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This is for parents who still mostly or partially support their kids. My mother always told me that there was no excuse at my age not to have a job because she knew so many parents that only paid for their kids education in college and rent but everything else, they worked for it themselves. i.e. holidays, alcohol/recreational drugs, movies, clothing etc..
I live in Ireland so they culture may be different but where you live and for you personally, what do most young adults (22 under) that still depend on their parents but work spend their money on?
Video games, computer equipment, going out with friends, travel (my son competes in an activity that sends him all over the USA and occasionally to other countries). He’s also saving for a car. Once he’s 18 (in just under a year), he will need to pay his own cellphone bill, car insurance, etc. We still buy him the clothes that he needs, but if there’s a want, he buys it.
My son was paying his own way at 22. When he was twelve his money went to golf greens fees, ski lift tickets, music, and the occasional fast food lunch.
At 22, he was renting an apartment, but it wasn't too long after that, he bought his own condo.... because he wanted to have a dog and he couldn't find a rental that would allow him to have a dog.
Last edited by oregonwoodsmoke; 02-08-2018 at 11:13 AM..
This is for parents who still mostly or partially support their kids. My mother always told me that there was no excuse at my age not to have a job because she knew so many parents that only paid for their kids education in college and rent but everything else, they worked for it themselves. i.e. holidays, alcohol/recreational drugs, movies, clothing etc..
I live in Ireland so they culture may be different but where you live and for you personally, what do most young adults (22 under) that still depend on their parents but work spend their money on?
I do not know any parents that paid for their child's entire college education and rent. Most of the young adults that I know used as much money as they could from their jobs on actually college expenses (books, tuition, rent) as they could so that their student loans would be less.
I know one young man, even though he worked in college, sold his plasma every Friday so he would have a little money to spend on going out that weekend. He felt that the top priority for the money that he earned at his job (and two or three jobs during the summer) was for actual college expenses (books, tuition, rent).
Now most of my friends are middle class/upper middle class. I suspect that children with super rich parents may handle things completely different.
My daughter just started babysitting. It's her first "job". She saves half of what she makes and spends the other half on clothes or doing stuff with her friends. We are teaching her the value of a dollar and what it means to save.
High school- we paid for pretty much everything. But we didn’t encourage our kids to get jobs in high school during the school year. They babysat/mowed lawns occasionally and lifeguarded during the summer. Some of that money was saved, the rest was spent on typical teenage stuff- movies, snacks, clothes, etc.
College kids- we paid for tuition, rent, car/insurance/gas, cell phone and books, they’re on their own for spending money. So, concert tickets, clothes, travel, incidentals that come up during the year etc. By the time they were upper classmen they had internships paying $20+/hour so they ended up saving a lot of it which is nice.
Now my oldest is 22 and graduated from college in May and has a salaried job. She’s 100% independent. Well, except for the cell phone. It only costs us $10/month to have her on our plan and I figure that makes way more sense to keep her on there than have her pay $60+ month for a one person plan.
In high school our kids worked in the summers only. They spent money on things like movies, meals with friends, clothing, shoes, dates.
In college we paid for their education in full, rent, food, insurance, phone, and some clothing/shoes. They all went to school up north (from FL) so we did set them up with a cold weather wardrobe, boots, coats and other cold weather essentials their first year. We bought some athletic gear for the two who played D3 sports (cold weather stuff they didn't need here). I have two in college right now and both work for their own spending money. We don't track their spending but I assume they buy things college kids buy like pizza and beer. The older one has to put gas in his car and change the oil. They go out with friends and that costs some money. Both like hockey and occasionally attend hockey games when there are college student tickets available.
When I worked part-time during high school I paid for my own clothes, saved for a car, paid for my own entertainment and any "travel" expenses, which mostly going camping and sleeping in a tent. Plus chipping in on gas for whoever was driving.
Smoked a little pot now and again. Never had much extra for going out to bars very often. I never understood how people could afford to go to bars every weekend and pay for a larger volume of drugs... Guess I was lucky for not being able to afford that. The "rich kids" who had large allowances were the ones getting in trouble for that all the time because they had the extra cash to spend on "partying".
I usually saved a little more than half of my part time money. During college paid for books and at least part of tuition. Lived at home during college, would not have been able to afford dorm and other living at college expenses living on campus or out of state.
These same things that I did my son did. Except he worked mostly in the summer. I worked less in the summer because I had more summer activities. He had his pocket money for his activities. Although I did buy clothes for him otherwise he would wear rags with holes in them.
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