Charging your teenagers rent

BigBearKris

57Deluxe said:

my first take home pay was £30 a week in 1976 and my Mum took £5 religiously and without fail. Also, when was saving for a car, they helped by LENDING me the money for the insurance but at the market rate of then 7%

I never got anything for nothing from them when was past 18.

But within 2 years I had bought this brand new:



and 2 years later this

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8e/b0/ef/8eb0ef3470b85a8fd6f8d01c030ac7c5.jpg

But can you attach bank statement please?

57Deluxe

/\ the deposit for the house was actually the £2500 I had saved for a V8 conversion on the B.

I sold the house in 2000 and I still have the normally aspirated standard 1800 B engine in the Roadster.

The original partner I bought the house with/for... long gone...

jonnyburgo

57Deluxe said:

my first take home pay was £30 a week in 1976 and my Mum took £5 religiously and without fail. Also, when was saving for a car, they helped by LENDING me the money for the insurance but at the market rate of then 7%

I never got anything for nothing from them when was past 18.

But within 2 years I had bought this brand new:



Bloody expensive for a jacket eh? tis fancy though.

oaf

A modest contribution would be reasonable/fair (regardless of whether he's a pain or not!)

Gently sets him up for "real life" and might make him value things a little bit more/put him on a more adult footing.

I was very clear with my parents that I wanted to contribute once I'd graduated and had a job but was back at home for some months (it was a junior job and they didn't need the money, but so what?)

Couldn't have imagined not doing so really. If you're grown up enough to be earning...

Winny_Pooh

Set a rent start deadline for 3-6 months from now with a fair £ amount. That way he has time to consider his options.  

Dominic

I wholly endorse turning one's son into a "Rentboy"

axisus

We charge oldest son just £20 a week, he doesn't earn much and what he does earn he blows on booze and going out. We are a bit lax though as we don't need the money so sometimes we forget to ask. No point in backdating as it's spent by then! Although we have had some grief over the past 5 years (22 now) he's basically a good lad. 

Heartfeltdawn

My parents have never charged me rent, which is very good of them. But I didn't go to them for extras such as aholidays and the like. Clothes were my responsibility from an early age, I had a job cleaning toilets before my GCSE's, and stuff like cricket match subs and membership fees all fell on me. When it came to university, they paid the first term's rent of £300 and that was it for three years. I very much paid my way in life and accepted the benefit of having a home to go to if anything cocked up. 

Things changed with my two younger siblings. They don't pay rent and they have been rewarded massively. The pair of them are greedy shitebags and I have close to no contact with my brother because of it.

Axe_meister

charge him rent but put the money aside to help him out with a deposit for his own place when the time comes

ThePrettyDamned

I was charged a percentage of what I earned - seemed very fair and I like contributing  

RobDavies

Difficult one.

My lad earns quite well in his part time job at Asda (£8.75ph for a 17yr old is decent), he's also at college full time.

He has more disposable income than me, as does my wife, yet it's still me that's expected to pay for everything when we go out as a family.
As soon as he started earning, I made him start paying for his own entertainment like football and gigs.  I don't think he realised quite how much these things cost when you factor in food, drink and travel etc.

He's also started to buy his own food at home - the downside being that everything he eats is absolute crap.  On that basis, I'm tempted to start charging him only a small amount (10% of his take home pay) - just to get him used to having a regular outgoing.... and also not enough to piss him off!

Heartfeltdawn

RobDavies said:

Difficult one.

My lad earns quite well in his part time job at Asda (£8.75ph for a 17yr old is decent), he's also at college full time.

He has more disposable income than me, as does my wife, yet it's still me that's expected to pay for everything when we go out as a family.
As soon as he started earning, I made him start paying for his own entertainment like football and gigs.  I don't think he realised quite how much these things cost when you factor in food, drink and travel etc.

He's also started to buy his own food at home - the downside being that everything he eats is absolute crap.  On that basis, I'm tempted to start charging him only a small amount (10% of his take home pay) - just to get him used to having a regular outgoing.... and also not enough to piss him off!

That's where my parents got it right for me. If you charge kids rent but pay for everything else, then you're really not teaching them about the value of all these other bits of life. With our 6 and 8 year old kids, we've started giving them £5 a week pocket money. That pays for everything from online apps to a bottle of Pepsi after school. It teaches them about budgeting and saving. Yes we have the odd meltdown over things but the flipside of that is seeing them collaborate and chip in 50% each when buying a new football last week. 

Kilgore

Edited.

2 Wows suggest my post was being taken seriously. I don't do serious that often.

Chris777

Our teenage son contributes a nominal sum towards the house running costs, but will come home with shopping for us and treats, he is 19, self employed and has had to get himself an accountant, he is one of these fortunate people that has a knack of making money, in all he's a good lad, very proud dad

Danny1969

When I started work at 15 I took home £59 a week. My mum charged me £25 keep a week and my dad charged me £5 a week petrol money to go to and fro work, despite the fact I worked on the same site as he did and he was my boss  

It taught me the value of money and how to budget. I still managed to save the cash for a Marshall Jubilee head & cab and had enough dough to get wasted on the weekend. 

The kids in my house now pay keep, you don't do them any favours letting them live for nothing. At some point you might not be there and they need to know how to budget and pay their own way 

scrumhalf

I paid my mum out of my student grant back in the early 80s. I saw nothing wrong with that and see nothing wrong with doing that now.

Danny1969 said:

At some point you might not be there and they need to know how to budget and pay their own way 

This is bang-on.I think it's a parent's duty to educate their kids on the value of money.

Nitefly

The rule in my parents' house was always 1/3 of take-home pay.  This even when I was at school and worked in a chippy part-time during holidays.

When I challenged it at 17, I was told (in no uncertain terms!) that I could clear off and try to live on my own for the same.

So I did.

And 3 months later I was back, tail between my legs, happy to pay 1/3 of take-home pay.

With regard to my own kids (who have now all grown up and fled the nest), I suggested the same deal, but Our Maud said it was too much, as she'd only paid a trivial amount to her parents.  After that, I left it to her to negotiate what she wanted to charge our kids - I don't think she made much on the deal...

munckee

If you can afford to take the money and put it aside then great, if not don't feel bad about the kids contributing he needs to know about responsibilities and bills he will have to deal with it.  I used to get charged £100 a month on my first salary of £480 a month.  My older brother stopped working to go to university at one point so my mum put my rent up to £130 per month to cover her loss from my brother.  No complaints, despite the fact they gave my brother a car when he was 17 and sold me one - I'm not fricking bitter about it now its 26 years later....

strumjoughlamps

Sporky said:

I paid my mum rent when I moved back after uni (well, second job after uni) until I got my own place, at which point she gave me all the rent back as a moving out present.

Which was awfully nice of her.

That is what we plan to do, charge them board but put it in savings for them. 

thumpingrug

Ive been very clear with all my children that as soon as their education was finished and they were earning I would want 20% of their net income towards bills / food.   Its always been a fair way of dealing with it.