Deciding how much rent you should charge your 25-year-old son can be difficult to decide. On one side, they are your son and you want what’s best for them but in reality, they are adults now and need to start pulling their weight around the house.
Nothing can be more frustrating than your grown son being lazy around the house and not paying their share. Especially if they start working, it is only fair that they start paying for the things that they use.
You should charge your 25-year-old son between $200-$500 for rent. This would depend on whether or not your son works, how much are his expenses, and his other responsibilities.
Personally, my father had me start paying rent when I got back from college at 22 and got a job. It was only $100/month but my job did not pay much and that was almost 30 years ago. I learned very quickly that I took my previous life for granted.
Have your adult children pay you rent also reminds them that they are no longer children now. As they get older they need to start taking on some responsibility. Charging your son rent reminds him that he is now responsible for himself.
Many times out of our good gracious we allow our adult children to live rent-free in our homes. Before we realize anything is wrong, they’ve become children again. In reality, we are not doing any favors for our children by letting them live rent-free.
Here are things to consider when decided how much rent to charge your 25-year-old child.
Does Your 25-Year-Old Son Work?
An important factor to consider is whether or not he works. If your son does not work, it can be hard to find a suitable amount to charge him, how will he pay it?
If your son does have a job, you also need to consider how much he makes. Most people new to the workforce earn a very minimal amount compared to how much they will make later in their career. We don’t want to bankrupt our children, we just want them to pay their fair share.
Some parents have their children pay rent, as well as take responsibility of all their own expenses. By own expenses I mean:
- Phone Bill
- Car Insurance
- Gas
- Phone/Car Payment
If your child is lucky enough to be a decent earner, you may want to consider handing these responsibilities off to him too. these are the normal responsibilities that adults should be aware of. Just learning to balance these bills and remember to make the payments on time.
We all know these expenses could really add up over time so if you feel like they are not up to handling all these expenses at once plus rent, you can include these payments in “rent”. For example, when my dad charged me the $100/month, this included my car insurance, rent, and phone.
What Are Your Son’s Expenses
You need also consider your son’s expenses. What other expenses are coming out of his pocket every month. Unfortunately, our children are carrying more and more student loan debt. There is a decent possibility that he has a monthly payment to make on his student loans.
Depending on what his minimum payment is, he could be paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars every month. Even though it is time for our children to take responsibility for their lives, we also don’t want them to drown under economic pressure.
If you are unsure what his expenses are, ask him. Before you decide how much rent to charge him, you need to have a full picture of his financial position.
Suppose he is in a poor financial position. Maybe he is only working part time and has student loans with large payments. You should still charge him rent but not nearly as much.
In order to find out how much exactly you should charge your son, there is a basic formula to find out. You’ll need to know his take-home pay and his expenses. Find out his take-home pay, subtract it from his expenses, then multiply it by .25
Rent per Month = (Monthly Take Home Pay – Expenses) X .25
For example, let’s say your son has a monthly take home pay of $2,000 and total monthly expenses of $800. So it would be:
Total Rent = (2000-800) x .25
So in this case, your son’s rent would be $300.
Or if you don’t want to use math, you could just use this visual table as a guide for deciding how much rent to charge your 25-year-old son.
| Monthly Take Home Income | Monthly Rent |
| $1,000 – $2,000 | $200 |
| $2,000 – $3,000 | $300 |
| $3,000 – $4,000 | $400 |
| $4,000+ | $500 |
Final Thoughts
We love our children more than they know but we are not helping them by giving them a break on rent. Decided how much rent to charge your 25-year-old son can be tricky. You need to make your decision on a case by case basis.
$200 on the low end and $500 on the high end. Lower than $200 he won’t feel the responsibility, higher than that, you may be placing too much stress on his financial situation. When deciding where in the range to charge him, take into consideration how much he earns as well as how much his expenses are.
Take a wholistic view and charge what you think is fair.