College students Living at Home

[2rocky]

Curious to get some ideas for my daughter who will be starting Junior College next fall.

She will be living at home while she attends school and plays basketball.

I feel like she needs to understand how to be a roommate and budget for expenses she will encounter after moving out in a couple years.

Couple of ideas crossed my mind:

• Pay herself $X into her existing Stock Investment account for "rent"
• Assign dollar values to house chores to pay "rent".

Her sources of income will be scholarships, as well as receipts from calves from her cattle breeding herd, and market animal receipts from previous years.

The idea is to not stress her financially since she will be doing sports and won't have time for a job. But I do want her to go through the motions of financial management

Other Ideas welcome

 

[Jamen]

I paid a monthly rent plus some of the expenses for the house. One thing i have had a few friends' parents do. Collect a monthly amount from their child. Parent sets that aside and when the kid moves out, they give it back for a down payment on a house or moving expenses new furniture etc.

 

[Bowhuntrben]

I won't be at this point with my kids for a while, but I like the idea mentioned of making them pay "rent" but then just giving it back to them for a house payment or whatever. Not sure what to do if your tenant doesn't make a payment though

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Curious to get some ideas for my daughter who will be starting Junior College next fall.

She will be living at home while she attends school and plays basketball.

I feel like she needs to understand how to be a roommate and budget for expenses she will encounter after moving out in a couple years.

Couple of ideas crossed my mind:

• Pay herself $X into her existing Stock Investment account for "rent"
• Assign dollar values to house chores to pay "rent".

Her sources of income will be scholarships, as well as receipts from calves from her cattle breeding herd, and market animal receipts from previous years.

The idea is to not stress her financially since she will be doing sports and won't have time for a job. But I do want her to go through the motions of financial management

Other Ideas welcome

Do you think she doesn't know how to budget? Because living on your own in college is more than just paying rent.

In my opinion it's more about learning how you can stretch a dollar. Paying rent is a part of it, but I think it's more about how do you save while shopping for groceries, prioritize food over fun etc. Your option will address one of those pain points but if you're still buying food, paying utilities, etc she'll miss on that learning.

I've always seen the hardest thing to teach is, just because you have a pile of cash now doesn't mean to eat crab dinner at the casino every night. You have x years of school to pay for and live through, so start buying Ramen now rather than when the bank account is at zero in year three.

 

[Bob-WY]

Biggest lessons in college, IMO, aren't financial, but time management. Tuition is paid, if in dorms so is all else. Early in college biggest reason kids fail is time management and responsibility to get stuff done without mom and dad reminders. Homework, study, eat, sleep, make friends all a balance in time. Want a Sarurday to do something fun? Get ahead on school work.

Later in college move to apartment or apartment dorms where you need your own food. That brings in money management

 

[nrpate05]

Will she be working? If so, have her pay you some sort of nominal rent, and then invest it for her. When she moves out, give her back whatever she paid you plus anything you made with the investment and explain to her what you did. She can use that money to jump start a career, down payment on a house, etc.

 

[sclancy27]

I would have them pay a certain amount (couple hundred dollars) and put it into a money market account that goes to them when they are ready to move out (would not tell them). It gives them ownership of the place they live and shows how money and discipline work when they move out.

 

[VikingsGuy]

Curious to get some ideas for my daughter who will be starting Junior College next fall.

She will be living at home while she attends school and plays basketball.

I feel like she needs to understand how to be a roommate and budget for expenses she will encounter after moving out in a couple years.

Couple of ideas crossed my mind:

• Pay herself $X into her existing Stock Investment account for "rent"
• Assign dollar values to house chores to pay "rent".

Her sources of income will be scholarships, as well as receipts from calves from her cattle breeding herd, and market animal receipts from previous years.

The idea is to not stress her financially since she will be doing sports and won't have time for a job. But I do want her to go through the motions of financial management

Other Ideas welcome

Don’t worry about the first year - lots of change and growth already on her plate.

Get an apartment with a roommate year 2 - why wait for year 3? If a $$ stress you can subsidize a bit to find the right balance.

 

[schmalts]

Curious to get some ideas for my daughter who will be starting Junior College next fall.

She will be living at home while she attends school and plays basketball.

I feel like she needs to understand how to be a roommate and budget for expenses she will encounter after moving out in a couple years.

Couple of ideas crossed my mind:

• Pay herself $X into her existing Stock Investment account for "rent"
• Assign dollar values to house chores to pay "rent".

Her sources of income will be scholarships, as well as receipts from calves from her cattle breeding herd, and market animal receipts from previous years.

The idea is to not stress her financially since she will be doing sports and won't have time for a job. But I do want her to go through the motions of financial management

Other Ideas welcome

Is she getting a scholarship for the basketball? If not, maybe I'm just a hardass but I'd say time to stop playing sports and start earning her way. No better time to learn what life is going to be like.

 

[VikingsGuy]

Is she getting a scholarship for the basketball? If not, maybe I'm just a hardass but I'd say time to stop playing sports and start earning her way. No better time to learn what life is going to be like.

I’ve known a bunch of friends, kids of friends, nieces, nephews, etc would played college sports. About half absolutely loved being college athletes and got a ton of value and joy out of it. About half regret it - hated the experience and felt that they missed most of the positive college experience other non-athletes enjoyed. For some kids it works, for some it doesn’t. Just gotta hope the parent knows the kid and the kid knows themselves.

 

[2rocky]

So we’re two months into the student athlete experience. Two days a week are literal 12 hour days with class and practice. Two other days are 9 hour days. Fridays no class and games start in November.

