After a child found on-campus job, should parents let the child pay some bills such as tax books, phone bills etc or the parents should continue to pay all the bills? Thank you for your share.
We pay the phone bill (talk and text bundled with ours) and car insurance; D20 bought her car and phone and pays for books, gas and any personal expenses (entertainment, eating out, club expenses). She’s more of a saver, so she doesn’t spend a lot.
I should add; you do what you feel is best for your child/family. Every family/child will be different.
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Its entirely dependant on what the parents can afford, how much the child is making, the child themselves, and a whold bunch of other factors as @tigerwife92 alluded to. Personally I paid the entire tuition bill plus $1000/mo for housing/food/incidentals for all three of my children. I guess it was too much for the youngest since her bank account went from $0 to $18000 from when she started college to when she finished, but she also worked all four years.
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My D pays for her books, gas, clothes, travel, and all incidentals.
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As long as my kids are dependents, I’ll pay for items I think are necessary. Phone bills (though I did make older S pay $65/month for his data plan from age 12-15 because I didn’t think it was needed. Cell phones weren’t as common then), car insurance, car maintenance/repairs, health costs, etc. I pay for some clothes usually at Xmas/birthdays, but most they buy themselves.
Re: school expenses. We have set aside ~3-3.5 years of tuition/room & board at an in-state public. They know any money leftover at graduation is theirs to keep. Both have done/did very well with scholarships, so they will have/had a significant mount leftover. So, it really doesn’t matter who pays for the books as it comes out of that account.
Any money earned from a part-time job is theirs to keep and spend (or save) as they see fit. They pay for all fun type of expenses, and as I mentioned most of their clothes. Both kids have started retirement accounts and investment accounts. They are much more savvy in that area than I am. And I confess that most months I do/did gift them $50 because I am pleased at how well they are doing (or did) in school and with their spending habits. I have made it clear that it’s not a given and they do/did thank me every month.
(Tense is confusing when you have one independent kid and one still in school! Independent kid is pretty much 100% independent. He’s still on my cell phone bill because I’m lazy. When he gets married, I’ll switch. And he’s on my dental/vision plans because I have to pay family rates anyway. He does have his own health insurance since ours would be out of network in his area)
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Depends on the understanding the parents and student had on the matter before the student went to college and found a job.
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Well, my kids had to take out loans for some of their college, my 2 oldest had part time jobs all through college and full time in the summer, the 3rd the same, she’ll graduate a year early in the spring, my upcoming freshman have worked since they were 14 as well, same deal. That said, we’re still paying for most of their car insurance, all of their cellphones, dental, health insurance and OOP expenses. Still paying for the clothes and necessities for 4 of them, plus if they need something like tutoring or testing costs.
We paid for everything last year because there were no jobs on campus, DH is immunocompromised and we just couldn’t have D bringing the virus home last summer. She has her first job now, and is bringing home almost $500/week. She had a bill from the spring for something completely irresponsible and stupid so we told her she needed a job to cover that expense. Now that she has repaid us for that, the rest of her money is for books and her personal expenses. We pay for her phone bill and “necessities” which we defined as coming from the grocery store or CVS…
Well, it really depends. Why did the child get the job on campus in the first place? Did they get it because parent isn’t giving them enough $ and they wanted to make some of their own money? If that’s that reason then yes the kid should keep the money and the parent should think about it. Perhaps they got the job because the parent was trying to control everything and every $ they spent. Another thing the parent should think about. Maybe it’s just to start showing some independence so that they have something of their own.
I have a child who is in an internship now and is thinking about doing an internship in the fall or some tutoring. Her father and I have always paid for all of her schooling and given a monthly allowance. If she gets a job and can maintain her studies then great for her. I’m not going to reduce what I give her. I don’t want to “penalize” her for getting a job or disincentivize her from earning her own money. What’s the point then? If she starts working and I reduce what I give her then there’s no benefit to her other than working her butt off and yes learning hard work. The only time she has to pay her expenses will be when she has a required senior year internship where she will earn $4-5k a month.
The only other suggestion I can think of if parent wants to reduce some of what they’re paying is that for every $2 the student makes, the parent reduces what they pay by $1. That way there is still incentive for the student to work and it’s not a $1 to $1 reduction.
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A 50% parental income tax rate?
It would be better if parents told the student their expectations about student work, parent contribution, etc. before the student starts college and considers or gets a part time job. Ideally, it would be best before the student chooses (or even applies to) college, if the expectations would vary depending on the net price of the college.
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We have had our daughter use her summer earnings on anything beyond tuition, fees, books, apartment rent, groceries, cellphone, internet, school books, and other necessities. We give her a set amount for rent, utilities, and groceries/cleaning supplies, and basic toiletries each month. She had a job the summers of 2019 and 2020; we have her use this money for eating out and discretionary purchases (including what I think are expensive toiletries). However, with her taking a prerequisite language class this summer, it’s looking like she won’t have a job this summer, but she wants to work in the fall. I am counting on giving her maybe an extra $50-75 a month this school year with her understanding that she will likely need to cut back on the discretionary spending if she does not want to have to take on student loans.
You asked a very similar question a year ago…maybe read those responses again. They were very good.
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A parental incoe tax rate? Funny.
But yes, I would agree that you’d think that parents would have this discussion with their students beforehand so that they know what their expectations are etc, although sometimes situations do change and parents often think they’re helping their students out plenty when they may not be giving them enough money so the student sees no other option but to work. The best case is when the student is at least honest about working as we all too often hear of scenarios where students take jobs and don’t even tell their parents or that a job that their parent wouldn’t approve of.
I think it is important to think about kids’ ability to support themselves over the long term rather than the short term. If having a job interferes with academic success, then I discourage my kids from working. If an unpaid internship helps with future jobs, then I would support my kids entirely during that time. And so on.
The other factor might be health challenges- medical or psychiatric- that make it harder for kids to work and study at the same time. I have a kid in her late 20’s and am still helping her substantially.
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Our son will be headed to college in another year. We are able to pay for any school he would like to attend (including room and board). From his savings/summer work (if he ever gets a summer job) he will be expected to pay for “fun” stuff/personal expenses - $ for eating out, entertainment, spring break trips etc. We will continue to pay for his phone, car insurance and things like that. It is unlikely he would need a campus job unless he wants one. If, in the future, he lands a good internship we would support him for that, but that is way in the future.
We paid for college expenses (he had the direct student loan), and gave him a monthly sum to pay for rent, utilities and food. We also paid for a small meal plan/dining dollars for his days on campus. He did not have a car. We had him use his earnings for entertainment (beyond what he had left over from the monthly support).
As others have said, depends on the family. If I could afford it, I would not want my student feeling like they had to increase their work hours in order to live, but also want them to learn to learn to budget based on their earnings, especially for non-essential spending.
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There is no one right answer to financial matters. Each family’s financial position, prior discussions/agreements between parent/child etc. should all be taken into account.
For my kids we paid for all college necessities (ex. books, phone, meal plan etc. as well as car insurance when my D brought it to school) and they used money they earned over the summer and/or during the school year for spending money (ex. dinners out, bar bills etc.).
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Our kids are expected to pay for all incidentals. We pay for most other stuff, except for gas. Unless they are going to and from college, they buy that themselves.
I think you can see here from these posts that most of us parents pay for college (including room and board) with some small variances. That is, as long as you can afford it.