DD is 16 in 2 months time, we have a clear plan.
No she will not be leaving home at 18 years old unless she goes to university, at this point she wants to go to a technical college and either follow up with an apprenticeship or go to university. If she goes to uni she wants to live away even if just for a year for the experience.
If at home with us we will pay for a car and insurance and we will meet bulk of her expenses, such as food and she will still have the ability to come on family holidays at our cost.
If she is living at uni, then instead of insurance and car running costs we will help fund her.
The preference both to her and us is that she will be here until mid to late 20s, and whatever she earns, she will save 50% of. She is quite good with money, and understands the importance of saving whilst young and not used to having money, in order to have a comfortable life, when it comes to ensuring that her own needs are met.
I discussed this somewhere else and quite a few people thought it was a preposterous idea, and that young adults should just enjoy their late teens and early 20s.
But I think these are the years that life tends to be a struggle if you're living alone, so why not live a fairly simple existence whilst ploughing money away to make your 30s and 40s much more comfortable?
I was out of my mums house at 17, not by choice. When the child benefit stopped we were all chucked out- I was chucked out in the clothes I stood in, and I struggled to keep a roof over my head, the electric on, and food in the cupboards. DD won't know those struggles so I don't think that expecting her to cut her cloth in other ways, when all of the above is provided is terrible.
The money she is expected to save will go through me into an account in her name. So effectively it will be her giving mum money that I'll then pay to an account she won't really use until she moves out.
Having seen me struggle in her early years, I think she's quite keen to avoid that herself.