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?

Absolutely this.

Adults need to pay rent. Or at least some contribution to food etc if they’re earning a full time wage. It’s a life lesson.

My dd is 22 and pays £150 a month. She has just come back from university and is working full time in a semi decent job so £150 is just a small contribution. We don’t charge her more on the basis that she saves the rest of what she would have spent on rent elsewhere. She wants to move to a city and rent somewhere with friends next year.

I would definitely charge something, minimum of £200 per month. £300 also feels ok.

Yes but you’re expected to help family members financially when they need it.
My work colleague expected her older brother to contribute towards her house purchase even though he had 4 dc. She was just married and working.
May have just been her though.

They are both medical students who manage to work part-time too, because they want their own money. And you want me to charge them rent?. That’s not how I do things. Not in my house. Not with my daughters.

How do you know they’ve had it hard?
My very fortunate dc who had privileged childhoods and we’re financially supported through uni would laugh at your comment.

We have adult DS living with us again after Uni. He has a full time job earning 45k, but we do not charge him anything. We pay for his food and I pay for gym membership and also buy him clothes and shoes. This might sound crazy to some on this thread, but we are comfortable off and he is saving for a deposit to eventually buy with his girlfriend which we want to support.
If he had been frivolous with money, I would have charged him and given the money back to him when he needed for deposit or similar.

Maybe to teach her that life costs money and you don’t get to spend everything you earn.

We will absolutely be charging our kids rent, not because we’re short of money but because it teaches them good financial management. (We will also be helping them out financially when needed, but won’t disclose this until the subject comes up).

You’re infantilising a grown man.

Why exactly?

I wouldn't charge rent but would insist she takes over her own bills. She should contribute a little towards the food bill and pay for own cosmetics or extras. More importantly she should take turns doing the grocery shop or cooking. She should be doing her own laundry and some chores around the house. Over time she can increase her responsibilities but at 18 I think this is enough.

30% of her pay.
I would require her to get full time work though.

you can set aside some of her rent for savings

she needs to learn to properly budget and if she isn’t in education she should
be working like an adult.

I would get her to pay for her own phone and I wouldn't charge her rent but I would insist she pay an extra £100 into her isa in lieu of rent (or an extra £50 into the isa and £50 towards a car)
I think youngsters have enough pressures on them these days. (Unless money is very tight and you cannot afford to keep her without a contribution)

That’s more than I charge my adult children who work full time on good salaries! They are saving to buy a house so I wouldn’t take more off them.
We only started to ask them for a bit of money once they started full time working and after about 6 or so months later.

£900 a month and you want to take £200?

I would get her to save £200 a month towards a rental or a deposit to add to whatever you've already saved for her and tell her that she absolutely pays her own socialising costs but nope, on only 900 quid I wouldn't take anything in 'rent'.

No, it smacks of "you're an adult now and along with all the freedom and fun stuff there will be expectations on you".

DS1 is 18, we don't currently charge him anything as he is still in full time education as well as part time job. However he knows he will start to pay if he chooses to leave full time studying. He will also be asked to take over a fluffy bill such as Internet partly for credit score and partly for the experience of getting quotes, arranging switchover, managing account.

He is currently responsible for his own phone, clothes, toiletries, fancy foods he might want etc. This is because he has disposable income and wants higher end stuff than we get normally.

He also is responsible for more of the day to day running of a house. The expectation is that if he finishes early he does something e.g. load of washing, wash up, prep tea. TBH he probably is more aware of what it takes to keep a household running than a lot of the males I see posted about on here. He is always shocked when he hears how pampered his friends are and says he would be embarrassed to be that cuddled and clueless.

I left school in 1966 always contributed,it was called "keep"
. Friends that paid nothing, got married and were absolutely hopeless at budgeting,no idea of the cost of anything..I have a friend with a 40 year old son,back at home earning very good money (plus a cash in hand side line). He has cost her a huge amount of money for food,eats like a horse,water and electricity bills now through the roof..he doesn't pay anything,yet has spent eye watering amount on himself, clothes etc,in excess of £30k in a year. She is almost 70 and very upset.

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Both of my DC actually wanted to pay rent, we charge them £50 a week. They do their own washing and contribute to the running of the household too re chores. I generally do the cooking but both are capable. They both feel strongly that they contribute and know it’s definitely that - a contribution rather than a realistic proportion of the cost of running the household.

I remember telling a work colleague about this a couple of years ago, they were about 27 and living at home rent free and actually told me I was exploiting my DC by charging them anything, they were genuinely affronted. I was genuinely affronted at the level of entitlement, but said nothing!

Do what you have to do, get her to pay for her own phones.

if I was his girlfriend I’d have the mega ick if mummy and daddy was buying his clothes and shoes .

I have not come across this! Not sure a sibling should fund a younger sibling’s house purchase….

Being students and working part time is a totally different scenario to someone who is not a student working and I agree I wouldn’t charge them in that scenario either.

If the "goal" is to teach money management, I think there are better ways than charging them over 20% of their income.....Particularly for the parents who are financially secure and still charging rent "for the lesson", then they need to be honest about what lesson they are really teaching.

An 18 year old already knows that money has value; they're working - they understand effort = income.

I personally don't think you teach independence by squeezing early momentum, teach them by helping them build leverage; skills, savings and confidence.

The exception would be if they refuse to work or contribute in any way, if money in the household is genuinely tight or if there are behavioural issues.

If my 18 year old is working and trying to save, then my preference would be towards support and structure and not rent!

I think by charging rent you the lesson your child may take away from it is, now you are an adult you're on your own, that home is conditional or financial contribution determines belonging.

Some of you believe that by charging you're teaching resilience, but could it not eroding the sense of security your child feels?

We gave our 18 year old a good few months to enjoy his wage then we asked for £40 a month. It's more a token amount that we're secretly putting away for him. He already puts most of his wages into savings. He earns a little more than your daughter does, plus has a night working at the local takeaway so uses that money as his 'free to spend on whatever' money. He's out working most days so we're probably saving on bills with him not being in so much. He thinks he's putting towards bills but I'm looking forward to being able to gift him it back as a lump sum when he needs the cash boost.

So back in 2002 I was 16 and my mum told me college or FT work and rent would be 400 pcm

I went for college and PT job where I brought what I 'wanted' my mother brought what I 'needed'

Take more from her, and if you don't need it for bills then put it aside so she has a lump sum for deposit either rental or buying when the time comes

Or you can advise she needs to save more for a course when she finds her path

Thank you for everyone's comments, a big range of opinions!

So just to clarify, she won't be buying her own food (other than if she's out or whatever) and the mobile bill is on a family plan with me and her other sisters so it just seemed easier to keep it all as one bill for the time being.

I understand those saying they wouldn't charge rent at all, I am considering that but I'd definitely want to insist she puts a fair chunk in savings and doesn't touch it, I don't want her to have £900 disposable income and then get a huge shock when she moves out and has much less to live on.