[Janelle Ward]

The ‘kids’ are staying at home longer. And who can blame them given housing and living costs. But when is it time to start charging them board?

Research shows the proportion of males and females aged 18 to 29 still living with their parents has surged in recent decades and now tops 55 per cent. In my view, free board is one way to help a working kid save for that home deposit, but Beyond Bank national operations manager Sophie Scott-Young says charging board seems less common than in the past.

“With house prices rising over the past 10 years, parents have been hesitant to charge their children board, fearful that this will take away from their ability to save for their own first home,” she told the Herald Sun. At the same time, she noted the long-term benefits of budgeting and paying board.

Ms Scott-Young says board should be considered once the child is earning enough to pay their own way.

“[Parents] should remember they are setting their children up for independence as adults as learning to juggle their finances is a life skill,” she says.

That makes sense. Do you or did you ask your kids to pay board? How did you work out the size of the contribution they should make?

[KSS]

Adult kids should be paying board as soon as they get a job. It does not have to be at ‘market rates’ but should be at a level that causes them to consider their personal expenses. It’s no good asking for a minimal amount because that does not teach them anything about budgeting for the future.

When I started working as a 14 year old in various retail and hospitality (I was a room cleaner for quite a while) part-time jobs as most did back then, I was given the responsibility of buying my own clothes (with the exception of school uniform). That meant if I wanted something I had to work for it, save up and decide where to buy for the best deal. Plus out of those wages, I had to fund everything else like trips to the cinema and other entertainment, dance classes, birthday and Christmas presents for friends and family etc etc. As I got older, I also had to contribute to the household budget as well as buy my own clothes etc. When I left home to go to college at 18 I already had good budgeting skills which I have retained throughout life so that at this stage I have no debt, own my own home, have made additional contributions to super and have a year’s worth of expenses in cash. As a single person, those early lessons served me well. Yes it means you go without and make sacrifices along the way, but ultimately it is far less stressful to have those life skills – and they were learned in life in the safety of home and schools were not expected to pick up the parental slack.

As long as the Bank of Mum and Dad exists, the kids will always cry poor and expect parents to pick up the tab. And as long as parents do so, they will always have kidults and not independent adults.

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