Should adult children be paying rent or contributing to the household when living with their parents?

According to figures from the Central Statistics Office, 70% of 25 year olds live at home with their parents.

There are multiple different reasons for this – from the housing situation, affordability and availability, etc.

This situation raises the question - should those living at home, who are working and earning, contribute in some way financially to the home - whether it's rent or bills or making some kind of contribution to the household?

On Lunchtime Live, Alpha Wealth Managing Director Nick Charalambous said having the conversation about your adult child contributing is “really difficult”.

“As a parent myself, and I have four children in a blended family - my eldest is about to turn 20 and it's been a conversation that I've been trying to have with him and I found it quite difficult,” he said.

“I think as a rule, we're generally not very good at talking about finance, not just amongst families but just in general as a nation.”

“It's really important to try and have the conversation as early as possible and the problem is that sometimes it doesn't just happen automatically.

“For instance when the child's at college you've obviously got certain expenses to bear and then they may start a sort of a part-time position or full-time and that would be kind of the time I think it should be kind of mentioned.”

Good financial habits

Mr Charalambous said he has come across situations where he is seeing less people get a contribution from their child that lives at home.

“I appreciate that is a bit of a generalisation but it's less common than certainly I think it would have been in the past,” he said.

“We are seeing this culture where, you know, children are probably a little bit more expectant of their parents essentially paying for them while they're at home.”

Mr Charalambous said even if parents are in a position where they don’t need contributions towards the household, encouraging children to save as they would if they were paying rent is a good idea.

“One of the things I've suggested to parents is [to] try and encourage your child to save the money that they would otherwise be giving you,” he said.

“Particularly if they get, you know, a job where they can afford to contribute towards the rent, it would be a good habit for them, especially if they are thinking about moving out.

“Then we get into a discussion around trying to give them the good financial habits of doing a financial budget, just trying to save, whether it be in a bank or another form of savings account, that they can at least [be] in a position where they can try and either [buy] a property or [save] rent.”

Monetary contribution

Stephanie moved out of her childhood home last year after living with her parents up until in her 30s.

“At the time when I was living at home, I was definitely contributing - I was paying rent in one form or another,” she said.

“I was either paying rent or I was taking care of the electricity bill or the gas bill, but definitely some sort of monetary contribution.

“I think sometimes we can take advantage that it's our parents’ home and we're at home with mom and dad and we don't need to contribute - but I was definitely contributing for that time period and I think that should be the standard.”

Other callers on the show and texts into the show agreed with the sentiment that some sort of monetary contribution from adults who live at home should be standard.

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Image shows: Mature Parents Frustrated With Adult Son Living At Home. Image: Alamy Stock Photo