started working and we want advise on how much to to take off him for board & keep.
Do you take a percentage if so of what, Gross or take home or a fixed amount
He is on a monthly salary of just over £10,000 pa.
We want him to understand about the real world without us appearing to be a pair of push over or him feeling ripped off.
any advise would be of great help.

magicmaria · 22 August 2006 at 3:40PM

a monthyly salary of 10K wow what job has he got

sloppychops · 22 August 2006 at 3:42PM

£10,000 a month ?

morley_2 · 22 August 2006 at 3:53PM

now corrected, sorry

code-a-holic · 22 August 2006 at 3:56PM

With my first job i eanred 9k a year - i paid £135 a month. i thought that was fair - i was 17 at the time. My husband used to pay £30 a week. My brother now 21 still has never paid anything to my mum while in and out of jobs which i think is highly unfair!

cupid_s · 22 August 2006 at 3:58PM

i thought it was apparently somewhere in the region of 15-20% was a fair amount to take. I have no experience of this and I don't know if it's before or after tax

TNG · 22 August 2006 at 4:14PM

Maybe take a guess at what it costs you (food, electric gas etc), add on a bit for 'roof' and 'pass the cost on'.

This has the added benefit of you being able to explain how you arrived at the cost and also give your son an idea of how much it will cost him if/when he does move out.

HTH

nenya · 22 August 2006 at 4:22PM

My mum charged me £90.00 per month and at the time i thought that was harsh - now i pay £110.00 per WEEK to live in my flat - not that i am sayingyou should charge you sprog that though!!

rjh090384 · 22 August 2006 at 5:00PM

i used to pay my mum 50 a week on the same wage.

cupid_s · 22 August 2006 at 5:06PM

just an idea

work out how much it will cost you to have him there. and as said before add a bit for a roof.

then could you maybe add another £20 on top and save that in a savings account for him. Only i know a lot of my friends pay whatever their parents ask and spend the rest. They then want to move out at some point and have no savings. I was always sensible with money but my parents said if i was a complete spendthrift that they'd have charged me as much as they thought they could get away with and saved most of it for me in a savings account for when I wanted my own place.

I think it's a good idea.

Iona_Penny · 22 August 2006 at 5:18PM

My 19yr old son pays £120 on a monthly salary of between £800-£900
We feel he has to contribute but also don't want to make money from him (actually I save £50 a month in his ISA but he doesn't know)
He is paying £160 per month for his car and has to run this to get to work, and he puts £100 per month (generally) in his savings towards his insurance (loads of money!) So after these costs he has less than 50% left. I know many of us would love this luxury but he is 19 and perhaps need to enjoy this time? things will only get tougher!

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working children paying keep - how much?

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