How much rent to charge 18 year old?

[TakeALookAtTheseSwatches]

My daughter left college last year and started looking for a job, she started working just after Christmas. She works part time hours and her take home pay per month is around £900. She's putting £50 in to a lifetime ISA and she has no other bills (I currently still pay her phone contract which is about £30 a month)

We provide all her food, she eats tea with us and we have breakfast things/snacks in the house. She doesn't usually eat dinner but will sometimes buy herself a meal deal if she wants something.

So what would be reasonable? I was thinking around £200 a month and I'm happy to put £50 of that in her lifetime ISA too if she wants. She is saving up for a car so isn't spending frivolously. Is £200 too much?

I want to make sure my children are fiscally sound - that surely is the priority

Shouldn't that be their priority @Straightwalking, as they're adults?

It’s not about a cushy retirement. In many cases it’s having enough of a cushion to be able to afford the basics of food & utilities in retirement.

so charging you minimum wage teenager for food of you have a pension pot of a million and savings in the hundreds of thousands and an income that allows you to save considerably each month is unnecessary; but the vast majority of parents of teenagers do not fall into that category; most will still not have enough years NI to get full state pension never mind cushy retirement they almost certainly still have a mortgage and while maybe not living pay day to payday they probably can just about afford to pay for food but an self respecting adult child would know that having £1000 a month as fun money while parents are just about managing is not right and so even if not asked should offer to contribute

Yes but savings from when she was born until 16 when your income reduced? Sorry about your dh hope he's doing well .

Summer schools etc and music of course are nice but a lump for their future home is vital imo. If parents haven't considered that at all imo it's really unfair to be getting money off them once they have any earnings so in the op's case as they haven't seem to have made any provision she should be saying save £500 a month towards a future home and live on the rest social costs/clothes etc while they at least covered the usual bills.

I want more from my life in retirement than having enough money to pay bills and enough food to survive - I would speculate that the vast majority of people do - but each to their own.

Exactly... and thus not have to rely on your children in the future when they possibly have homes and kids of their own to fend for.

It isn’t your kids’ responsibility to fund your retirement though.

👏👏👏

I never said it was. I have the 'put your own oxygen mask on first' philosophy when it comes to financing or not financing adult kids.

it’s their home-but at 6ft 1 and 6ft 3 Adults, plus a12 year old 5ft 5 you can imagine how much my shopping is.

OT but on MN, people really like mentioning the height of their tall kids 😂

Maybe get a second job (or learn how to invest your money better) instead of relying on your kids to fund your retirement? They’re not a cash cow.

They're not funding the poster's retirement, they are paying (probably less than) their fair share of the living costs (and allowing her to invest more in her pension as she's not subsidising other earning adults). Bills are definitely higher with three or four adults living at home rather than two. Why should only two of the adults pay towards them? It just seems bonkers to me!

Or maybe not subsidise people who can afford to pay their own way? No doubt they would paying paying less at home than they would if they moved out. This martyrdom is just ridiculous. It's the parents who are being treated as cash cows, supporting their adult children indefinitely.

Is this one of those things that separate the working class mumsnetters from the middle class ones? My grandparents, parents, siblings and I, and on my husband’s side too, have always paid keep once not in further education. It was just expected as once you’re a working adult, you don’t expect your parents to keep you at home without paying your way. All my friends paid keep too.

My parents paid a much bigger share of their pay packets than I did and were proud to hand it over. My mum say me down and we went through the household bills, excluding mortgage, and she did used it by the 5 people living in the house. My parents provided all basic food and toiletries, I bought my own clothes, nicer toiletries and any fancier food, or food when out. I could still afford a good social life and saved for a deposit on a house.

My DC already know they will be expected to pay keep. At the moment we don’t need the money to keep them, so we plan to save it for them for when they move out. We won’t tell them, so it will be in addition to what they save for themselves.

Absolutely bonkers. Why not let them save their own money rather than this bizarre concoction?

My DC know much more about investing than me!

Nothing,unless you are desperate. She has the rest of her life to pay rent/ mortgage. I woukd encourage her to be saving as much as possible while she can.

I think it is probably a working class thing.

This is the best solution imo

We've got the rest of our lives to pay too! I'm proud to have brought up children who won't expect to leech off me.

No it is a bonkers solution. DC are perfectly capable of saving and investing their own money.

Personally o think the government should be taking action to stop this nonsense.

Tax income from charging DC rent at 100%. Make parents register as landlords. Make contracts setting out DCs’ rights compulsory.

It would soon stop the money grabbing.

In most cases it's keep, not rent, just paying a share of the bills and food. It's not money grabbing, or income, you are being ridiculous.

No parent has any obligation to house children post 18, so I am not sure what rights you think they should have.

Making up nonsense euphemisms as we tend to do in the UK doesn’t stop it from being rent.

Parents making money out of their children is abhorrent and would not happen in most other countries.

No, it would just create more homeless people.

Definitely not money grabbing. Don’t care what they do in other countries!