Did/Do/Will You Charge Your Adult Kids Rent While Living At Home?

And how did you arrive at an amount?

Our financial arrangements with our kids and how we came up with the amount

I have mixed feelings about charging my adult kids rent. On the one hand, I want to offer a free place for them because I love them. On the other hand, this is real life, and my daughters need to learn that real life has costs. We ultimately did choose to charge our adult kids. But mostly the "rent" charged reflects some of the real costs of their addition to our household.

We are a family of 4 adults. I took some of the monthly expenses and divided them by four, charging each daughter one-fourth of those monthly amounts.

Each adult daughter pays:

• one-quarter share of utilities: heat, electricity, water/sewer, internet, garbage pickup
• one-quarter share of groceries, except the beef I buy from a rancher, but including the cleaning, laundry, and paper supplies
• the increase (not a quarter share, just the increase) in our car insurance having them as drivers of our singular car

The total monthly amount for each is relatively low. I figure they would have to pay for these items/services anyway if they lived on their own. 

I realize this type of arrangement with adult kids is variable, depending on circumstances. I do think it's helpful to see what others are doing under different circumstances.

If my daughters earned higher salaries, I might charge more. However, I would put the majority of that into a savings account for them, so they would have a little kitty of money to start themselves in their own places someday. 

Alternatively, I might request they set aside a certain portion of their incomes for their own future. This is what we did with our son. He made a healthy salary just out of university. We allowed him to live at home while he saved a sizable chunk of money to put down on a house. We live in an area with very high home costs compared to the average income. Allowing him this extra time to set aside money for a house meant that he and his wife were in a good position to buy when interest rates dropped to historic lows.

I will add, when my adult kids were students and living at home, they lived here rent-free. However, they were expected to work in summers to help fund their tuition and fun things for themselves. It wasn't until they were out of university and working year round that we began discussions about charging rent.

What have you decided to do regarding charging rent for your adult kids living at home?