At what age were your dcs 100% financially independent?

[Anonymous]

Was it right after college? How much did you help in college beyond housing and tuition?

[Anonymous]

At 19.

[Anonymous]

One at 22 after college and one is not yet at 25.

[Anonymous]

Post college graduation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was it right after college? How much did you help in college beyond housing and tuition?

For college, we paid room and board, books and school expenses, travel home and back, and tuition. We also gave them a used car sophomore or junior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At 19.

Same. Did parent $ for first year college tuition room and board and then after that was on DC who got scholarships and did work study to pay for school and everything else- healthcare, food, car, gas, insurance, everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One at 22 after college and one is not yet at 25.

Are you allocating $ to the 22 in equal amounts to what giving to the 25 year old or how managing that? From DCUM I have learned kids (especially adult kids) notice. What is working for you?

[Anonymous]

They have been financially independent in theory, in terms of earnings since they got their first job after their graduate school.

However, they were told by us to sock away whatever they earned in Index funds and IRAs etc, soooo...until they got married we funded EVERYTHING.

We do this only because they are very sensible kids and live frugally. They also chose their partners well. If a kid was in bad company and had bad habits, our support would have made them dependent and incapable of achieveing things on their own. My kids have really worked extremely hard (as have we) to become examplery students.

[Anonymous]

21. Had to be.

[Anonymous]

Not yet. My 25-year-old just graduated college. He works part-time; at two jobs (one in his career field and one he's been working all throughout college). He pays all his bills and bought his own car but is still living under my roof. I don't charge him anything, and I also never give him money.

My younger kid graduated high school last year and is doing an apprenticeship program. He still lives at home and works very part-time. I do have to give him money from time to time for things because he's basically broke. He also has some health issues that we are working through, which occasionally cause him to miss work.

[Anonymous]

Ones who are passionate and successful in their high purpose and low paying profession, may need subsidizing beyond 30 if you or they to maintain same lifestyle they grew up with and you can afford to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:21. Had to be.

Can't if they are in grad or professional school.

[Anonymous]

Older one has been self supporting other than tuition since sophomore year at a private college (internship and side hustles allowed them to cover all other living expenses.) Younger one we pay tuition room and board for but is at a public college and got some scholarship money. Older one has been fully self supporting since graduation and suspect the younger one will be too.

Oh they are on our family plan for cell phones, but it's supper cheap to have them on there so we've let it go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was it right after college? How much did you help in college beyond housing and tuition?

For college, we paid room and board, books and school expenses, travel home and back, and tuition. We also gave them a used car sophomore or junior year.

For college - we are donut hole families. Kids went to in-state public schools for STEM education. They earned free tuition and one and a half years worth college credits. Both graduated with double majors. However, both stayed in dorms and apartments after the first year. So, we bought them new cars, room and board, all school expenses, all clothes, travel, socialization, supplies. They were on our medical plan until they were 25.

For grad - paid for everything once again. They also have access to a credit card in their name that we fund, access to our amazon, wf, costco, dept stores, uber, starbucks etc.

We did this for several reasons - a) kids are very frugal and since we are already established, it does not cost us much to include them. b) kids put most of their money in savings, IRA, investments. c) there is communication and transparency on both sides and kids are strategic and good moral kids with no bad habits d) kids know that roof over their head and basic living (food, car, clothes) will always be available to them e) we want to give them the leg up that we did not get. and so we not only did not want them to have any debts, but we also wanted most of their retirement savings to start now.

We will pay to the best of our abilities for college and wedding. We don't consider our children launched until they are married, and even then the soft transfer of wealth starts happening much earlier.

[Anonymous]

At 19.


Same. Did parent $ for first year college tuition room and board and then after that was on DC who got scholarships and did work study to pay for school and everything else- healthcare, food, car, gas, insurance, everything.

Healthcare? This is extreme. I don't understand parents who would put that on a kid who is going to college and working hard, unless the parent could not afford to pay for school or for any expenses.

My two kids who are done with college are financially independent, with the exception of their cell phones and one who is still on our health insurance because not yet 26. During college they earned their own spending money, but we covered all school-related expenses and food, and sometimes clothes. Our deal with them is we paid if they worked hard and it was a win for all of us.

One kid still in graduate school and we are paying for tuition, health insurance and rent, DC pays for groceries by working. That will end in May and DC will be responsible for all expenses.