In August and September she calved out 10 cows with two sets of twins. One calf as a bottle calf and feeding the cows every night. She does shopping for her lunch food and fixes her own breakfast and does her own laundry and dishes. She’s paying for her car’s fuel and service.

On late nights and early mornings I’ll help feed her calf or cows when I can but she puts in the time and effort.

 

[Straight Arrow]

So we’re two months into the student athlete experience. Two days a week are literal 12 hour days with class and practice. Two other days are 9 hour days. Fridays no class and games start in November.

In August and September she calved out 10 cows with two sets of twins. One calf as a bottle calf and feeding the cows every night. She does shopping for her lunch food and fixes her own breakfast and does her own laundry and dishes. She’s paying for her car’s fuel and service.

On late nights and early mornings I’ll help feed her calf or cows when I can but she puts in the time and effort.

Sounds like she needs to live at home, where she can care for her livestock and budget her time mostly ... but also her money.
Having said that and having college living experience myself, as well as having kids and now grandkids in college all of whom are evolving in independence through decisions ... good and bad, there are no parenting or budgeting and decision-making techniques which substitute or even come close to the real experiences of being on one's own, sharing living space and living conditions with others, and importantly, figuring out how to deal with expenses.

 

[Northwoods]

So we’re two months into the student athlete experience. Two days a week are literal 12 hour days with class and practice. Two other days are 9 hour days. Fridays no class and games start in November.

In August and September she calved out 10 cows with two sets of twins. One calf as a bottle calf and feeding the cows every night. She does shopping for her lunch food and fixes her own breakfast and does her own laundry and dishes. She’s paying for her car’s fuel and service.

On late nights and early mornings I’ll help feed her calf or cows when I can but she puts in the time and effort.

Sounds like your daughter has her stuff together.

 

[wytex]

Athletics and her scholarship could open the door to a nice 4 year college, no way I would ask her to stop playing sports. How many men would tell their son to quit football if they had a scholarship, not many I bet. She made a way to pay for her education, why take that away?

Give her free rent and let her pay for everything else, her personal expenses. We did this with our son and he got a part time job. Sounds like she has no time to work though.
I agree she has it together.
Best of luck to the young lady, she may have a tough row to hoe these days but I hope she is strong and independent.

 

[buckbull]

She sounds like a dream for a parent. Sounds like she is doing everything right. I'd be supporting her with any means necessary. Even if that meant paying rent/utilities for an apartment.

I always look at it this way. You can help her when she really needs it; which is now. Or wait til you die and she gets the money when she doesn't have a need.

I'm paying for both my kids apartments while they are in school.

 

[wolfpup]

I grew up in agriculture, and was good enough to play college ball but not good enough for a scholarship so I had to work instead of playing ball.

My opinion and experience is that your worrying too much about the kids ability to be responsible. If your kid is able to juggle the things now, and if you live off of agriculture, then you have already taught her life lessons most kids don't learn fast enough. She knows when to quit... and that is when the job is done. For instance, who started that bucket calf? They didn't just learn to suck that bottle down by themselves! Early mornings and late nights have to deal with life with livestock has already engrained responsibility into her daily life.

So I think just enjoy the time she has playing ball. She will figure out life as it comes because she already knows how to do that.

Now if you did everything for her her whole life, and she's a daddy's girl maybe you do need to hand hold a bit longer, but most ag kids learn life lessons and adjust a hell of a lot faster than the rest of the world. Just my .02

 

[JDH]

Give her free rent and let her pay for everything else, her personal expenses. We did this with our son and he got a part time job. Sounds like she has no time to work though.

That's what I did. I paid for everything but housing with a part time job. Then my senior year I got an apartment close to campus to live on my own for a year before going out into the "real world". I started my required internship the summer before I moved and kept working until February or so (it was with an excavating company) then stretched my money until I got a full time job in May.

 

[LopeHunter]

A lot of the college experience is outside the classroom. Grades matter though more so if pursuing a career where GPA is a critical data point or if will want additional education beyond the current school.

I just attended my 45th high school reunion. Lots of ways to define success. Wealth. Health. Relationships. Esteem. About 1/6 of the class has passed. The sharpest kids in the classroom mostly also excelled beyond high school and the couple which did not had limited social skills.

Who else became successful? Those classmates which had leadership skills where they led a team or the school newspaper staff mostly did well.

The classmates that were socially at ease across multiple cliques so co-existed with with the jocks and brainiacs and farm kids and townies and stoners, etc, mostly did well, too.

Which classmates struggled over the years. The wallflowers struggled. Those with minimal social skills struggled. Those who procrastinated on assignments. Those that were absent or tardy lots. Those that disrupted class time. Those that had issues with authority. Most of the stoners though not sure if is a chicken and the egg thing.

Another group, mostly males, struggled. I will call them the “adrenaline junkies” as they chased that dopamine high over and over through driving fast, drinking the most, gambled higher stakes, etc. Society dislikes when you crash through their guardrails.

OP’s daughter looks to be on a good track. I wonder if sports will limit time in class due to the travel schedule. Unlikely that her participation in the sport leads to a financial windfall. She has previously learned about being a teammate and being coachable. I am not sure another few dozer games and a few hundred practices will move the needle much to build new life skills. Another trade-off is less social interaction due to the time demand of sports.

 

[Treeshark]

Another trade-off is less social interaction due to the time demand of sports.

Good post @LopeHunter. Not to pick, but I would challenge this particular point- not less, just different. My daughter socializes quite a bit, but with a crowd mainly consisting of student athletes who generally have their s$&t together. Trips together all over the US and abroad, studying together, partying together, etc…